Archive for the 'Museums & exhibitions' Category

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) was one of those photographers who made pictures into a form of global communication long before television. From the moment Henri Cartier-Bresson, at age 24, bought his first Leica he found the instrument that served him for the rest of his life. This small handheld Leica, a novelty at the time, made it easy to capture subjects on the move and to adjust the camera to the point of view of the user. Anybody who has seen film of Cartier-Bresson at work will understand how important movement was, Cartier-Bresson himself once said in an interview:

“To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event, as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression. I believe that through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us which can mould us, but which can also be affected by us. A balance must be established between these two worlds- the one inside us and the one outside us. As the result of a constant reciprocal process, both these worlds come to form a single one. And it is this world that we must communicate. But this takes care only of the content of the picture. For me, content cannot be separated from form. By form, I mean the rigorous organization of the interplay of surfaces, lines and values. It is in this organization alone that our conceptions and emotions become concrete and communicable. In photography, visual organization can stem only from a developed instinct. ” It was this instinct combined with his former training as a painter that made him the master of the decisive moment. “It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy”.

A few years ago a group of friends decided to honor the late Henri Cartier-Bresson by asking intellectuals, writers, critics, photographers or even just friends to choose their favorite image of the master and to comment on their image experience. What started off as a project to honor the evocative master of photography became an exhibition of a dialogue between Cartier-Bresson’s photographic works and the response his work challenges in influential intellectuals and friends such as Pierre Alechinsky, Ernst Gombrich, Leonardo Sciascia, Ferdinando Scianna, Aulenti, Balthus, Baricco, Cioran, Jarmusch, Kundera, Miller, Steinberg and Varda.

The result is a selection of 44 unique photographic masterpieces and comments – “Immagini  e parole” (Images and Words) – that offer the viewer the unique opportunity to contemplate on Cartier-Bresson’s images and also explore several issues related to his photography and photography in general: its communicative power, its stylistic features like the geometry of a perfect shot, its role in society, etc. The exhibition, organized by the Provincial Administration as part of Project ABC Art Beauty Culture, opened January 20 and will continue until May 6, 2012.

 
Henri Cartier-Bresson – Immagini  e parole – till May 6, 2012
Palazzo Incontro
Via dei Prefetti 22
00186 Roma
Opening hours 10-19 (closed Monday), Exhibition admission ticket: € 6 (€4 reduced)
Web: http://www.fandangoincontro.it/

From the early beginnings Tivoli, in the Tiburtini hills 30 km east of Rome, has always been a favorite of the high and mighty, like the poet Horatio, politicians and emperors including Augustus, Trajan, and Hadrian.

Traces of settlement in the area go as far back as the 13 century BC. In Etruscan times Tivoli was at the heart of the cult of the Tiburtine Sibyl, whom Roman scholar Varro calls ‘Albunea’, the water nymph, dressed in animal skins carrying the fascista bundle of rods. The sibylline oracle prophesied to Emperor Augustus his future and the future of the Roman Empire. It must have been auspicious, because in the years following Augustus erected several temples in the name of the god Apollo and became the care taker of the famous sibylline books. The Temple of the Sibyl, modeled after the ancient Greek temples, can still be visited.

Another place worth visiting is Emperor Hadrian’s villa or Villa Adriana. The villa became Hadrian’s preferred residence when in Rome, probably due to the fact that adopted son of Trajan had poor relations with the senate and the Roman elite after an incident at the beginning of his reign, when four respected Roman Senators were assassinated. Hadrian denied any wrong doing and even swore a public oath that he was not responsible, but his relations with the senate never recovered from the affair.

Construction on Hadrian’s masterpiece began around 117 AD and ended in 138 AD, the year of his death. Hadrian, an avid traveler, recreated in the villa the architectural highlights of his travels to Italy, Greece, Turkey and Egypt. Built as a private summer retreat its vast grounds covered an area of 120 hectares (300 acres). To get an idea about the grandeur of the place go and see the small scale model on the grounds itself about 100 meters from the entrance.

After being sacked by Totila, the villa experienced many centuries of oblivion that lasted till the end of the fifteenth century, when Pope Alexander VI sponsored the first excavations. During the excavations several statues of seated Musae were discovered, now in the Prado Museum in Madrid. From the sixteenth century on Villa Adriana has been continuously excavated in search of treasures of which many ended up in private collections.

All what is left now of the theaters, baths, temples, fountains, gardens, and canals are ruins, but impressive ones nonetheless. So much so that in 1999 UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Monument.
The Maritime Theatre, Court of the Libraries, Latin and Greek Libraries, Golden Square, Canopus and Small and Large Thermae are longtime favorites. Even though sometimes it is very hard to get an idea about the grand appearance of the villa at the time, due to the loss of all the upper parts of the buildings, with a little help of your imagination you will discover that there is so much more to see than meets the eye.

How to arrive:

Underground line B, Ponte Mammolo stop
Bus Cotral direction Via Prenestina, stops at 300 m. from the site
Bus Cotral direction Via Tiburtina, stops at 1 km from the site
Bus Cotral direction Tivoli/highway A24, stops at 1 km from the site
Train FS stop at Tivoli’s station and bus line CAT number 4, stops at 300 m. from the site

Ticket Office, Information and reservations:

Phone: (0039) 0774 530 203
Phone: (0039) 0774 382 733
Phone: (0039) 06 3265 9653

The exhibition, the unrepeatable 60’s, in Museo Fondazione Roma, Palazzo Cipolla pays tribute to a unique artistic era, the period that starts in the late fifties until the beginning of the seventies. On show are 170 art works that illustrate the cultural interaction and vibe between Rome and Milan in the 1960′s as two poles of opposing and complementary creativity.

Both Milan and Rome were at the creative epicenter of new experiments and research, linking the visual arts with other areas of culture, such as literature, theater, journalism, photography, news, design and fashion.
While in Rome the artists became the driving force of the national art scene, Milan had a more international perspective being at the forefront of the International avant-garde art movement. Special homage is paid to Studio Marconi, one of the leading innovation centers of the day. Studio Marconi opened her doors in 1965 in Milan and became soon one of the favorite meeting places of cultural and artistic personalities in those years.

At the end of the exhibition there is a special section where the audio-visual media screen will help the visitor through the projection of images, videos, unreleased footage and interviews. Like this the visitor can catch a glimpse the effervescent climate of the 60’s, an era we long for, every once and while.

GLI IRRIPETIBILI ANNI ’60, Un dialogo tra Roma e Milano.
From the 10th of May until 31st July (it will then move to Palazzo Reale in Milan, from 7th September to 20th November).

Fondazione Roma Museo – Via del Corso, 320 – Roma
Web: www.fondazioneromamuseo.it