Villa Aurora Events Archive
2017
Eclectic Salon
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
Salastina + LACO
Lift Every Voice
This season marks Jeffrey Kahane's last as music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. The centerpiece of this season is “Lift Every Voice,” a three-week festival in January. The festival includes concerts, conversations and community engagement curated by Kahane to explore themes of tolerance, compassion, cooperation and creativity. It celebrates the power of music to encourage understanding and promote peace. The festival is inspired by the lives of human and civil rights champions Rabbi Joachim Prinz and composer Kurt Weill.
Salastina is honored to participate in such a meaningful festival designed by Kahane -- a consummate musician, scholar, and humanitarian.
Program
Kurt Weill: String Quartet in B minor
Behzad Ranjbaran: Caprices for Two Violins
Benjamin Britten: String Quartet No. 2 in C Major
Artists: Maia Jasper White and Kevin Kumar (co-directors and violins), Meredith Crawford (resident viola), Peter Myers (guest cello), Brian Lauritzen (resident host)
Salon Sophie Charlotte 2017: Rebellions, Revolutions or Reforms?
Berlin
Information
Und wenn sie alle dich verschrein / so wickle in dich selbst dich ein - Matthias Claudius
Sabine Scho und Martina Hefter
The text-dance performance by author Sabine Scho and author/dancer Martina Hefter research Karl Philipp Moritz' Magazin zur Erfahrungsseelenkunde (Magazine for the Research of the Soul) as source of the revolutionary spirit, knowing that, in order to go on a warpath you have to go into inner emigration first. You gotta get in to get out. (Genesis)
7.30 / 9.30 PM 20 minutes each
...rrr!..!
Kirsten Reese
This installation is based on text and audio source material such as speeches, demonstrations and debates of revolutions and rebellions from 1517 to today. It comes from historical (sound) archives, the web and social media eminating from 30 sound cubes. Audiences can approach each speaker and follow individual voices and historical situation, but are also able to regroup the sound sources in new and different constellations.
Geist, 2016 / Weil Deren Reiche
Tina Born
This installation adorns the big ball lights of the Säulensaal with phrases of female individuals and pioneers in their respective field of work. They feature the French philosopher Simone Weil (1909–1943), the American dancer and film theorist Maya Deren (1917–1961), and Maria Reiche (1903–1998), a German mathematician, who spent 50 years to map systematically the Peruvian earth paintings of Nazca, the protecion and preservation of which she fostered.
More Information
There will be artistic and scientific contributions by over 100 participants all over the entire building of the Akademie. See the program here.
Facebook-Event
This event is free.
Venue: Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Akademiegebäude am Gendarmenmarkt
Säulensaal, 2. OG
Markgrafenstraße 38, 10117 Berlin
Artists in Exile
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, Arnold Schoenberg, Fritz Lang
Join us for a salon and discussion about the extraordinary artists who lived and worked in Los Angeles before, during and after WWII. Presented in collaboration with Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, and their production with LACO of Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars. Moderated by Donna Rifkind, author of the soon to be released, The Sun and Her Stars: Salka Viertel and Hitler's Exiles in Hollywood. Salon participants: Doris Berger, Exhibition Curator at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences; Friedel Schmoranzer, Project Coordinator at Villa Aurora; and Neal Brostoff, music producer, educator and recent lecturer in Jewish music in the UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology.
With the influx of refugees in the 30s, Hollywood became a kind of Athens. It was as crowded with artists as Renaissance Florence. It was a Golden Era...It had never happened before. It will never happen again. -- S.N. Behrman
Information about tickets to Lost in The Stars
Welcoming Reception
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Participants
Electronic musician Stefan Goldmann splits his time between performing in techno clubs and applying techno's formal language to wider contexts, ranging from intricate site-specific encounters to large-scale music theater and performance works. While at Villa Aurora, Stefan is working on a performance within LACMA's 'Renaissance and Reformation' exhibition, coming up on February 4th.
To read and hear more about Stefan's work, check out his website www.stefangoldmann.com
Haegue Yang is a South Korean artist based in Berlin and Seoul.
Primarily making complex sensorial installations, sculptures and video, Yang translates her subjective reflections of specific historical or contemporary figures and concrete, domestic phenomena into a meticulous language of formalistic abstraction.
Her works are often complex installations and arrangements combining elaborate, even handicraft techniques with industrially manufactured and commercially available products.
Yang has shown her work in major international exhibitions including La Biennale de Montréal, "The Grand Balcony" (2016), the 12th Sharjah Biennial (2015), the 9th Taipei Biennal (2014), dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel (2012) and the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009) as the South Korean representative.
Her recent solo exhibitions were held at the Hamburger Kunsthalle (2016), Serralves Museum in Porto (2016), the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2016), Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing (2015) and Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul (2015).
Yang will present her practice at Villa Aurora by means of her numerous publications and artist books, which are mirror images of her prolific oeuvre in diverse languages, often accompanied with essays by prominent writers, curators, and designers.
Bertrand Flanet lives and works in Frankfurt am Main. He studied Art History at Marc Bloch University, Strasbourg, France. Since 2012 he is part of the Douglas Gordon's Filmklasse at the Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Recent exhibitions include: Jakarta Biennale 2015, Jakarta, Indonesia; Cosmic Disturbance, Gallery Schmidt&Handrup, Cologne, Germany, 2015; 24/7, IFFR Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2015; SUNdogs, Gallery Parisa Kind, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 2014; Ma(r)king Territories, Haus für Elektronische Künste, Basel, Switzerland, 2013; 2488, Langage Plus, Alma, Canada, 2013; Jeunes Premiers, Aubette, Strasbourg, France, 2012; Yet what not say what happened?, Kunstverein Freiburg, Germany, 2012; Moments - A History of Performance in 10 acts, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany.
In 2014 he has been awarded with the Lichter Art Award, Frankfurt am Main and the Gold Cube at the 2014 Kasseler Dokfest.
During his one-month stay at Villa Aurora, he will do research on cryonic technology.
Flanet is looking for ties between James Bedford, the first man to be set into a cryonic state, and Walt Disney who was rumored to want to be cryogenically preserved, but was not.
Niklas Goldbach, born in Witten, Germany, lives and works in Berlin. After studying Sociology at Bielefeld University and "Photography and Video" at the Unversity of Applied Sciences Bielefeld, he was awarded with a "Meisterschüler" degree at the University of the Arts Berlin in 2005. In 2005 he received the Fulbright Grant New York and majored in the MFA program of Hunter College, New York City in 2006.
Niklas Goldbach received several sholarships and has presented his video installations and photographic works in numerous solo shows and group exhibitions in venues such as the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Mori-Art Museum, Tokyo, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n.bk., Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Cornerhouse, Manchester, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, Berlinische Galerie Museum for Contemporary Art Berlin and the Short Film Festival Oberhausen. - www.niklasgoldbach.de
Born in Stockholm Carolina Hellsgård studied at the University of the Arts in Berlin as well as at Cal Arts' Graduate Film Directing Program. Her debut feature, WANJA had its world premiere at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival where it was nominated for Best First Feature Film. The film was shown at numerous international film festivals including Sao Paulo, Montreal, Gothenburg and Austin Filmfestival. WANJA was awarded Best Debut Film at the Biberacher Filmfestspiele and Best Script at Valletta Filmfestival, Malta. It was released theatrically in Germany in 2016. At Villa Aurora Carolina Hellsgård will work on the screenplay for a science fiction drama based on the current world situation. - www.hellsgard.com
Michael Roth is an art historian from Berlin. He started his scientific and his museum career as assistant curator in Stuttgart and as Curator for art and history at the Museum in Ulm where he organised exhibitions on South-German art and art-history of different species as sculpture, painting, stained-glass-painting, objects of art and prints and drawings from the late middle ages, up to the early classicism. In addition he organised shows on art and artists from the 20th century in the tradition of the Ulm school of design. Today, as senior curator of German Art at the Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, he focuses on the field of German drawings, illumination and prints up to 1800. In this field, he organised exhibitions and edited catalogue-raisonnées on works of Georg Flegel, Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald. He realised an exhibition on the script as Image, calligraphy and the art of writing from the early middle-ages up to 1800. Currently he works on a project related to the exhibition "Renaissance and Reformation. German Art In the Age of Dürer and Cranach" at the LACMA.
Stefan Goldmann
LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art | Resnick Pavilion)
Information
Stefan Goldmann has released several albums and EPs with internationally leading labels and is the co-founder of Macro. He has received commissions from MaerzMusik Festival Berlin, NyMusikk Norway, and BASF Kulturprogramm and has conceived site-specific performances for Kyoto's Honen-in Temple, the St. Lorenz Church of Nuremberg and UNESCO world heritage site Zollverein in Essen, Germany. Festival appearances include Mutek Montreal, Osaka’s Star Festival, Unlock Buenos Aires, and Club To Club in Turin, and he regularly works with Berlin's Berghain club on various projects.
Partner
This performance is presented by Villa Aurora - Los Angeles & Cyclone.
Carolina Hellsgård
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles (5750 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90036)
Information
WANJA
Writer-Director: Carolina Hellsgård, Germany, 2015, 87 min., German with English subtitles, digital
After a long period in prison, 40-year-old Wanja (Anne Ratte-Polle) is determined to avoid anything that might lead her back into addiction and the same lowlife circles as before. She takes innocuous jobs, first in a pet shop because she likes caring for animals, and then at an equestrian stable. She moves into social housing and meets regularly with her parole officer. During her work at the track she meets Emma (Nele Trebs), a somewhat rebellious 16-year-old.
Wanja soon starts feeling affection for the troubled girl who reminds her of herself before she went into prison – right down to the same excessive drinking, the drug-taking and the cool friends. At first the two keep out of each other's way, but little by little Wanja grows closer to Emma and a cautious friendship develops. When Emma lands in trouble, Wanja decides to take control and save her.
Source: www.berlinale.de
Participant
Carolina Hellsgård Was born in Stockholm, Sweden and studied at the University of the Arts in Berlin as well as at Cal Arts’ Graduate Film Directing Program. Her debut feature, WANJA had its world premiere at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival where it was nominated for Best First Feature Film. The film was shown at numerous international film festivals including Sao Paulo, Montreal, Gothenburg and Austin Filmfestival. WANJA was awarded Best Debut Film at the Biberacher Filmfestspiele and Best Script at Valletta Filmfestival, Malta. It was released theatrically in Germany in 2016. At Villa Aurora Carolina Hellsgård will work on the screenplay for a science fiction drama based on the current world situation.
Partner
With this screening, Villa Aurora continues its collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles. Under the label “Villa @ Goethe,” artists residing at the Villa Aurora have the opportunity to showcase their projects (past, present, and future) with the friends, patrons and guests at the Goethe-Institut.
Visar Morina
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles (5750 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90036)
Information
Kosovo in the 1990s, before the Serbian attack and the war that followed: Ten-year-old Nori and his father Gezim make a living by illegally selling smuggled cigarettes. Gezim is determined to go to Germany, even if this means leaving his son behind with relatives. For a long time, Nori tries to stay with his father, but it’s all in vain. In the end, the boy embarks on a long and dangerous journey to find Gezim in Germany. They had both imagined their reunion rather differently.
Participant
Visar Morina graduated from the Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln in 2009 with the film Der Schübling. The multi-award winning short film celebrated its premiere at the Filmfestival "Max-Ophüls-Preis" and was broadcast on ARTE. His latest short film Of Dogs and Wallpaper premiered at the International Competition in Locarno in 2013. Babai is his first feature film. Visar Morina was awarded with the MFG-Star 2016.
Partner
With this screening, Villa Aurora continues its collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles. Under the label “Villa @ Goethe,” artists residing at the Villa Aurora have the opportunity to showcase their projects (past, present, and future) with the friends, patrons and guests at the Goethe-Institut.
Eclectic Salon
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
CHERISH • CONSERVE • CONSIDER • CREATE
A LOU HARRISON CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
Beginning with Santa Cruz’s new American Gamelan the Lightbulb Ensemble to the 24-hour birthday bash at Harrison House in Joshua Tree, almost every one of this season’s one dozen concerts has music by Harrison, with many devoted entirely to his vision. The LA Phil presents Yuval Sharon’s re-imagining of Lou’s opera Young Caesar in an extraordinary melding of the first all gamelan version & the final orchestral re-write, while UCLA celebrates Harrison’s time as a 1940’s student of Schoenberg with an early piano work under his tutelage. Villa Aurora presents plucked music for harpsichord, shamisen, guitar, harp & mbiras, the Varied Trio (named after Lou’s delightful work for piano, violin & percussion) holds forth at Monk Space, and much, much more. Come celebrate the “notes between the notes,” and a double anniversary!
Program
Plucking Lou Harrison
Celebrate Lou Harrison’s Centennial with a bouquet of plucked delights by Grammy-winning musicians Gloria Cheng/harpsicord, John Schneider/guitars and TJ Troy/ percussion.
Carolina Hellsgård
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles (5750 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90036)
Information
Writer-Director: Carolina Hellsgård, Germany, 2015, 87 min., German with English subtitles, digital
After a long period in prison, 40-year-old Wanja (Anne Ratte-Polle) is determined to avoid anything that might lead her back into addiction and the same lowlife circles as before. She takes innocuous jobs, first in a pet shop because she likes caring for animals, and then at an equestrian stable. She moves into social housing and meets regularly with her parole officer. During her work at the track she meets Emma (Nele Trebs), a somewhat rebellious 16-year-old.
Wanja soon starts feeling affection for the troubled girl who reminds her of herself before she went into prison – right down to the same excessive drinking, the drug-taking and the cool friends. At first the two keep out of each other's way, but little by little Wanja grows closer to Emma and a cautious friendship develops. When Emma lands in trouble, Wanja decides to take control and save her.
Source: www.berlinale.de
Participant
Carolina Hellsgård Was born in Stockholm, Sweden and studied at the University of the Arts in Berlin as well as at Cal Arts’ Graduate Film Directing Program. Her debut feature, WANJA had its world premiere at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival where it was nominated for Best First Feature Film. The film was shown at numerous international film festivals including Sao Paulo, Montreal, Gothenburg and Austin Filmfestival. WANJA was awarded Best Debut Film at the Biberacher Filmfestspiele and Best Script at Valletta Filmfestival, Malta. It was released theatrically in Germany in 2016. At Villa Aurora Carolina Hellsgård will work on the screenplay for a science fiction drama based on the current world situation.
Partner
With this screening, Villa Aurora continues its collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles. Under the label “Villa @ Goethe,” artists residing at the Villa Aurora have the opportunity to showcase their projects (past, present, and future) with the friends, patrons and guests at the Goethe-Institut.
Niklas Goldbach
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles (5750 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90036)
Information
Niklas Goldbach will present and discuss the following video works
- HABITAT C3B 8:10 min., Full HD, Stereo, 2008
- THE WORLD 7:15 min., HD Video, Stereo, 2012/2016
- LAND OF THE SUN 11:35 min., HD Video, Stereo, 2015
- FORM AND CONTROL: Boulevard De L’Europe 6:04 min., HD Video, stereo, 2016
- FORM AND CONTROL: Live at Revel 8:01 min., HD video, stereo, 2016
- FORM AND CONTROL: The Foundry 7:02 min., HD video, stereo, 2017
Participant
NIKLAS GOLDBACH (*1973 in Witten) lives and works in Berlin. He studied inter alia sociology at Bielefeld University and from 2000 experimental media art at Berlin University of the Arts. His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions worldwide, including the Museum der Moderne in Salzburg, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, n.b.k., Berlin. Golbach is currently a Villa Aurora artist in residence.
