Monthly Dispatch
Monatsbrief der VILLA ROMANA – Mai 2023
It is not for nothing that the month of May starts with a day of rest and celebration of labour for all workers in the world. The fifth month of the year is a time of “maying” – a month where so much happens, and so many new paths and moods open and sprawl.
In respect of all the workers and their political achievements around the planet, the month here at Villa Romana started with a cognizant reflection of the incredible work done by the team of Villa Romana. Again, a huge gratitude to Ala, Victor, Claudia, and all the people and collaborators who supported the unfolding of this new chapter in Villa Romana, in particular to Elena Micheli, who finished her internship here and has now started to collaborate with us on a more regular basis; to Giulia del Piero, who keeps coming in for technical advice and precious professional help; to our friends Ilaria and Carola from Radio Papesse, who are continuously nourishing the everyday of the life in the Villa as an act of conviviality and reciprocity.
May arrived with more than precious gifts, a newborn, a population of honorable bees, and - last but not least! - a key central new figure of the team who joined us: Mistura Allison, who finally moved to the Villa as Curator and Project Coordinator, and immediately started to animate the life of the office and of the house with greater inspiration and brilliance.
Many seeds have been planted, and our colleague Marleen Boschen came back to Florence to keep working with us. Lots of rain fell from the sky to bless our planting actions, but the cold kept surprising us in a season that somehow was supposedly not expected by most of us.
The team, the fellows, and all collaborators saw the finalization of some structural renovation works in the house, and participated in the preparations for the official visit of our Board and of our Board of Trustees on May 19th. The day was terribly wet and chilly, but the productive and focused working time, the mood – and the food! – made it remarkable and memorable. We give thanks for the dedication and reliability that the members of the Board showed to the institution of Villa Romana, which could never exist without their huge amount of support and labour. We are also delighted to have hosted so many supporters and friends of Villa Romana, members of the Kuratorium, and wish to share our gratitude publicly.
The following day, on May 20th, we hosted the jury session of the Villa Romana Prize 2024, in the presence of this years’ jurors: Lerato Shadi and Paz Guevara. Stay tuned, we will announce the names of the fellows who will move to the Villa next year very soon!
The House of Mending, Troubling, and Repairing is working industriously at the moment, and putting the basis for a lot of long-term projects to develop. For that we are also learning from the zeal and diligence of some new members of the Villa’s ecosystem and crew, who really have a lot to teach us: four beehives have been installed in the southern and calmer part of our garden, each of them being inhabited and cared by more than 60.000 bees. Despite the rain and the hail of some of the days of the last weeks, the growing population of circa 250.000 bees has been incessantly working, focusing on their peculiar practices of making home and immediately starting pollinating the plants and flowers of our garden. We invite you to come here and meet them, to pay homage to the fundamental and essential work they perform to restore our eco-systems and to contribute to the endangered biodiversity of our planet.
Last Saturday we finally performed the first activation of our programme focused on practices of decanonisation and repairing, with a wonderful performative lecture by Rosalyn D’Mello. Navigating us through the visionary and disrupting prose of Clarice Lispector and her masterpiece Água Viva, reasoning about time and temporality and the conundrums of its transformation by the act of becoming mother and mothering, Rosalyn accompanied us in the process of making bread, the poie bread from the region where she comes from in Goa. We are thankful for all the wonderful people that came here to share stories, hands and time together, it was a very special moment of learning!
The month is ending on the notes of two legends of Calypso music: the ones by Lord Kitchener and by Great Honourable Lord Pretender, who have been played, listened and analysed together with our fellow Samuel Baah Kortey and some of our special regulars, under the sky of these first nights of summer in the garden of the Villa.
SAVE THE DATE:
SAVE THE DATE: a lot is coming up, but here are some dates for you to remember and to
note in your calendars
Our Tuesday Knowledge Sharing Session: follow us on Instagram to get updates and
get in touch with us for inquiries. We are happy to receive proposals, and also to
share with you details of the schedule of the night. Often, we are also cooking, and
there are a couple of incredible chefs in the house!
On June 8 th we are inaugurating the grilling season, hosting Giacomo Zaganelli and
activating that social sculpture that is his majestic barbeque designed for Villa
Romana few years ago.
On June 12 th Villa Romana hosts Scripta – En plein air. At 6:30 pm, in our garden,
Ilenia Caleo will present her book Performance, materia, affetti. Una cartografia
femminista, an exploration of the creative force that bodies express. That force
which is not recognized by political theory and that theater studies are not managing
to recount. Scripta is a project designed and realised by Associazione Scripta. L’arte a
parole, with the support of Città di Firenze Cultura, the contribution of Libreria Brac,
in collaboration with Villa Romana, The Recovery Plan – Black History Month Florence
and La città dei lettori.
Next June 21 st , on the occasion of Midsummer Night, we are hosting an incredible
constellation of stars of experimental music and contemporary art. On the longest
day of light and shortest night of the year, we are willing to perform an elegy to the
Sun, embracing it in its the highest position in the sky. The very cosmological
celebrations of this summer solstice will see the participation of: our fellow Jessica
Ekomane, who will perform with Afrorack, and of special guest Lamin Fofana, who
will crown his short-term residency at Villa Romana with a special sonic intervention.
The evening is organized in collaboration with OOH-sounds and NUB Project Space.
Between June 28th and July 1 st , Villa Romana is hosting the seventh edition of ADCF,
the African Diaspora Cinema Festival. Founded and directed by Fide Dayo, ADCF is a
non-profit organisation that has remained dedicated to the promotion of Black
stories and images through the exhibition of film, visual art, and other creative
expression. Since 2013, ADCF attracts filmmakers, artists, and unique craftspeople
from over 50 countries across the globe to the city of Florence annually, and
presents a selection of the hundreds of high-quality Black films received from the
U.S., Africa, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, the South Pacific, Canada, and
Asia.
Next July 21 st : We open our garden to the city of Florence and to its visitors to
celebrate ‘A Vulata, a traditional carnivalesque festivity originally from Calabria, also
known as the feast of the fools. Many former fellows of Villa Romana and many
special friends will be with us, convened and curated by Villa Romana and Antonia Alampi.
A night of radical conviviality, where music, food, performativity and dancing will be
enacted as collective emancipatory exercises to weave together historical and
traditional knowledge from the South of Italy with the engaged and the experimental
artistic research currently unfolding in the house.
The summer season is exploding, and our programme is in full gears! Visit us!
Press here to read the past dispaches.
The Villa Romana e.V. maintains the Villa Romana and the Villa Romana Prize.
The main sponsor is the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Other sponsors are the Deutsche Bank Foundation, the BAO Foundation as well as - project related - numerous private individuals, companies and foundations from all over the world.
Villa Romana e.V. is supported by:
