07/2024

Monthly Dispatch

by Elena Agudio

‍

Over the past weeks, as temperatures climbed and the cicadas' chorus grew louder, life within the house continued to evolve. The summer school holidays filled the domestic space with the movement of children. Their voices echoed through the rooms and winding corridors, eventually blending with the leaves and shadows of the garden.

The Villa Romana Fellows experienced some of their most productive days since arriving. Some dedicated themselves to intense work at Fondazione il Bisonte, the historic printmaking laboratory and workshop founded in 1959, with which Villa Romana partnered last year. Others split their time between the studio and the garden. Several of these new works will be showcased during our Open Studios on September 21-22. We promise some moving surprises for those who join us for this event!

Currently, we are gathering energy and archival materials for this Sunday August 11, when Villa Romana will open its doors to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Florence's liberation from Nazi fascism. This significant date will be commemorated through remembering, listening, reading, and debating. Reading the harrowing accounts by the art historian Hanna Kiel of the battle of Fiesole in August 1944, we are faced with the unimaginable cruelty inflicted by the German occupiers. In a letter to Kiel, the German consul at the time, Gerhard Wolf, wrote: "Experience has taught me that the beast slumbers in all peoples; the only question is whether to awaken it and how far to open its cage." I am grateful to Brigitte Oetker for sharing this poignant passage from Kiel’s book with us a few months ago.

In times of war, we are sorrowful to witness the recurring pain inflicted on humanity and nature through violence. However, we draw strength from the courage and tenacity of people like Hanna Kiel, who, despite threats to her life, refused to leave her refuge and managed to save many lives. Within her limited means, she coped with tragedy and helped preserve both human lives and works of art. Hans Purmann, a friend of Kiel and the director of Villa Romana during those years, also found ways to protect artists at risk. This chapter of Villa Romana's history, with its complexities, is a legacy we embrace daily in our work here.

Reflecting on the past month, we are proud of the collective energy mobilised between Berlin and Florence. On the first Sunday of August, we concluded the second chapter of the exhibition Greater Than the Sum of Our Parts at the artist-run space after the butcher. The joy of collaborating with talented artists and colleagues is invaluable, and we remain mesmerised by the beautiful juxtapositions and echoes created in these chapters.

Thanks again to all the Fellows of 2022 and 2023: Neda Saeedi, Jasmina Metwaly, Alexander Skorobogatov, Haure Madjid, Diana Ejaita, Pınar Öğrenci, Samuel Baah Kortey, and Jessica Ekomane. We also express gratitude to Thomas Kilpper, the team of After the butcher, Ina Wutke for managing the project from Berlin, Cecilia Buffa for spatial strategies, and everyone who helped make this possible.

In Florence, on July 13, we held a participatory finissage of Trattoria Guaiana, featuring a special natural ice-cream-making session with physicist Pietro Centorrino - a modern-day Buontalenti. This event closed our series that explored the Medici family's colonial ambitions and their contemporary legacy. Shout outs to Niccolò Moronato, Alice Jasmine Crippa, chef Prince Asford, and our Fellows for their culinary-discursive participation and critical engagement throughout the project.

On July 12, we opened the exhibition Positioning Practices by the ISIA of Urbino, showcasing talented photography students grappling with Italy's colonial past. We launched their stunning print publication with talks led by scholar Angelica Pesarini and curator Matteo Lucchetti.

A significant moment in our program occurred during the third week of July, when we revisited last summer's Takeover - for and by children. After a year of experimenting with radical pedagogical practices, we gathered with artist Maicyra Leão and children to explore creating an assembly as a 'consultative body' within Villa Romana. More updates on this initiative will follow soon.

We concluded the month by announcing and celebrating the Villa Romana Fellows of 2025: Sajan Vazhakaparambil Kolavan Kalyanikutty Mani, Elia Nurvista, Chaveli Sifre, and Raul Walch! We are excited about our jurors' selections and look forward to the creative vibrancy they will bring to Villa Romana.

The House for Mending, Troubling, and Repairing is thriving and preparing for new projects, ideas, and events. Stay tuned this August and remember to visit for our biggest event of the year, the Open Studios, in September!

Psst: a big surprise is coming up in two weeks. Check out www.villaromana.org after August 15 :)

PEPITE - Sonic Nuggets
from the Radio Papesse's Archive

Yearning for the sea, yearning for islands. But not all islands are the same. In this August nugget, Irvic d'Olivier takes us to one of the most unusual islands in the Mediterranean, home to one of Europe's most active volcanoes. Intense underground magmatic activity confirms its dangerousness. Several times a day, several times an hour, the crater breathes, charges and explodes. A metaphor for creation and destruction, the volcano forces us to face ourselves and our fears. And if volcanoes tell of uncontainable ancient movements, Stromboli, by Irvic d'Olivier is also a work from 10 years ago that retains its power and fascination every day. We never get tired of listening to it.

Evergreen Recipes

‍by Claudia Fromm

Refreshing syrup of Melissa officinalis or lemon balm

Lemon balm syrup is an excellent thirst-quencher on hot summer days. The essential oils of lemon balm provide an extraordinary freshness and a very intense fragrance reminiscent of citrus fruits, and its healing properties have been known since antiquity. Even Hildegard von Bingen attributed lemon balm's power to treat headaches and rheumatic pains, and described it as a plant that combines the efficacy of 15 different herbs. She recommended the plant to strengthen the spleen and heart and to instil joy and cheerfulness in life.

Ingredients:
approx. 30 lemon balm stalks
100 g citric acid
3 organic lemons
3 litres of water
2 kg sugar

Preparation:

Pour the lemon balm into a tall, large glass jar. Wash the lemons in hot water, dry them well and cut them into slices. Add them to the lemon balm in the glass together with the citric acid and top up with water. Close the jar and let the mixture stand for 24 hours. The next day, strain the mixture and heat it with the sugar until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid is almost boiling. Pour the finished syrup into still-warm sterilised bottles and close them immediately. It is a versatile syrup that can be used to flavour water, to make cocktails and ice lollies, but also to flavour recipes.

‍