Partner
With this event, Villa Aurora continues its collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles. Under the label “Villa @ Goethe,” artists residing at the Villa Aurora have the opportunity to showcase their projects (past, present, and future) with the friends, patrons and guests at the Goethe-Institut.
Silent Salon
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
Part 1:ON THE HOOF
Mighty Like A Moose
Regie: Leo McCarey , 1926, 22 min. digital, starring Charley Chase and Vivien Oakland, digital
After a homely married couple separately undergoes plastic surgery, they unwittingly plan an extramarital affair with each other.
Mighty Like A Moose was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, which recognizes American films deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."(imdb)
The Goat
Regie: Buster Keaton, 1921, 27 min.starring Buster Keaton and Malcom St. Clair, digital
A series of adventures begins when an accident during photographing causes Buster to be mistaken for Dead Shot Dan, the evil bad guy. (imdb)
Part 2:ON THE WING
Call of the Cuckoos
Regie: Clyde Bruckman, 1927, 17 min. starring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Max Davidson |
Max Davidson and his family are annoyed by the loony antics of their next-door neighbors (Laurel, Hardy, Finlayson and Chase). They move to a new house, which immediately starts self-destructing, and find the same neighbors have once again moved next door. (Laurel and Hardy Central)
Voice of the Nightingale
Regie: Wladyslaw Starewicz, 1925, 15, starring Nina Star, digital
This fairy-tale like telling of why nightingales only sing at night, is a
beautifully colorized live action with stop action animation.
Participant
Michael Mortilla is a composer and musician who for two decades has improvised scores to all manner of silent films for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, among other organizations. (He has also worked with a pair of legendary choreographers: Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham.)
Welcoming Reception
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
Sebastian Mez is a filmmaker, video- and soundartist. He studied at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg, Germany specializing in film directing. His experimental film Clean Up was shown at more than 40 international film festivals and won several prizes. Ein Brief aus Deutschland, which takes a special approach to the subject of modern slavery and prostitution in Europe, won the international middle length competition at Visions du Réel in Nyon in 2011. Metamorphosen was his first feature length film, which premiered at the Berlinale 2013, followed by numerous festivals and awards worldwide. His experimental work Substanz was nominated for the Filmkunstförderpreis of the National Gallery in Berlin 2015. Sebastian lives and works in Berlin.
www.sebastianmez.com
Ignaz Schick is a Berlin based turntablist, composer, sound and visual artists & curator. He started as saxophonist in the fields of free jazz and avant rock under the mentorship of trumpeter Don Cherry and shortly after got interested in electronic and contemporary music. Early experiments with tape machines, record players and effect boxes led to his own practize with self-made instruments and devices.
After college he briefly studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and worked for several years as an assistant for the contemporary composer Josef Anton Riedl.
Since 1995 he has been living in Berlin where he became a prolific figure in the cities experimental music scene working with numerous musicians worldwide including many different musical styles (noise, industrial, electro-acousitc music, improvisation, jazz, contemporary, ambient, electronica). He has toured worldwide, released a vast discography on numerous labels, builds sound installations and collaborated with such icons as Mwata Bowden, Don Cherry, Sven-Ake Johansson, Paul Lovens, Toshi Nakamura, Charlemagne Palestine, Andrea Parkins, Keith Rowe, Matthias Spahlinger or Martin Tetreault.
Since 2012 he has been focussing on conceptual compositions and experimental radio pieces and has developed his own graphic and verbal notations language for creative musicians. Besides being a member of several ensemble projects he also leads the 9-piece
Circuit Training ensemble in Berlin.
Hamburg-based Annette Streyl is a visual artist focused on sculpture in a traditional as well as in a contemporary sense.
She studied at Muthesiushochschule Kiel and Hochschule für Bildende Künste with Franz Erhard Walther.
Her textile works show representative architecture whereas her stone works have the allure of medieval and renaissance European sculpture.
Streyl's work is part of private and museum collections world wide.
Andreas Schäfer studied German literature and theology in Frankfurt/Main and Berlin. Since the mid-nineties he has been working as a theatre critic and reported on cultural affairs first for Berliner Zeitung and then for Der Tagesspiegel until 2010, when he became a freelance writer.
He published his novel Auf dem Weg nach Messara (En Route to Messara, Alexander Fest Verlag, 2002), which received the Bremen Most Promising Writer Award. His novel Wir vier (The Four of Us, Dumont Verlag, 2010) was long listed for the German Book Award and received the Anna Seghers Prize. His latest novel Gesichter (Faces, Dumont Verlag, 2013), was voted on to the bestseller list of Southwest German Radio.
Schäfer writes essays and commentaries for Die Zeit and magazines such as Weltkunst and Architektur und Wohnung and works on developing print materials for foundations. He also writes radio features on topics such as the magic of a night in Athens, the power of the empty theatre space, or the swimming pool as a venue for literature.
At Villa Aurora Andreas Schäfer is working on a novel about an old famous house and its changing inhabitants over a century.
Genoël von Lilienstern studied composition in Bremen and Berlin and Sonology in The Hague. Von Lilienstern received numerous scholarships including from UdK Berlin Graduate School, Cité Internationale des Arts Paris and Tokyo Wondersite. He has worked with leading international ensembles such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and SWR Orchestra. He also created installative works for flight drones and robots.
During his stay in Villa Aurora he will be working on a project entitled "Tongva Song" investigating the present days situation of the Tongva Gabrieleños (the native inhabitants of the Los Angeles basin), the efforts of "language revitalization" and Southern Californian Native American music traditions. The outcome of this survey will potentially be a musical composition or cooperation.
Sandeep Mukherjee
68project (Fasanenstraße 68, 10719 Berlin)
Information
Sandeep Mukherjee, who lives and works in Los Angeles, not only fills entire exhibition rooms with his installations, but also makes these rooms physically experienceable. His work, which often consists of individual modules, reacts to the situation of the room, plays with light and shadow, and opens up new perspectives depending on the point of view. Sandeep Mukherjee is Berlin Fellow of Villa Aurora in 2017.
Partner
A cooperation with
Silent Salon
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
5th Annual SILENT SALON Featuring the Villa Aurora Pipe Organ
Saturday, September 9 @ 6:40 p.m.
SURPRISE FILM!! THE WHITE SHADOW
Regie: Graham Cutts, 1923, 45 min, starring Betty Compson, Clive Brook and Henry Victor, UK, digital
This is Alfred Hitchcock’s first film effort in the role of assistant director. The stunning film was lost, rediscovered in New Zealand and beautifully restored a few years ago. It re-premiered at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with a new score by Michael Mortilla, curator of this year’s series and accompanist on the organ.
The plot concerns twin sisters, one modest and socially conservative, and the other a free spirit who can't bear the constrictions of a traditional life. Their father's unhappiness over his bohemian daughter's lifestyle leads him to drink and dissolution. To make matters worse, both of them have a man fall in love with them not realizing they are two different women…. (imdb)
Participant
Michael Mortilla is a composer and musician who for two decades has improvised scores to all manner of silent films for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, among other organizations. (He has also worked with a pair of legendary choreographers: Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham.)
la > x – Exhibition and Film Festival
Berlin
Information
The kick-off event for la > x is the exhibition opening at FAHRBEREITSCHAFT on September 12, 2017, with works from Margaret Honda, Stephen Prina and Christopher Williams.
The film festival, curated by film scholar Dr. Marc Glöde will be shown at the kino arsenal – institute for film and video-art from 10 am to 10 pm with works by Edgar Arceneaux, John Baldessari, James Benning, Morgan Fisher, Alex Hubbard, Rodney McMillian, Sarah Morris, Ryan Trecartin and Jennifer West. The program also shows Berlin and LA as sister cities who despite their differences, look back on a long and broad film tradition, reaching from mainstream-cinema to artistic experimental films – which are the main focus of this program. The film presentations will be complemented by discussions surrounding the topic „statements and projections.“
At 9 pm, the concept artist, filmmaker and musician Stephen Prina will bring the program to an end with a concert on the cinema stage
The admission is free. This was made possible with the support from Regierender Bürgermeisters von Berlin – Senatskanzlei, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V., the office of taylor wessing and Haubrok Foundation.
