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 Winter 2011
Dear Friends,
 am pleased to share with you this winter 2011 edition of BF News. On September 12, we began the 2011/2012 academic year. Over the course of this year, we expect to welcome 47 Fellows, who will come to the Liguria Study Center from countries such as Iceland, Lebanon, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Romania.
We are currently accepting applications for the next academic year, fall 2012 through spring 2013, on our website at www.bfny.org. January 15 is the deadline to submit an application for the fall 2012 semester and April 15 for spring 2013. This will be our third year using our online application system, and we are now reaching people in more countries than ever before. We received about 400 applications last year and expect that number to continue to rise.
This past September, as you may know, we hosted a weekend in Bogliasco to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the Liguria Study Center; I invite you to take a look at the photos from this event, which can now be viewed on our website. This was the first time that Trustees, supporters, and members of our community came together with the Fellows in residence at the Study Center. As you will see, it was an especially festive occasion!
You should soon be receiving the Bogliasco Foundation's annual appeal letter inviting you to make a gift. As always, we are very grateful for a donation, which is tax-deductible, in any amount. For every gift of $100 or more, we will be glad to send you a 2012 calendar that contains beautiful images of Bogliasco and the Liguria region.
With warmest wishes for the holiday season,
James S. Harrison
President
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Two video exhibitions by Mieke Bal ('11) premiered this October: Towards the Other at the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, Russia and Landscapes of Madness at the Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova in Turku, Finland.
Hanneke Beaumont ('98) was awarded the XXIst Premio Petrasanta e la Versilia nel Mondo on December 11 by the City of Pietrasanta through the cultural circle "Fratelli Rosselli". This award honors the artist who most contributed through his/her art to the international recognition of Pietrasanta.
 The work of Stefania Beretta ('09) is currently part of a group show in Hamburg, Germany, Eyes on Paris: Paris in Photobooks from 1890 to the Present, on view at the Deichtorhallen di Amburgo through January 8.
The Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy reopened for the season on October 8 with a solo show by Lorna Bieber ('02). Fractured Narratives: Works by Lorna Bieber includes the artist's large-scale photographs and wall-sized montages and will be on view through January 8.
On September 9, the Merkin Concert Hall in New York City presented the world premiere of Sailors & Dreamers, a song cycle for tenor, strings, piano and woodwinds by Chester Biscardi ('99, '05).
This December, the Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn hosted the world premiere of the 60-minute solo, SEQUEL, a collaboration between choreographer Jonah Bokaer ('11) and video installation artist Irit Batsry.
Elena Bonora's ('10) book about the 16th century plot to kill the Pope, Roma 1564: La congiura contro il papa, was published in October by Laterza.
Art in Cameroon: Sculptural Dialogues, an exhibition at the Neuberger Museum of Art curated by Marie-Thérèse Brincard ('10) was reviewed by Holland Cotter in the New York Times. Click here to read the article.
Hedwig Brouckaert ('10) participated in Re/pro/ducing Complexity, a three person show about drawing which is on view at the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Belgium through January 8.
 Le Theatre de L'opsis in Montreal presented Les Enfants de la pleine Lune, a play by Emanuelle delle Piane ('07, '11), in October and November.
In September, Ellen Driscoll ('07) floated three artificial islands made of recycled plastic down the Providence River in Rhode Island as part of her installation, Distant Mirrors.
Lynn Freed ('99, '11) received a 2011 PEN/O. Henry Award for her short story, "Sunshine", which first appeared in Narrative in Spring 2010.
A series of collages that Lynda Frese ('99) used in her book, Pacha Mama: earth realm, were shown in an exhibition at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette, Louisiana in November.
On September 22, Giuseppe Gavazza's ('06, '11) multidisciplinary project Il paese dei nidi won a Premio Cultura di Gestione, awarded by Federculture.
Pulsations: Monographie: Cathering Gfeller, Catherine Gfeller's ('00) solo show, is currently on view through January 1 at the Centre Régional d'Art Contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon in Sète, France.
 The exhibition Gone Fishing by artist Maria Elena Gonzalez ('11) was presented in Basel at the Galerie Gisèle Linder from November through December.
The 2011 Cultural Prize of the City of Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland was presented on October 28 to the artist Alexander Hahn ('97, 06).
Closer to My Own Life, the newest work by composer John Harbison ('98), was premiered on October 16 by the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
 Terpsichore, a public art installation by Mags Harries ('10) and Lajos Heder ('10) opened in Phoenix, Arizona in September. In addition, their installation Terpsichore for Kansas City opened on December 2 in Kansas City, Missouri and features music composed by Bogliasco Fellow Roberta Vacca ('10).
Barbara and Friedemann Hellwig ('09) recently published their book, Joachim Tielke: Kunstvolle Musikinstrumente des Barock, about the Hamburg instrument maker, Joachim Tielke.
