Articles by: Letizia Airos soria

  • Art & Culture

    Renato Miracco, a Question of Energy



    We arrive at his office, climbing the old staircase of the small building on Park Avenue. Before reaching his floor, we hear voices and ringing telephones. Movement. The door to the office is open. His assistant welcomes us. Renato Miracco, the recently-appointed director of the Institute, gives instructions, asks for information, and takes three telephone calls in three minutes. He speaks with colleagues, looks up, greets us.

    There is something about the place that we don’t recognize, even though we have visited here many times. The surroundings and the furniture are more or less the same, with a few additions. Some flowers, some fruit.

    There is a different sense of the space that is responsible for this feeling. A well thought-out design plan. The desk is not as far away as before; we don’t have to walk the length of the room to reach it. Positioned near the door, the desk fully participates in the work life of the man who sits at it. In front of him, two sofas seem to be engaged in conversation. Books, flowers, oranges in a bowl add a natural touch.

    Space and time, energy and organization – these are the common threads that recur throughout the interview. What follows is an exchange of impressions and opinions with the new director, a week after his appointment.

    He introduces himself with a few words. “This is a role that I wanted, one that I sought after. I like it. I believe that here there are opportunities to accomplish so much and I am a person who wants to do it. Besides that, I already have experience with American culture. I have organized many important shows in the U.S.”

    Born in 1953, Miracco is a professor, curator, and art historian, and in fact he has curated many significant Italian art exhibits all over the world on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (in London for the Tate Modern, for example) and institutions such as the Estorick Collection of London and the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, as well as the Camera dei Deputati in Rome. Miracco is an expert on Italian Futurism and the so-called Arte Informale, as well as a devoted connoisseur of Fontana, Burri and the “Roman School,” and artists such as Afro, Mirko, and Morandi.

    Within a few days the president of the republic, Giorgio Napolitano, will visit the United States. Miracco tells us, “I am preparing for two important events, one in Washington and the other in New York. We will have him visit New York cultural institutions. He will then see the personality of this world. But I also want to organize an event with Italian artists living in New York, which has never been done.”

    Miracco favors bringing Italian exhibits and events to the U.S. and vice versa. “New York is important. We don’t have to focus our attention only on Italian culture, but we should also promote shows that Americans want to bring to Italy. We have to facilitate this type of exchange in both senses. It would great if in the process we helped to export American culture. It is important for the flows to be liberated. In this way, we succeed in strengthening culture in both countries. One of the exhibitions that I would like to produce, in fact, has specifically to do with fluidity. I would like to recount how Italians came to America and how Americans went to Italy.”

    We recall that the great artist Gino Marotta said that all too frequently critics and politicians are guilty of “cultural illiteracy,” and that they have enabled the “cultural colonization” perpetrated by the U.S., thereby forgetting how much Italy has taught the American people. “But I don’t like the term colonization,” adds Miracco. “I would rather speak of importation and promotion of both cultures. We have to look to reestablish connections. For example, Frank Stella has an archive of Futurist art; let’s put it on display. Marinetti donated his archive to Yale; let’s pull it out. And I know for sure that Ezra Pound had an archive at Yale that is not only artistic, but is also a significant representation of another world. A successful shift is needed to create these links. Recapturing the cultural attention of the two countries – I strongly believe in that.”

    But is the newly-appointed director aware of the problems he will encounter? “I am a workaholic. I work twelve hours a day. I instituted the concept of regular a staff meetings, which during Furio Colombo’s tenure did not exist. These are weekly meetings that I attend. The Consulate and the Cultural Institute will work together to promote their events. Where I can lend a hand I will and they will do the same for me.”

    Optimizing the resources within diplomatic channels to attain efficiency is not easy. The new director is one of the supporters of the so-called “interconnectedness.” It means working together to execute important events and splitting the costs among various institutions. “Interconnectedness, however, must be dynamic. It must relate back to everyday reality. I am organizing shows that will tour the entire U.S. There will be a thorough attention to detail, even if there are many organizational difficulties to resolve. I believe, though, in the will to do something, to get something accomplished. Everything will be done voluntarily and as quickly as possible.”