Further Information on www.haubrok.org
la > x – Film Festival
Berlin
Information
The kick-off event for la > x is the exhibition opening at FAHRBEREITSCHAFT on September 12, 2017, with works from Margaret Honda, Stephen Prina and Christopher Williams.
The film festival, curated by film scholar Dr. Marc Glöde will be shown at the kino arsenal – institute for film and video-art from 10 am to 10 pm with works by Edgar Arceneaux, John Baldessari, James Benning, Morgan Fisher, Alex Hubbard, Rodney McMillian, Sarah Morris, Ryan Trecartin and Jennifer West. The program also shows Berlin and LA as sister cities who despite their differences, look back on a long and broad film tradition, reaching from mainstream-cinema to artistic experimental films – which are the main focus of this program. The film presentations will be complemented by discussions surrounding the topic „statements and projections.“
At 9 pm, the concept artist, filmmaker and musician Stephen Prina will bring the program to an end with a concert on the cinema stage
The admission is free. This was made possible with the support from Regierender Bürgermeisters von Berlin – Senatskanzlei, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V., the office of taylor wessing and Haubrok Foundation.
Further Information on www.haubrok.org
Program
wednesday september 13, 2017
10 am – 10 pm
10.15 – 10.30 am
reception and introduction by curator marc glöde
10.30 – 11.30 am
rodney mcmillian
untitled (america) (2002), 2:45 min
preacher man (2015), 6:08 min
untitled (sheet performance) (2005), 3:41 min
a song for nat (2012), 6:00 min
untitled (the great society) I (2006), 16:14 min
a migration tale (2014-2015), 10:00 min
courtesy susanne vielmetter los angeles projects
11.30 am – 1.00 pm
james benning
farocki (2004), 77:00 min
courtesy neugerriemschneider, berlin
1.00 – 2.30 pm
ryan trecartin
a family finds entertainment (2004), 40:09 min
junior war (2013), 24:25 min
courtesy regen projects, los angeles and sprüth magers, berlin/los angeles
2.30 – 3.30 pm
alex hubbard
hit wave (2012), 4:25 min
courtesy galerie neu
feat.
julie becker: federal building (2002), 28:45 min
courtesy the estate and greene naftali, new york
new wave theatre with peter ivers vol.1 (1982), 28:00 min
courtesy the estate of david jove
3.30 – 4.30 pm
jennifer west
rainbow party on 70mm film (2008), 0:38 min
a 70mm film wearing thick heavy black liquid eyeliner that gets smeary (2008), 0:30 min
salt crystals spiral jetty dead sea five year film (2013), 0:54 min
spiral of time documentary film (2013), 9:01 min
pink beach red desert dream sand film (2017), 3:21 min
film title poem (2016), 35 min special short version
courtesy marc foxx, los angeles
4.30 – 5.30 pm
edgar arceneaux
until, until, until… (2015), 30:00 min
courtesy susanne vielmetter los angeles projects
5.30 – 6.15 pm
statements and projections
sister cities berlin / los angeles
discussion with esther keller (senatskanzlei berlin), philomene magers (sprüth magers), kirsten niehuus (medienboard berlin-brandenburg), annette rupp (villa aurora & thomas mann house), axel haubrok (haubrok collection)
moderated by tobias timm (die zeit)
held in german
6.15 – 6.45 pm
john baldessari
baldessari sings lewitt (1972), 12:38 min
courtesy sprüth magers, berlin/los angeles
6.45 – 7.45 pm
morgan fisher
() (2003), 21:00 min
picture and sound rushes (1973), 11:00 min
() (2003), 21:00 min
courtesy galerie buchholz, cologne/berlin/new york
7.45 – 8.30 pm
statements and projections
edgar arceneaux, jennifer west, morgan fisher
introduced by marc glöde
8.30 – 9.00 pm
sarah morris
los angeles (2004), 26:12 min
courtesy capitain petzel, berlin
9.00 pm onward
stephen prina
concert
Artist Talk: Sandeep Mukherjee
68project (Fasanenstraße 68, 10719 Berlin)
Information
Sandeep Mukherjee, who lives and works in Los Angeles, not only fills entire exhibition rooms with his installations, but also makes these rooms physically experienceable. His work, which often consists of individual modules, reacts to the situation of the room, plays with light and shadow, and opens up new perspectives depending on the point of view. Sandeep Mukherjee is Berlin Fellow of Villa Aurora in 2017.
Partner
A cooperation with
VILLA @ GOETHE: Sebastian Mez
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles (5750 Wilshire Boulevard Suite 100 Los Angeles, CA 90036)
Information
Sebastian Mez will present and discuss the following films:
METAMORPHOSEN
Germany, 2013, 84 min., Russian (with English subtitles)
Director/Producer/Cinematographer: Sebastian Mez Assistant Director/Interpreter: Renata Kosenko Film Editor: Katharina Fiedler Sound & Mixing: Levitate
A winter landscape with figures in the southern Ural Mountains captured in high-contrast black-and-white. These images harbour an eerie beauty which, although it cannot be seen or heard, is nonetheless unmistakable. Flanking the course of the river Techa and extending some 23,000 square kilometres, this region is one of the most radioactively contaminated in the world. Regular daily use plus several major accidents at the nuclear plant Mayak, which has been operating in complete isolation from the rest of the world since 1948, have contaminated the water, the soil and the air in the region and exposed the people who live here to a permanent overdose of radiation. Even more astounding is the fact that the local people were given no warning of the effects of radiation contamination following the disastrous chemical explosion of 1957.
After Chernobyl and Fukushima, the Kyshtym accident is widely held to be the third worst disaster in the history of nuclear power. But today, 55 years after these apocalyptic events, the struggle of the people who live here is about more than just survival.
CLEAN UP
Germany, 2008, 9 min., English (with English subtitles).
Film Editing: Sebastian Mez Camera Operator: Julia Schlingmann Production Designer: Janine Dittmann Art Direction: Christoph Arni / Christian Trieloff / Sebastian Mez Producer: Christoph Arni Cinematography: Christian Trieloff Sound Design: Sebastian Mez Director: Sebastian Mez
It`s his job to clean this special room, an execution chamber at a state prison in the United States. Every time there is an execution, he has to return this place to its original state. This experimental short film offers an abnormal view on the death penalty.
SEBASTIAN MEZ: Filmmaker and video- and soundartist Sebastian Mez studied at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg, Germany with a focus on film directing.
His experimental film “Clean Up” has been presented at more than 40 international film festivals, and has received numerous awards. ’Ein Brief aus Deutschland’, which takes a special approach onto the subject of modern slavery and prostitution in Europe, won the international middle length competition at Visions du Réel in Nyon in 2011.
‘Metamorphosen, his first feature length film, premiered at the Berlinale 2013, followed by numerous screenings and awards at festivals worldwide. His experimental work 'Substanz' was nominated for the Filmkunstförderpreis of the National Gallery in Berlin 2015. Sebastian lives and works in Berlin.
Partners
With this screening, the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles continues its collaboration with the Villa Aurora’s artist-in-residence program. Under the label “Villa @ Goethe,” artists residing at the Villa Aurora have the opportunity to showcase their projects (past, present, and future) with the friends, patrons and guests at the Goethe-Institut.
Ignaz Schick: The music of the Berlin based turntablist, sound artist and composer
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
Ignaz Schick will perform a piece for turntable solo and two duets with the Los Angeles and Pasadena based musicians Joseph Hammer (tape machines) and Carolyn Chen (chinese zither, electronics).
