Category: Culture

 London- Italian Cultural Institute– After the Christmas break introduces the January’s program for the  2011, resuming theirs  activities and to present  the programme  of events for the month of January.

:"… Thank you for the encouragement we receive through your continued support. We hope you will be able to attend and enjoy as many events as possible." Italian Cultural Institute

 

In this issue

·          Visual art:  Saint Benedict by Antonello da Messina

·          Archaeology:  Roman Heads  at  World  Museum  in  Liverpool

·          Literature: Lindsey Davis  in conversazione with Lauren Henderson

·           Music:  Recital by Emilio Aversano (Piano) and Kameliya Naydenova (Violin)

·          Cinema:  After Midnight – A film by Davide Ferrario

·          Cinema:  Zoe’ – a film by Giuseppe Varlotta (followed by a Q&A with the director)

·          Cinema:  The Wind  Blows  Round – A film by Giorgio Diritti

·          Literature: Dante’s Invention by James Burge

·          Theatre:  Rivelazione – Seven Meditations On Giorgione (in Italian)

·          Music:  Recital by Ars Trio di Roma

·          Cinema:  Lamerica –  A film by Gianni Amelio

·          Cinema:  This Is Life – Gian Paolo Cugno

·          Cinema:  The Stolen Children –  A film by Gianni Amelio

 

On display until Sunday 30 January 2011

Saint Benedict by Antonello da Messina

 

  Read more »

 

 

 

On display until Sunday 30 January 2011

Roman Heads at World Museum in Liverpool 

An exciting discovery from Sicily

 

      

 

Monday 17 January , 7pm

 Lindsey Davis in conversation with Lauren Henderson

IN CONVERSAZIONE Talks with Anglophone authors who write about Italy, Italians and Italian Culture

 

 

 

 

Wednesday 19 January 7pm

Recital by Emilio Aversano and Kameliya Naydenova

 

 

Friday 21 January  7pm

After  Midnight  – A film by Davide Ferrario

Films “Made in  Piedmont”

 

 

 

Saturday 22 January 4pm

Zoe’ – a film by Giuseppe Varlotta (followed by a Q&A with the director)

Films “Made in  Piedmont”

 

 

 

Sunday 23 January  4pm

The Wind Blows Round – A film by Giorgio Diritti

Films “Made in  Piedmont”

 

 

 

 

Monday 24 January  7pm

Dante’s Invention by James Burge

Published by The History Press, November 2010

 

 

 

     

Read more »

   

 

 

Tuesday 25 January  7pm

Rivelazione

Seven Meditations on  Giorgione (in Italian)

   

 

 

Wednesday 26 January 7pm

Recital by Ars Trio di Roma

Laura Pietrocini piano,  Marco Fiorentini violin,  Valeriano Taddeo cello

Read more »

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Saturday 29 January  6.30pm

Lamerica – A film by Gianni Amelio

Followed by a Q&A with Enrico Lo Verso

 

 

 

Sunday 30 January 5pm

Salvatore – This is Life – A film by Gian Paolo Cugno

Followed by a Q&A with Enrico Lo Verso

 

 

Sunday 30 January 7pm

The Stolen Children – A film by Gianni Amelio

             Followed by a Q&A with Enrico Lo Verso 

 

On Friday the 22nd and Saturday the 23^rd the XIX Colloquium of the British-French Association for the Study of Russian Culture took place at SSEES, the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL, London. The Colloquium was organized by Professor Derek Offord from the University of Bristol.

The British-French Association for the Study of Russian Culture aims at encouraging scholarly dialogue between English, French and Russian-speaking colleagues working in the fields of Slavonic studies, comparative literature, and the humanities in general.

The Colloquium presented fascinating papers by academics and young researchers, all driven by a huge passion for Russian culture. The speakers’ nationality was quite broad, ranging from British, French, German, Italian, Ukrainian, Russian, and Kazakh and even thought the hosting language was English, some presented their papers in French and Russian. Also, the following discussions welcomed multilingualism and every participant expressed himself in one of the three languages, usually the one he felt more familiar with. Initially the Colloquium included a few more papers, but the pensioners’ strike in France prevented many of the appointed guests to reach the other side of the Channel.

In the first session on Friday the 22^nd three university professors gave their speeches. Firstly, Professor Marie-Pierre Rey from the University Pantheon Sorbonne in Paris gave her speech on “Fighting Napoleon with Ideas: Alexander I’s vision of Europe”. She  recently published a marvellous book on the subject, emphasising on Alexander I’s foresight on an Union européenne.

Secondly, Professor Andreas Schonle from QueenMaryUniversity in London talked about “Gogol’s Poetics of Ruins and His Response to de Stael’s Corinne”. Professor Schonle’s presentation is part of his forthcoming project Architecture of Oblivion: Ruins and Historical Consciousness in Modern Russia where the trope of ruin and the response to actual ruins in Russia’s thinking about its discontinuous history and fractured identity are examined.

Thirdly, the organizer of the Colloquium, Professor Derek Offord from the University of Bristol, presented “Francophonie in Tolstoy’s War and Peace”. Professor Offord is currently researching on the history of the French language in Russia. Bilingualism in War and peace is a mirror of the alienation within Russian society where language is used a social sign; French being used by the elite and Russian by the common narod.

Although Napoleonic history, Gogol’ and Tolstoy may be considered classics within the field of Slavonic studies, it has to be noticed that these papers presented new fascinating insights on those themes. The second part of the conference held on Saturday the 23^rd included more niche topics.

The morning of Saturday the 23^rd of October opened with two presentations on Art, music and literature in the early 20^th Century by two young independent scholars. With great pleasure, I have introduced my study on “A contrastive analysis of Art Nouveau in France and the UK vs. Russia”, after carrying extensive research on the commonalities and the differences of Art Nouveau in the three countries, focusing particularly on Russia. The other speaker was Marina Lupishko, a pianist and a teacher, on “Daniil Kharms’s analysis of Chopin’s Op. 17, 4: Reflections on the formal structures in Music and Prose”. Carrying out research on the interplay between music and literature proved to be extremely original.

The third speech was given by Irina Bill from the University of Toulouse Le Mirail. “Memsahibs in Russian Borderlands: A Pleasurable Instruction or a Colonial Gaze?” will be part of a bigger project on travel writing, dealing with the perception of otherness, orientalism, colonialism at the Russian borders.

After a small coffee break the colloquium went on with Boris Czerny from the University of Caen who presented a paper on “Zweig : Erasme : Tolstoy” and with Vladimir Goudakov on “Le littorail Francaise, Grande Bretagne et la Russie”. Within his broad interest for the history of the Russian Jews, Mr Czerny analysed how Stefan Zweig portrayed Tolstoy, along with the duality of the Russian soul. Mr Goudakov, a well-known Russianist, talked about the appeal that the three French coasts had had for both British and Russian citizens throughout history.

The discussions following the presentations were intense and the Colloquium proved to be not only deeply informative, but also highly inspirational for all the participants. The British-French Association for the Study of Russian Culture will hold its next conference at the University of Toulouse 2 Le Mirail, department «Lettres Langages et Arts», on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 April 2011, with its central theme being migration. 

The Tube strike did not deter a small crowd to attend an evening dedicated to Dante Alighieri hosted at the Italian Cultural Institute. A very interesting talk by Professor Enrico Malato from the Universita’ Federico II in Naples, especially flown from Italy for this event, has kept the audience enthralled explaining the birth of the Love Poems during the Middle Age in Italy and the political life at those times.

And with a very flowing speech, Professor Malato went from Dante’s first steps in poetry, his life to the period where Florence started to be the centre of culture in Italy promoting the Arts and its artists. For the guests who could not speak italian, the simultaneous translation by Ms Consuelo Hackney provided a great occasion allowing the audience to follow the talk. After this introduction a reading in italian and english by Nadia Ostacchini from the Tricolore Theatre Company, promoted the publishing of the “ Rime” by Dante Alighieri, translated by J.G. Nichols and Anthony Mortimer for Oneworld Classics publishing house.

In “ Rime” there are few verses missing because Dante Alighieri decided to include them in another book “ La Vita Nuova”. And next to be published by Oneworld Classics is “La Vita Nuova” translated for the english market. Between one reading and the other it has been possible to listen to a series of medieval music thanks to Cristina Lyssimachou who played the theorbo, a string instrument from the late 16th century. The sweet music by Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger and Alessandro Piccinini gave a beautiful atmosphere during the reading. It’s thanks to Italian Cultural Institute if it is possible to enjoy an evening like this.

The Institute is always organizing events to promote the italian culture through talks, concerts, art exhibitions and events dedicated to several regions of Italy.

To know more about its calendar of events it is possible to visit its website: http://www.icilondon.esteri.it/IIC_Londra/Menu/Gli_Eventi/Calendario/ and signing up to receive alerts about following appointments. A Facebook group is available to know about their activities and to book them easily by phone or email.

 The Italian Cultural Institute and the Italian Embassy in London for”A Garibaldi Panorama” 

photo:amitm.com