    For Miracco, “Reinvention is a must. To create a new lifeblood requires a profound humility. Every one of us must be able to listen and everyone must go beyond self-promotion. Let’s get together. I organized a meeting in Washington fifteen days ago to do just that. One must listen and act decisively. There are certainly drawbacks to each side and I’ve only been here a week, but let’s see what I can accomplish.”

    With reference to information and organization of events, Miracco is perfectly clear: “One of the first things we must do is create a comprehensive mailing list. I tell everyone who is interested: you must get in touch with us. We will sponsor events with American organizations and institutions. We want the American public. Shortly, I will schedule a time to meet with journalists. But I don’t just want to introduce and promote myself. I want advice, even if I am the first one who has been proactive.”

    He continues, “On the one hand, we need to establish relationships with leaders in the world of culture, for example the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan, and the Whitney. Then we need to create a board to find funding to restore the Institute’s headquarters on Park Avenue. I would create an association, the Italian Friends of Culture, because this building absolutely needs to be restored. We will reach out to Bracco, Ferragamo, and others. We have to put this mechanism to work.”

    One of the biggest challenges that the representatives of the Italian cultural and economic world in New York face is intensely and frequently disorganized activity. There are too many events to organize and oversee simultaneously.

    “Organization. The problem is that we do not need to promote ourselves, but rather our country. It is not necessary to think that we must get there first, because in the end we will go nowhere. And we will come in last. We have to put systems in place. It seems banal and trite, but we must work together to put systems in place. The individual road will not take us anywhere. I, for one, am capable and have the ability to cultivate relationships, but working alone I will get nowhere.”

    An example? “With the consul general, we are trying to understand how we can help each other. We have in fact, looked at our schedules this week. It turns out that there are some events that we could have both attended, but then because of the way things go, we were expected elsewhere. One of us could have attended in the other’s stead. We could take turns. Interconnectedness is a gift that no single person possesses. It is important to know what others are doing. This problem also applies to the inner workings of the Institute. I have three colleagues who manage three different sectors. One doesn’t know the events that the other is planning. The problem seems very straightforward, but it is necessary to change the mentality of the individuals involved. This will be my ultimate challenge.”

    We finally ask for a realistic prediction of what Miracco expects to successfully accomplish over the next two years. “Two years is a very short time, but I can give a conservative estimate. I would like to create the foundation for the organization Friends of Italy and begin to change the image of this place. Tomorrow I am buying plants, and paying for them out of my own pocket…. There is still a lot of work to be done in this sense. There are rooms to be arranged; the bath was covered in dust and full of big boxes. I can’t work in this kind of environment. I developed an allergy to the dust. And then I also have the opportunity to bring in 60 works of art to create the Institute’s collection.”

    He adds, “But it is also a question of energy. If one looks someone in the eyes, it stimulates the other’s energy, and that is how progress is made. We can do things if this place becomes energetic. I feel rage when I see what the Spanish Cultural Institute next door is doing and how it is different. They are perfect…for me this is huge. I adore the Spaniards’ energy, and theirs is a fantastic institute. But here, there is an energetic depression and we cannot permit it. New York is the cultural capital of the world and we must do what we can to move forward. Culture is not only large-scale events to be executed. At times, we rest on our laurels. Yes, we have Raffaello, Tiziano...but culture is also all about systems, synergy. Everything is culture. We can’t live only for big events. Even the small-scale is part of the system and it is part of the culture. There are for example so many great artists who are unknown..... I can name a few such as Renato D'Agostino and Antonio Pio Saracino. They are a few of the many artists we cannot forget. They would allow us to make a wonderful impression abroad. But we don’t know them, neither in Italy nor in America. This should not be possible… These are small signs, slight indications that one thing is born from another and we see what we can do.”

    We leave the director to his work. We have taken note of several ingredients in his recipe for success: careful management of space and time in order to work more efficiently and to promote awareness; increased energy; and above all, organization to ensure that our culture will be part of the future of New York.