Joseph Hammer is a legend in the LA experimental music scene. Besides performing an iconic body of solo music on tape machines he has also been a member of the renowned Los Angeles Free Music Society. Carolyn Chen is an up and coming composer of contemporary music who studied amongst others at UCSD San Diego. She also performs live with the traditional chinese zither and field recordings. Even though Schick has known Chen and Hammer for years this two duets will be first encounters.
Philipp Lachenmann: DELPHI_Essentials
ACE Gallery Los Angeles (5514 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036)
Information
On October 4, 2017, renowned ACE Gallery on Wilshire Blvd., together with VATMH opens DELPHI_Essentials, a solo exhibition by visual artist and former Villa Aurora fellow Philipp Lachenmann with works that are specific to LA and to Berlin. Lachenmann is considered one of the outstanding artists of his generation.
Philipp Lachenmann’s work consistently lays bare the essential formations of art, decoding the inherent representational structures in their tangled reference monopolies, exposing their strategies and thus making them readable on a new level. This approach shifts the center of gravity of much of contemporary art away from the radical relativism of the 90s, in a direction that reaffirms both authorship and engagement with society. The Lachenmann exhibition is the only one to occupy the entire gallery space, and at the height of the autumn art season.
Lachenmann studied art history, philosophy, and film before completing post-graduate study at the Academy of Media Arts KHM in Cologne, Germany. His work has been exhibited at the Shanghai Biennale (2004), Museum K21 Düsseldorf (2008), Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin (2011), Deichtorhallen Hamburg (2012), KW Kunstwerke Berlin (2016); and screened at MIT Short Film Festival Boston (2008), IFFR Rotterdam, SIFF Seattle, SFIFF San Francisco (2009), NYFF New York (2010), and HKIFF Hongkong (2011). Lachenmann has been awarded the German Academic Exchange Program (DAAD) New York (1998), the Villa Aurora residency in Los Angeles (2003), Villa Massimo in Rome (2012), and a residency grant for 2018 at the Villa Tarabya Istanbul, Turkey.
100 years of Bauhaus: How do we want to live?
LOT 613 (613 Imperial St., Los Angeles, CA 90021)
Information
Encompassing a variety of cultural activities, ‘Berlin Lab’ – a two-day festival – will be held at LOT 613 in the Downtown LA Arts District on October 4th and 5th. ‘Berlin Lab’ is an immersive experience that celebrates the lineage and synergy between the sister cities with a unique cross-metropolis exchange, five decades in the making.
Almost 100 years ago, BAUHAUS was founded in Germany as a new approach to design the way we live and to teach a new, interdisciplinary way of thinking. Architects, artists and designers such as Walter Gropius, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Gunta Stölzl, Luzia and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy coined modernism worldwide. The German exile culture, in particular at the West coast had a great impact on the cultural life in the US.
At the Berlin Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung, the world’s largest collection of historic original Bauhaus objects and documents, in view of the centennial in 2019 and the Bauhaus-Archiv’s 2021 reopening on a new scale, the Bauhaus Council Berlin e.V. has been initiated as an interdisciplinary discursive future platform in order to ask again the old Bauhaus question: "How do we want to live“?
Participants
Creative Talk / Panel Discussion with
Thomas Willemeit, Graft Architects Berlin/Beijing/LA; co-curator of the Architecture Biennial in Venice 2018
Van Bo Le Mentzel, architect and activist, curator of the interdisciplinary „Tiny Bauhaus Campus“, at Bauhaus Archiv Berlin
Theresia Enzensberger, blogger and author of Blaupause (blueprint), a „historic“ novel on a creative woman experiencing the Bauhaus world (Summer 2017, Hanser, Germany)
Moderator: Alexandra von Stosch, program director Bauhaus Council Berlin e. V. and Board Member of VATMH
Partners
Supported by Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V., Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe and Berlin Partner.
Transit Lounge Else
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
Transit Lounge Else is an international project of the Else Lasker-Schüler-Society (Wuppertal) in cooperation with the “Centre for Persecuted Arts” (Solingen), designed by the artist duo Astronautenkost. The focus is on the life and the marvellous work of the artist Else Lasker-Schüler. The actress Claudia Gahrke and the director Andreas Schäfer invite people to speak poems of the most important German lyricist.
40 renowned artists have already taken part, including Iain Glen, Bob Balaban, Elfriede Jelinek, Sigalit Landau, Tomi Ungerer and John Nettles.
The way in which a state treats its artists is a litmus test for democracy. The persecution and fate in exile of an artist is exemplified on the basis of the lyricist Else Lasker-Schüler.
In a mix of short informative presentations, readings of Else Lasker-Schüler’s poems and prose in German and in the local language, it initially takes place in cities such as Stockholm, New York and Los Angeles (Villa Aurora), places where many artists had been in exile.
The project is a tribute to the great artist, whose 150th birthday is celebrated in 2019, and a sensual feast for the freedom of art.
Its patron is the actor Günter Lamprecht.
The fourth station will take place on 14th of October 2017 at 7:00 pm at the Villa Aurora, which is also a cooperation partner of the project. With Claudia Gahrke, Andreas Schäfer and Dr. Doris Berger. Emmy Award and Tony Award Winner Lainie Kazan joins the production and will read the poems in their english translations. Admission is free.
The project is funded by the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.
More Information
Else-Lasker-Schüler-Society
On 23rd of November 1990 WDR-journalist Hajo Jahn invited a dozen Wuppertal citizens to founding of an Else Lasker-Schüler-Society, in order to cultivate the work and memory of one of the most unusual German-Jewish artists, and to initiate a new, contemporary form of memory culture: against anti-Semitism and xenophobia, for tolerance.
Else Lasker-Schüler, who originated from Wuppertal-Elberfeld, became famous in Berlin. Her fate is a metaphor for the way in which the intellectuals were treated during the Nazi dictatorship. In 1933 she fled from Germany; her books and plays were forbidden; she was denied filming, because she was Jewish. In Swiss exile, she was banned from writing. Later she was denied entry.
Else Lasker-Schüler, alias Prince of Thebes, Abigail, Tino of Baghdad, Jussuf etc, had given herself many names and identities. She was the first female performer and she is modern to this day.
The Else-Lasker-Schüler-Society recalls the fate of emigrated and persecuted intellectuals (artists, natural scientists and humanities scholar, journalists and writers, whose books were burned, whose works of art were censored and banned), in this epoch of great refugee flows by means of its international forums from Prague and Breslau to Catania and Jerusalem - 21 times by now; the 22nd Forum will take place at the culturally significant "Monte Verità" in Ascona, in October 2017. The ELS Society has around 1,200 members, including many prominent artists and politicians. More than a dozen almanacs document its activities in schools, as well as the premieres of theatre plays and compositions. The "Centre for Persecuted Arts" is now operating under the umbrella of the Kunstmuseum Solingen.
Centre for Persecuted Arts
The Center for Persecuted Arts, situated in the Kunstmuseum Solingen, was founded in 2015. Shareholders are the Regional Association of the Rhineland and the City Administration of Solingen.
This “Center” is the only institution showing German cultural history of the period from 1914 to 1989 with pictures, books and personal documents of artists. The central topics are the situation of art, literature and music during the two German dictatorships of the 20th century.
The bridge between the persecution of literature and visual art is created by the painting poet Else Lasker-Schüler. The Center shows 23 original drawings of this artist. Owner of the objects is the Else-Lasker-Schüler-Society. Some of these pictures were confiscated as “degenerate” in the Berlin National Gallery in 1937. It is the largest collection of her drawings outside Israel.