Lewis Hyde ('10) published two essays on medieval Chinese Oxherding poems for the most recent issue of Parnassus: Poetry in Review.
On October 10, the Da Capo Chamber Players premiered Stephen Jaffe's ('10) Cameo in New York City.
In September, the BMW Guggenheim Lab presented a live-cinema performance, Public Notice: An Exhausted Film, directed, produced and written by Cheryl Kaplan ('09) and Ofri Cnaani, featuring original music by Bogliasco Fellow Kathryn Alexander ('09).
The Philadelphia Classical Symphony premiered Jan Krzywicki's ('10) Concertino Bucolico on October 23. His CD, ALCHEMY is scheduled to be released this month by Albany Records.
 Two works by Herbert Leibowitz ('10) were published this fall. His essay, "John Matthias' Music Poems", was included in the book, The Salt Companion to John Matthias. In November, Farrar, Straus & Giroux published the biography, "Something Urgent I have to Say to You": The Life and Works of William Carlos Williams.
In November, Mark Lilla ('10) gave the key note address at the conference, "Ideological Storms: Intellectuals and the Totalitarian Temptation", at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC. His lecture was influenced by work done at the Liguria Study Center on his in-progress book.
An exhibition by Melissa Meyer ('05), "New Paintings and Watercolors", showed at Lennon, Weinberg, Inc. in New York City from September through October.
Ann Patchett ('00) recently opened Parnassus Books, a bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee. Click here to read the article in The New York Times.
 Rona Pondick ('99) showed a room of sculptures and drawings at Sonnabend Gallery in November, which was a preview of a larger exhibition Rona will have at the Gallery next year.
In December, Barbara Pumhosel ('10) received the "Anerkennungspreis für Literatur 2011 des Landes NIEDERÖSTERREICH" award in Austria for a book of poetry she published in December 2009.
Riproduzione Riservata, an exhibition of the most recent works by Mario Raciti ('03, '06), was on view from October through December at Galleria Rafanelli in Genoa. Click here to read a write up of the exhibition.
Nancy Savoca's ('10) Union Square, a feature-length film starring Mira Sorvino, Tammy Blanchard and Patti LuPone, premiered to sold out audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and was selected to be the closing night film at the Austin Film Festival. It is scheduled to be released theatrically early next year.
In October, Casa del Cinema in Rome celebrated the DVD release of È tuo il mio ultimo respiro?, a new documentary film by Claudio Serughetti ('11).
 In September, Atlanta-based choreographer Lauri Stallings ('11) was nominated for the Rome Prize. Lauri's nomination is unique because this award has never before been given in the field of dance. Nominees are currently interviewing with the jury and winners will be selected in late April.
A solo exhibition of works by Francesco Stefanini, ('98) opened in September at the Palazzo della Loggia Noale, near Venice.
 Terese Svoboda's ('11) fifth novel, Bohemian Girl, was published in September by University of Nebraska Press. Click here to read a review.
Savina Tarsitano ('05) was selected to participate in the 54th Biennale of Venice, Padiglione Italia/Calabria for her work Coswig. In addition, The Lights of the Stones, a collaborative exhibition of Savina's photographs and the poetry of Bogliasco Fellow Dinu Flamand ('05) opened in Brussels on October 5 at Edelman - The Centre in Brussels. Pasquale Pesce, BF Director of Development and Planning, attended and spoke at the opening reception. To view pictures from this event, click here.
James Tatum's ('02, '10) African American Writers and Classical Tradition, co-authored with William W. Cook, won a 2011 American Book Award in October.
This December, the Construction Company in New York City presented Luis Tentindo's ('11) Would You Still Be You?, which featured excerpts from his in-progress evening-length puppet-theater piece.
In September, Monique Truong's ('05) monthly online food column entitled "Ravenous" appeared in the New York Times' T Magazine.
The University of Puerto Rico has commissioned La Mina de Oro, an opera by Carlos Alberto Vázquez ('07), to be premiered in September 2013 for the Universidad de Puerto Rico 110th Anniversary.
 Ancient Psyche, an exhibition of new works by Mark Weiss ('98), showed at The Pomona Cultural Center in New York from September through November.
On November 16, Pete Wyer ('11) presented excerpts from his opera-in-progress Numinous City at the Rubin Museum in New York City.
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We are pleased to announce a new feature of BF News! In every Winter issue, we will put the spotlight on a Bogliasco Fellow or collaboration between Fellows. For our inaugural Spotlight, we are delighted to present this interview with Hadley Arnold ('00). Hadley and Peter Arnold were Bogliasco Fellows in the spring of 2000, and, since then, their research on contemporary and historic water infrastructures of the west has continued to attract widespread attention.