    (Translated by Giulia Prestia)
  • Art & Culture

    La Spartenza – Unforgettable Suitcases



    In the theater, the atmosphere was different; it had an air of intimacy, of home. The audience’s eyes were not focused on the stage, which remained dark and almost seemed to be a neglected bystander. Sitting on chairs arranged in a semi-circle, the audience instead watched the actors up-close, heard them breathe, and entered into their family.

     

    It seemed that in the end, the set (and the challenges it presented) only amplified the poignancy and immediacy of the performance. Had the audience seen the play from a different vantage point, it would have been a significantly less intense experience. “There was a huge piano on the stage, we didn’t have room, there were problems with the lighting.... So we then got off the stage and redesigned everything,” the director explained. “This work has already been presented in venues logistically very different from each other.”

     

    As part of the family, the audience then witnessed the life of Tommaso Bordonaro as it was told from the point of view of his loved ones. The powerful episodes were taken from his autobiography published by Einaudi in 1990. One by one, each voice recreated selected scenes from the life story of a peasant farmer from Bolognetta (in the province of Palermo) who immigrated to America at the beginning of the 20th century and settled in Garfield, New Jersey.

     

    A product of the old world, Tommaso is courageous, straightforward, poor, yet extremely proud. The talented actors (Salvina Ghetta, Giuseppe Di Dato, Giuseppe Esposto, Maria Angela Ignoti, Concetta Lala, Valeria Lo Bue, and Rosario Mercante) conveyed moments of desperation, joy, and hope with great passion. The deft dramaturgy and adaptation of the book by Nicola Grato, Santo Lombino, and Enzo Toto were very effective and moving.

     

    The set consisted of a simple concept: about a dozen or so old suitcase and a few common but significant objects. Under the skillfully-designed lights, there was a colander, a “modern” projector with original images from the Bordonaro family, plastic flowers, a book, a small plastic Statue of Liberty. These everyday, minimalist objects characterize and represent the lives of farmers who emigrated from Southern Italy. Within the setting of the play, these humble objects are charged with great emotional and symbolic value.

     

    Tommaso Bordonaro (1909-2000) was a nearly illiterate farmer-shepherd who emigrated from Bolognetta to America with his wife and children. From his diary we learn that he was forced to take on menial jobs including digging graves, and finally became a dockworker in New Jersey. Despite the hardships he was always able to support his family honestly. Bordonaro is a truly complex, multi-faceted man who is brought to life and portrayed with exquisite detail and whose life is intensified and complimented by the images projected onto a panel created by suitcases.

     

    The actors lean, stand, move, and climb on the suitcases; they use them as a bed, chair, table, and a vase for flowers. At times the suitcases seem to become actors themselves. Suitcases fastened with heavy twine are transformed into an emblem of a world that is still not understood, and at times is trivialized and disregarded.

     

    One particularly astute choice was not to have Tommaso speak directly, but rather have his loved ones become the spokespersons for his history. His life stories transcend the boundaries of personal events and become profoundly cultural and universal experiences. Various voices remember him, interpret him, speak about him, and have a dialog with him. The family epic is set at a huge imaginary table complete with dates, events, marriages, family quarrels, births, and deaths.

     

    The description of the family’s boat trip is also touching. The audience learns about the family members’ hopes, dreams, disillusionments, and the first concept of America that they bring with them on board; we later learn about the storm at sea and the ocean that separates them.

     

    In the theater, the atmosphere builds in front of a warm fire that rewards us with wisdom taken from the pages of an immigrant’s life. It feels as though we are in an ancient home one night, in the company of an elder who narrates stories and experiences that cannot be lost. The elder’s words are like precious gemstones, telling of a future that cannot be forgotten and which will amount to precious memories.

     

    The language that Tommaso uses is extraordinarily effective. As Natalia Ginzburg wrote in the preface of his autobiography, the book is in Sicilian-American, but its attraction lies in “the style in which it is written, the natural and rocky truth of the writing, similar to a mountain path that one climbs and descends surrounded by rocks.” The words are quintessentially Sicilian and American, mangled and abbreviated, and there are many verbs that appear in the infinitive form; deciphering the language requires a bit of concentration at first.