Astronautenkost
Claudia Gahrke, acting training in the master class with Actors Studio founder Robert Lewis, speech training with Günter Wirth. She was a scholarship holder at the Berlin Theatretreffen. Many Theatre roles, among others: Merteuil in Heiner Müllers „Quartet“ in London. Performances in Brussels, Cambridge and during the EXPO2000, amongst others: Ophelia in the Sound-Performance “Hamletmachine”, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin. “Kitty Hawk” in “I’m a Microbe” for the Fraunhofer-Gala “Fest der Forschung” in Dresden with Herbert Fritsch. Readings amongst others: “About the Eternities between the Many and the Few” - Alfred Döblin und Else Lasker-Schüler with Günter Lamprecht and „All is Jazz“, by Lili Grün, for the first „Festival for Persecuted Arts“. Performances, with Else Lasker-Schüler-settings, took place at the Jewish Museum in Berlin and in Wroclaw. Guest appearances with LIFE? OR THEATRE?, by Charlotte Salomon, in Vienna, Berlin and Tel Aviv. Many roles in WDR plays. In 2011 her CD “Die kreisende Weltfabrik“ (“The Orbiting World Factory “) appeared, with poems, prose and letters by Else Lasker-Schüler. 2014 recitation of Durs Grünbein for the opening of the exhibition SOCKS FOR LIFE in the European Parliament in Brussels.
Andreas Schäfer is a director and author. He attended the master class directing with Robert Lewis (Actors Studio). Productions were made in Israel, London, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, and at the EXPO2000. Schäfer writes an essay series on communication and art in the 21st century and reference book contributions. Interviews with Hellmuth Karasek, Prof. Michael Schirner, Bert Neumann, Denis Scheck, Tom Stromberg, Heike-Melba Fendel, Jan Hoet, etc. Since 2009 he is the executive editor of the magazine showcases. In 2012, an interview with the title „Durch den menschlichen Kosmos“ (“Through the Human Cosmos") was published. In 2011, he directed the CD production „Die kreisende Weltfabrik“ ("The orbiting world factory”) with texts by Else Lasker-Schüler. In 2014 he is curating the exhibition SOCKS FOR LIFE, among others with works by René Böll, Elfriede Jelinek, Robert Wilson, Ruprecht von Kaufmann and Andrea K. Schlehwein in the European Parliament in Brussels. He received an Euorpean Best Event Award for this.
Lainie Kazan is an American actress and singer. She was nominated for the 1988 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for “St. Elsewhere”, and the 1993 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for “My Favorite Year”. She had previously received a Golden Globe Award nomination for the film version of “My Favorite Year” (1982). Her other film appearances include “The Delta Force” (1986), “Harry and the Hendersons” (1987), “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (2002) and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” (2016). Kazan appeared in numerous supper clubs across the country, and she guested on Dean Martin’s variety series 26 times. Other television work includes a recurring role as Aunt Frieda on the Fran Drescher sitcom “The Nanny” and as Kirstie Alley’s mother on “Veronica’s Closet”, “The Paper Chase”, “Touched by an Angel”, and “Will & Grace”. She played the lead character's mother in the Nia Vardalos films “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2”, and was also featured in “My Big Fat Greek Life”, a short-lived series based on the film. She had appeared with its co-star Kevin James in two episodes of his “The King of Queens” TV series as the once-renowned singer Ava St. Clair. She is a life member of The Actors Studio.
Dr. Doris Berger is an Exhibition Curator at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. She was previously a curator at the Skirball Cultural Center, a Getty Postdoctoral Fellow, and the director of the Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Germany. She initiated the Skirball’s PST LA/LA exhibition Another Promised Land: Anita Brenner's Mexico (2017), curated the touring exhibition Light & Noir: Exiles and Émigrés in Hollywood, 1933–1950 at the Skirball (2014), and directed the video Here and There: Artistic Exchange between California and Germany in the 1970s (2012). Berger is the author of the books Light & Noir (2015), Projected Art History: Biopics, Celebrity Culture, and the Popularizing of American Art (2014), and edited books such as Sexy Mythos. Images about Artists (2006, co-editor) and In, With and Between Spaces (2004, editor). She published essays on the intersection of art and film, the cultural impact of movies, gender identities, and exile culture in the Golden Age of Hollywood.
ASTRONAUTENKOST | Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.
Andreas Schäfer, Kanalstraße 67, 42657 Solingen, Germany
Mobil +49 177 579 55 69, theartcore@gmx.net
www.salle-de-transit.com
Eclectic Salon #2: Farewell to Ernst Toch's Bluethner Grand Piano
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
His more than twenty books include Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing Ones Sees (on California artist Robert Irwin), True to Life (on David Hockney), Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder (on the Museum of Jurassic Technology); and Vermeer in Bosnia.
His website www.lawrenceweschler.com includes a section devoted to his writings on Toch and his fellow emigres in Los Angeles.Ernst Toch (1887 – 1964) was one of Weimar Germany’s most celebrated composers. Fleeing the Nazis for California, he continued to write music, but found his work largely overlooked. Today, (…) his compositions are finally being reassessed and getting long overdue recognition. (The Guardian)
Program
Eclectic Salon #3: Klezmer Connection Duo
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
Clarinetist Georg Winkler und Hubert Kellerer (accordion) draw a powerful and -at the same time- sensitive bow from stylized klezmer music to jazz and classic modern to traditional klezmer music. Constantly walking a fine line between joie de vivre, sadness, Winkler and Kellerer create virtuoso soundscapes, wild, tender, crazy, cheeky, witty and spherical. The Duo tours internationally and is considered one of the best Klezmer ensembles.
The program includes works by Ernest Bloch (1880–1959), Erwin Schulhoff (1894–1942), Alexandre Tansman (1897–1986), Igor Strawinsky (1882–1971), Shalom Secunda (1894–1974) and Klezmer traditionals.
Participants
Georg Winkler trained as a classical clarinetist at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. While encountering Klezmer he discovered a totally new way of conceiving and performing music. Georg Winkler played in various orchestras such as the Mozarteum Orchestra, the Dome Orchestra Salzburg, the Orchestra Pro Musica, the Salzburger Kammersolisten and many more.
Hubert Kellerer studied music and performing arts and holds a master’s degree as a soloist in chamber music. He has been teaching in Graz and Salzburg since 1993. His artistic activities include music for theaer, performances of contemporary music and presentation of transcriptions.
Kellerer's new passion is Klezmer and The Klezmer Connection.
City-Making: The View from Berlin and Los Angeles
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
The event celebrates the 50th anniversary of the sister-city partnership between Berlin and Los Angeles and is concurrent with Sergei Tchoban Architectural Drawings exhibition at the A+D Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles.
Participants
Farooq Ameen is the Founding Principal at City Design Studio, an architecture and urban design practice with current projects in the US and Asia. He is a member of the Board of Directors at the A+D Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles and has lectured widely including the Bauhaus, Harvard and Columbia. Ameen has held academic appointments at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (Los Angeles / Lugano), Woodbury University and Calpoly and is the author of numerous publications including “The South Asian Paradigm”, “deCoding Asian Urbanism” and “50 Under 50 :Innovators of the 21st Century”.
Sergei Tchoban is managing partner of Tchoban Voss Architects with offices in Berlin, Dresden, and Hamburg, co-founder of SPEECH architectural office in Moscow, Russia and founder of the Tchoban Foundation Museum for Architectural Drawing in Berlin. A number of his buildings, including, the Federation Tower in Moscow, Benois House in St. Petersburg, the Jewish Cultural Center and Synagogue Chabad Lubavitch, NHow hotel, Living Levels and Museum for Architectural Drawing in Berlin have become world-renowned attractions. His work has been recognized, not only as an architect, but also as a curator, lecturer and a passionate draftsman.
Peter Tokofsky is the senior public program specialist at the Getty Museum, where he organizes the public speaker series, and an adjunct professor of German at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is director of UCLA’s summer travel-study program to Austria and Germany which introduces students to art and cultural history in Berlin, Munich, and Vienna. He is a native of Los Angeles and contributes to various educational and arts programs in the city.
Welcoming Reception
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Participants
Ute Wieland majored in German philology and theater studies before obtaining a degree in directing from the University of Television and Film in Munich. In 1989, her debut feature film "Im Jahr der Schildkröte" earned her a nomination fort he prestigious German Film Prize.
After working exclusively in TV for many years, Ute Wieland completed her second movie, the soccer comedy "FC Venus", in 2006. Her third feature "Freche Mädchen" followed suit in 2008.
