Events | Welcoming Reception

Los Angeles | April 30, 2013 | 8:00 PM

Meet our fellows and check out what is new at Villa Aurora!

Fine artist Dirk Stewen was born 1972 in Dortmund. He lives and works in Hamburg. After art school he worked as a commercial photographer. Camera work has long been part of his repertoire. In some series, photographic paper is drenched in black ink and exposed to light to create mottled surfaces. Stewen also works with pages taken from antiquated art catalogues, posters, confetti of all sizes and colors, streamers, book covers, and sometimes with industrial prefab wood or metal. Blotting with Indian ink, folding, embroidering, layering one kind of paper on another, printing or copying onto it. He combines the emergent work into ensembles, collages or mural sculptures that cautiously extend into the surrounding space.
During his scholarship at Villa Aurora Dirk Stewen would like to analyze the vegetation of the Californian West Coast. In an artistic way he compares the plants of his own cultural background and its "transplanting" to America. Questions like "What happens with art in exile?" and "In which way can aesthetic be an escape or a safety zone?" will lead him through cultural and natural landscapes.
Dirk Stewen will give an introduction into the way he works and show some images from his last exhibitions in Bregenz (Austria) and New York.

Feuchtwanger Fellow Sviatlana Kurs
Belarusian writer and journalist Sviatlana Kurs (Pseudonymes Eva Vieznaviec, Sviatlana Adziniec) was born in the countryside around Minsk. Ms. Kurs studied philology and graduated from the Belarusian State University in 1994. From 1994 on, she has worked as a journalist for the Belarusian State Radio, newspaper "Svaboda", Radio 101.2, Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Radio Racyja, Transitions Online, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty European Radio for Belarus.
Sviatlana Kurs writes about Belarus in its European context. Her work revolves around topics such as "assimilating evil", "countering platitude", "mixing witchcraft and magic of daily routine", "treating alcoholism religiously and moving forward as an end in itself".
Her works are translated into Polish, Ukrainian and Czech.
On April 30th, Ms. Kurs will read her short story "The Archivist's visit" in both Belarusian and English.

Composer Tom Rojo Poller was born in 1978 in Osnabrück, Germany. He lives and works in Berlin. Tom studied composition in Berlin (University of the Arts) and London (Royal College of Music) and also holds an M.A. in Literature, Philosophy and Musicology from Humboldt University Berlin. His music is often based on references to literature and philosophy. Recent works follow an explicitly experimental approach, trying to explore conceptional issues such as the relation between language, text and music. During his stay he would like to continue on a multi-part project called "Die Unheimlichkeit der Zeit" [The Uncanniness of Time], composing one piece that is based on rehearsal recordings of Stravinsky and Schoenberg as well as researching for a multimedia work about Sunset Boulevard. On the evening of the Welcoming Reception he will perform on the former piano of Ernst Toch two of his pieces: The early "Three Pieces for Piano" and "Zeit ist nicht gutmütig" from the aforementioned "Unheimlichkeit" project.
If you would like to know more about Tom's work, please follow the link!

RSVP required: infola@villa-aurora.org. You will receive a confirmation.

Admission: free

Location: 520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272

Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service begins at 7 pm and will start from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway.

Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!

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