Hadley, you were a Bogliasco Fellow in Architecture, and Peter was a Fellow in Visual Arts. At the Study Center, you worked together on the project, The Architecture of Water in the West: A Photographic Survey. Could you explain how this project came about?
 Hadley: The project began through Peter's eyes. As a westerner (he's from Colorado), a designer, and a photographer, he was always drawn to exploring the western landscape, how it had been altered by man at a vast scale and at the same time how that vast altering has remained largely invisible to most westerners. By focusing on the water infrastructures of the west and how they make city-making possible, historically and today, he was undertaking design inquiry at a vast scale and the research was, by necessity, physical, visual, and geographically vast.
For me, the project came about as a companion, literally, to Peter's photographic explorations. If I were going to spend time with my husband when he spent extended periods of time photographing remote landscapes involving long car rides and many hours behind a large-format camera, I wanted to see and learn from his inquiry. As a transplant from the humid east, I felt I needed to understand a landscape and its workings that were, truthfully, totally alien to me. Peter literally opened my eyes to the distinctive character of the arid American west as an engineered landscape.
Even though we both were trained as architects in Los Angeles - a fabrication made entirely possible by engineering half a continent to support it - no one had ever made the connection to us during our education as designers: that all architectures and urbanisms of the west were dependent on this monumental, and yet fragile and overtaxed, network of engineering systems. So while Peter photographed, I walked and read and tried to understand what we were seeing, how it was produced, what it had spawned, and what it might require in terms of design response and a new kind of design education.
Can you explain how and why the Arid Land Institute was founded at Woodbury University?
Hadley: During our Bogliasco Fellowships in 2000, Peter digitally processed his negatives and prepared them for large-scale printing, and I read and wrote short texts to accompany the photographs. On return to the US, we were invited to mount an exhibition at a small private university in Burbank - Woodbury. That exhibition resulted in an invitation to teach seminars and design studios focusing on dry lands design. In 2008, we proposed that those courses form the basis of a multidisciplinary education, research, and outreach institute at Woodbury. ALI received major funding from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2009.
ALI brings people and ideas together across multiple disciplines, which is a similar concept to the Bogliasco Foundation's Fellowship program. We believe that bringing together artists and scholars from all of the humanistic disciplines, and from all over the world, in a stimulating environment creates synergy, and that Bogliasco Fellows continue to benefit from this experience long after they leave the Liguria Study Center. Have you observed a similar phenomenon at the Arid Land Institute?
Hadley: There is nothing we would like more than to create a forum for ongoing exchange between designers, scientists, artists, policy makers, historians - anyone thinking in new ways (or recovered old ways) about life in dry lands, globally. The closest we have come to attaining the incredibly fertile cross-pollination that is at the heart of the Bogliasco Fellowships is in our public programming. In 2010-2011, the seminar and lecture series, "Excavating Innovation," included a photographer, two historians, an urban planner, and three architects. Study sites were in the Americas, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and South Asia. Next year, we hope to host a series called, "Reading the West," in which we bring together archeologists, geographers, film makers, literary critics, anthropologists, photographers, and writers to look at the western landscape as a shaper of meaning and identity. These programs won't realize their full potential, however, until we can create an ongoing community of fellows, with opportunity for independent research and sustained dialog; we are striving to fund such a program.
Could you please tell us if there are ways that your Bogliasco Fellowships continue to influence you today?
Hadley: The Bogliasco Foundation's enduring impact on us was its commitment to excellence. Along with one or two other periods of work in our lives - working for Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects and for Kurt Forster, Tom Reese, and Julia Bloomfield at the Getty Center at its inception, for example - our time as Bogliasco Fellows was so memorable for its high standards: the beauty of the environment; the extraordinary level of accomplishment of the community of Fellows; the dialogue at mealtimes; the impeccable professionalism and hospitality of the staff; the rigorous respect for quiet, fertile creative time. This remains our overarching goal: to build ALI as a resource and a forum that fosters excellence.
Thank you to Hadley and Peter for being a part of our Fellows Spotlight! To read the full interview, click here.
ABOUT THE FELLOWS
Hadley and Peter Arnold are founding co-directors of the Arid Land Institute (ALI) at Woodbury University in Burbank, California. They have taught multiple history and theory seminars on landscape, infrastructure and urbanism in arid lands, and their design work has been recognized by Los Angeles's MAK Center for Art and Architecture; the LA Architecture + Design Museum, and the AIA/LA.
The Arid Land Institute is a self-sustaining education, research and outreach center of Woodbury University dedicated to issues of aridity, climate change and the design of the built environment. The ALI brings people and ideas together across multiple disciplines to shape answers and envision a future in which landscapes and communities are resilient - environmentally, culturally and economically - in the face of regional aridity.
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