Wieland turned to TV again to direct Germany's most successful crime show "Tatort". "Freche Mädchen 2", the sequel to her 2008 success, was released in 2010. Wieland's two-part made for TV movie "Deckname Luna" (2012) about a citizen of the German Democratic Republic targeted by the Secret Police was nominated for the Grimme Prize, In 2014, Wieland directed the tragic comedy "Besser als nix" about a high school dropout and misfit from rural Germany who tries to gain a new perspective on life. Ute Wieland adapted Villa Aurora Fellow (2016) Stefanie de Velasco's novel "Tigermilch" (Tiger Milk) which was presented at this year's German Currents.
Andreas Mand's works include novels like "Grovers Erfindung" (Grover's Invention, 1990), "Das rote Schiff" (The Red Ship, 1994), "Kleinstadthelden" (Small Town Heroes, 1996) "Paul und die Beat Maschine" (Paul And The Beat Machine, 2006) and "Der zweite Garten" (The Second Garden, 2015). From the cheerful to the melancholic, the loosely connected volumes portray everyday life in cities such as Krefeld and Minden. Mand's typical protagonists are activists of the subculture, artists or even children. Apart from that he wrote a historical study of a reciter in the 1930s ("Der Traum des Konditors" / The Confectioner's Dream, 1992) and two plays. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung his latest novel "Der zweite Garten" shows the writer "at the height of his art." A critic of the Süddeutsche Zeitung concludes: "So he became the potential cult author of a lost generation …"
Florian Fischer works artistically and documentary with photography and film. He studied visual communication, photography and image sciences. His diploma thesis "The Blue of the Sky" was awarded the Aenne-Biermann-Prize for German Contemporary Photography. Fischer was an artistic employee at the Harz University and completed the Werkleitz Media Master Class. In cooperation with Johannes Krell he produced the short film "Kaltes Tal", which was shown at international film festivals. "Kaltes Tal" was awarded with the German short film prize in gold.
www.flofischer.de
Senthuran Varatharajah was born in Sri Lanka in 1984. His family fled to Germany when he was four months old. He studied philosophy, theology and cultural studies in Marburg, Berlin and London. In 2016 he published his debut novel "Vor der Zunahme der Zeichen" (S. Fischer). Among others it was awarded with the 3Sat Prize at the "38th Days of German-Language Literature", the Alfred Doblin Fellowship of the Berlin Academy of Arts, the Berlin Senate Fellowship, the Kranichsteiner Literaturförderpreis, the Bremer Literaturförderpreis, the Chamisso Award and the Rauriser Literaturpreis.
Alida Tota was born in Kukës, Albania. She studied journalism at the University of Tirana and is a PhD candidate in diplomacy and international relations.
Alida has been working as a journalist since 1995. She covered the Kosovo crisis from 1998-1999 and has been working for several radio and TV channels in Albania and the region. She is an expert on central government, press communications, and proceedings at high-level state institutions, including the Council of Ministers and the Parliament of Albania. She also held the office of National Coordinator for LGBT Rights in Albania. From 2008 to 2013, she taught journalism at the Albanian University in Tirana.
In August of 2016 she covered the tragic death of a 17-year old worker at a landfill, due to poor working conditions, lack of insurance or safety precautions exposing a presumably illegal contract between the Mayor of Tirana and the operator of the landfill. Alida was pressured to abandon the project, and upon her refusal, was fired. She sued her employer for back pay and for violating her right to free speech. After her family received death threats, they fled to Sweden for a brief exile. They returned in 2017, Alida revived her court case and finally won at the end of October.
Villa @ Goethe: Senthuran Varatharajah
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles (5750 Wilshire Blvd #100, Los Angeles, CA 90036)
Information
About "Vor der Zunahme der Zeichen"
Completely by accident, Senthil Vasuthevan and Valmira Surroi start a conversation on Facebook. Senthil is working on his doctorate in philosophy in Berlin, Valmira is studying art history in Marburg. For seven days they tell one another about their lives, never meeting in person. Their messages touch on their families, fleeing from civil wars, their childhood in refugee homes and their times of school and study. In his debut novel, Senthuran Varatharajah writes insightfully about origins and arrival, remembrance and forgetting, and about the cracks in our lives which only time can reveal.
Searching for a language of one’s own – a poetic dialogue about spaces of asylum.
“Villa @ Goethe”
With this reading, Villa Aurora and the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles continue their collaboration. Under the label “Villa @ Goethe”, artists residing at the Villa Aurora have the opportunity to showcase their projects (past, present, and future) with the friends, patrons and guests at the Goethe-Institut.
1550 SAN REMO DRIVE
BUILDING BRIDGES ART EXCHANG (Bergamot Station Art Center 2525 Michigan Avenue, Unit F2 Santa Monica, CA 90404)
Information
1550 SAN REMO DRIVE, Video, 17:50 min, HD Video, Stereo, 2017 (EN & GER Version)
Niklas Goldbach's 1550 SAN REMO DRIVE was filmed in February 2017 on the premises of the Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades, California, USA. The video features quotes from JR Davidson, Thomas Mann and the real estate companies which marketed the house, before it was bought by the German government in November 2016 for $13.25 million.
"The Thomas Mann House at 1550 San Remo Drive in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, was designed by the modernist architect JR Davidson for the exiled German writer Thomas Mann in 1941. Mann lived at the house between 1942 and 1952 before his emigration to Switzerland, where he spent the last three years of his life. The house is 5,000 square feet (460 m2 large and situated on a plot of an acre. In 2012, the house was put up for rent in 2012 for $15,000 per month, and for sale in 2016 for $14,995,000. The house was marketed as a potential "tear down", with no mention of Mann in accompanying sales literature. At the time of its potential sale, the house was not subject to any local historical protection orders. The house was bought by the Government of Germany in November 2016 for $13.25 million." (Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann_House)
Filmed with support of Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V.
Niklas Goldbach, born in Witten, Germany, lives and works in Berlin. After studying Sociology at Bielefeld University and “Photography and Video” at the Unversity of Applied Sciences Bielefeld, he was awarded with a “Meisterschüler” degree at the University of the Arts Berlin in 2006. In 2005 he received the Fulbright Grant New York and majored in the MFA program of Hunter College, New York City.
Niklas Goldbach received several sholarships (i.e. Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn 2010, Arbeitsstipendium Bildende Kunst des Berliner Senats 2013, Globalstipendium des Berliner Senats 2014, Dresdner Stipendium für Fotografie 2016) and presented his works in umerous solo shows, group exhibitions, and festivals such as at Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Mori-Art Museum, Tokyo, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n.b.k., Cornerhouse, Manchester, documenta 14 public programs, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Centre Pompidou, Berlinische Galerie Museum for Contemporary Art, Museum Ludwig, Cologne and the Short Film Festival Oberhausen. In 2014 he was awarded with the “Paula Modersohn-Becker Jubilee Award”.
Niklas Goldbach has been a visual artist-in-residence at Villa Aurora in early 2017. During his fellowship he started filming for “1550 San Remo Drive”.
www.niklasgoldbach.de
"Off to Moscow!" – Travel reports from exile | International Symposion
Literaturhaus Berlin (Fasanenstraße 23 10719 Berlin)
Information
Friday, December 8
10.00 AM
Hermann Haarmann | Welcome and Introduction
10:15 AM
Anne Hartmann und Inka Zahn | Phasen der Rußlandfaszination von 1917 bis 1937. Die deutschen und französischen „Pilger zum Roten Stern“
11:00 AM
Michael David-Fox | Soviet Approaches to Foreign and Domestic Intellectuals: From the Smenovekhovtsy to the Fellow-Travelers
12:00 PM
Christoph Hesse | Veränderte Perspektive: Der Emigrant als Handlungsreisender – Ervin Sinkós Roman eines Romans
3:00 PM
Michael Rohrwasser | Im Zeichen von Bündnispolitik und Volksfront – der Moskauer Schriftstellerkongreß und seine deutschen Gäste
4:00 PM
Falko Schmieder | „Dreams of a better life“: Ernst Blochs Weltflucht im Exil
5:00 PM
Manfred Jendryschik | „Totgesagt“. Berichte über das Exil in der Sowjetunion in DDR-Verlagen
6:00 PM
Hermann Beyer | Lesung von ausgewählten Reiseberichten
Saturday, December 9
10:00 AM
Die große Kontroverse: André Gide, Retour de l‘U.R.S.S. / Lion Feuchtwanger, Moskau 1937 - Thesen von Ian Wallace, Statements von Inka Zahn und Anne Hartmann
12:00 PM
Podiumsdiskussion mit Michael David-Fox, Reinhard Müller und Wilfried F. Schoeller, Moderation: Michael Rohrwasser | „Die revolutionäre Versuchung: Westliche Intellektuelle und die Sowjetunion der 1920er/30er Jahren“
End of Symposion around 2:00 PM
Participants
Michael David-Fox, Professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Department of History at George¬town University, and Scholarly Supervisor of the Centre for the History and Sociology of World War II at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. He is winner of the 2016 Historia Nova Prize for Best Book on Russian Intellectual and Cultural History. Showcasing the Great Experiment: Cul-tural Diplomacy and Western Visitors to Soviet Russia, 1921-1941, Oxford: University Press (2011). The Soviet Gulag: Evidence, Interpretation, and Comparison (2016).
Hermann Haarmann, Dr. phil., habil., Seniorprofessor am Institut für Publizistik- und Kommunikati-onswissenschaft und zugleich Direktor des Instituts für Kommunikationsgeschichte und angewandte Kulturwissenschaften der FU Berlin, Lehre und For-schung zum deutschen Exil 1933-1945, Hrsg. der Schriftenreihe kommunikation & kultur und der akte exil. neue folge. Zuletzt: Briefe an Bertolt Brecht im Exil 1993-1949, Hrsg. mit Christoph Hesse, 3 Bde., Berlin: De Gruyter 2014.
Anne Hartmann, Dr. phil., Wissenschaftliche Mitar-beiterin am Seminar für Slavistik/Lot¬mann-Institut für russische Kultur der Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Forschungsschwerpunkte: Sowjetische ,Leitkultur’ in der SBZ und frühen DDR; Gulag-Literatur und das Konzept der ,Perekovka‘; deutsche Autoren und westliche Intellektuelle im sowjetischen Exil. Zuletzt erschienen: „Ich kam, ich sah, ich werde schreiben.“ Lion Feuchtwanger in Moskau 1937. Eine Dokumentation (akte exil. neue folge, hrsg. von Hermann Haarmann, Bd. 1). Göttingen: Wallstein 2017.
Christoph Hesse, Dr. phil., Film- und Literaturwis-senschaftler, Mitarbeiter des Instituts für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft an der FU Berlin. Aktuelles Projekt: Edition des Briefwechsels zwischen Hermann Borchardt und George Grosz. Jüngste. Veröffentlichung: Briefe an Bertolt Brecht im Exil 1933-1949, Hrsg. (zusammen mit Hermann Haarmann), 3 Bde., Berlin: De Gruyter 2014; Filmexil Sowjetunion. Deutsche Emigranten in der sowjetischen Filmproduktion der 1930er und 1940er Jahre, München: et+k 2017.
Manfred Jendryschik, freier Schriftsteller, von 1990 bis 1996 Kulturdezernent der Stadt Dessau. Seit 1996 Mitglied des PEN-Zentrums Deutschland. Seit 2010 Co-Herausgeber der Edition Cornelius des Projekte-Verlag Cornelius in Halle.
Reinhard Müller, 1991-2008 wiss. Mitarbeiter am Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung. Publikationen u.a.: Hrsg., Die Säuberung, Hamburg: Rowohlt 1991; Menschenfalle Moskau – Exil und stalinistische Verfolgung, Hamburg: Hamburger Edition 2001; Herbert Wehner. Moskau 1937, Hamburg: Hamburger Edition 2004; (zus. mit Bettina Nir-Vired, Irina Sherbakova, Olga Reznikova), Carola Neher. Ein Jahrhundertschicksal, Berlin: Lukas 2016.
Michael Rohrwasser, Dr. phil., habil., Professor für Neuere deutsche Literatur an der Universität Wien; zahlreiche Gastprofessuren u.a. in Stanford, Colum-bus/USA, und Warschau. Arbeitsschwerpunkte: Spät¬romantik, Psychoanalyse-Literatur-Film, Wiener Moderne, Weimarer Republik, Exilliteratur, Kalter Krieg, DDR-Literatur. Publikationen (Auswahl): Die Literatur der Exkommunisten. Der Stalinismus und die Renegaten, Stuttgart: Metzler 1991, Kalter Krieg in Österreich. Literatur – Kunst - Kultur und der Kalte Krieg, Hrsg. zusammen mit Michael Hansel, Wien 2010.
Falko Schmieder, PD Dr., Kulturwissenschaftler, Privatdozent am Institut für Kulturwissenschaft der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin und wissenschaftli-cher Mitarbeiter am Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung Berlin. Studium der Kommunika-tions- und Politikwissenschaft und Soziologie. Ver-öffentlichungen (Auswahl): Freud und Adorno. Zur Urgeschichte der Moderne, hrsg. (mit Christiane Kirchhoff, Berlin: Kadmos 2014; Begriffsgeschichte und historische Semantik. Ein kritisches Kompen-dium, Berlin: Suhrkamp 2016 (zusammen mit Ernst Müller).
Wilfried F. Schoeller, freier Schriftsteller, Literatur-kritiker sowie Honorarprofessor für die Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts, Literaturkritik und Medien an der Universität Bremen. Veröffentlichungen (Auswahl): Nach Berlin! Reportagen, Frankfurt/Main: Schöffling 1999; Deutschland vor Ort. Geschichte, Mythen, Erinnerungen, München: dtv 2011; Alfred Döblin: Eine Biographie, München: Carl Hanser 2011; Franz Marc. Eine Biographie, München: Carl Hanser 2016.
Inka Zahn, Dr. phil., Kulturwissenschaftlerin, Be-auftragte für Sprachkurse und stellv. Institutsleiterin am Goethe Institut Boston und später am Goethe Institut Brüssel, derzeit als Lehrkraft für Deutsch als Fremdsprache am Goethe Institut in Rotterdam. Promovierte zum Thema Reise als Begegnung mit dem Anderen? Französische Reiseberichte über Moskau in der Zwischenkriegszeit, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2008; Mitherausgeberin des Sammelbandes Berlin, Paris, Moskau. Reiseliteraturen und die Metropolen, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2005.
Ian Wallace, Emeritus Professor of German an der University of Bath, UK. Studium in Oxford, Tü-bingen und Heidelberg. Lehr- und Forschungstätig-keit in den USA, Schottland und England. Schwer-punkte: DDR-Literatur und Exil. Gründer und Herausgeber der Zeitschrift GDR Monitor (1979-2008). Präsident der International Feuchtwanger Society seit 2001. 2018 erscheint sein Aufsatz über den Roman Jud Süß in der englischen Übersetzung von Edwin und Wilma Muir.
Partners
An event of the Institute for Communication History of Freie Universität Berlin and Literaturhaus Berlin
Supported by Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung, Freie Universität Berlin and Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V.
Eclectic Salon #4: Sounds Genius - Vivaldi's Four Seasons
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
Program
Concerto, No 1 in E-major, Op. 8, RV 269 “La primavera” (Spring)
Conerto, No 2 in G-minor, Op. 8 RV 315, “L’estate” (Summer)
Concerto Nr. 3 in F-minor, Op. 8, RV 293 “L’autunno (Autumn)
Concerto Nr. 4 in F-minor Op. 8, RV 297 “L’inverno” (Winter)