     

    Bordonaro masterfully communicates his fundamental qualities, much in the same way our elders share their stories, even if it is unfortunately an oral tradition. We refer again to the remarkable preface by Ginzburg to illustrate the spirit with which Tommaso left his homeland: “The departure is painful and heavy, especially the separation from loving parents. But the voyage by boat, despite the seasickness, is in many ways magnificent as is the arrival in America and meeting relatives for the first time who are festive and hospitable. But the first years are nevertheless difficult.”

     

    There are sad events in Bordonaro’s life, truly bitter twists of fate, and yet an earnest and sincere optimism permeates his worldview. The most moving aspect of the play from beginning to end is that Bordonaro succeeded in constructing his life with his own hands, “homemade” in the best sense, but far from his roots. As an old man, shortly before his death, he muses, “I am satisfied with my life, a little good, a little bad....”

     

    Those of us who write about the play based on Bordonaro’s own words have the awareness of having witnessed a rare event. We also have one regret that becomes a question: Why were there only a few spectators at the Italian Academy on Monday night?

     

    (Translated by Giulia Prestia)
  • Art & Culture

    "La Spartenza". Valigie da non dimenticare


    Nel teatro dell’Italian Academy della Columbia University lunedi scorso si respirava un’aria diversa. Intima, di casa. Gli occhi dello spettatore non erano rivolti al palco, che rimaneva di lato, oscuro, quasi come un testimone assonnato.  Su sedie disposte in semicerchio, il pubblico questa volta seguiva gli attori molto da vicino, sentiva il loro respiro, entrava in famiglia.



    Si perchè, secondo noi, le difficoltà di allestimento che la troupe di La Spartenza - diretto da Enzo Toto -  ci ha raccontato, hanno finito con l’aiutare il pathos dello spettacolo. Seguendolo ad una diversa distanza fisica lo avremmo vissuto meno intensamente. “C’era un enorme pianoforte sul palco, non avevamo spazio, c’erano problemi per le luci... Siamo quindi scesi in platea e abbiamo ridisegnato tutto” ci ha detto il regista “del resto questo lavoro ha gia visto rappresentazioni in posti logisticamente molto diversi tra loro”.



    In famiglia dunque, gli spettatori sono entrati tra le mura della vita di Tommaso Bordonaro,  per apprendere dai suoi cari  sequenze molto intense della sua autobiografia pubblicata da Einaudi nel 1990.

    Di voce in voce ecco, nella Casa Italiana della Columbia University, snocciolato il racconto autobiografico di un contadino di Bolognetta, in provincia di Palermo, emigrato nella prima metà del novecento in America, a Garfield - New Jersey.



    Un mondo antico, coraggioso, schietto, quello di Tommaso, povero ma estremamente dignitoso. I giovani attori del Teatro del Baglio di Vìllafrati, Salvina Ghetta, Giuseppe Di Dato, Giuseppe Esposto, Maria Angela Ignoti, Concetta Lala, Valeria Lo Bue, Rosario Mercante hanno veicolato con grande intensità momenti di disperazione, di gioia, di speranza.  Molto efficaci la drammaturgia e l’adattamento del libro di Nicola Grato, Santo Lombino ed Enzo Toto.



    E’ stata scelta una scenografia semplice, una diecina di valige antiche, pochi oggetti significativi ma di uso comune. Sotto delle luci utilizzate sapientemente poi uno scolapasta, un proiettore “moderno” con immagini originali della famiglia di Bordonaro, dei fiori di plastica, un libro, una statuetta della libertà in plastica…Oggetti semplici ed essenziali, come sono quelli della vita dei nostri contadini emigrati dal sud Italia. Pochi, poveri, ma spesso utili e con un grande valore evocativo.



    Tommaso Bordonaro (1909 -2000) contadino-pastore semianalfabeta di Bolognetta emigrato, con moglie e figli, in America si racconta nel suo diario. Costretto a fare lavori molto umili - anche il becchino-  diviene alla fine scaricatore di carbone nel New Jersey e cresce, sia pure tra gli stenti, onestamente la sua famiglia.

    Un vero puzzle in movimento quello ricostruito in teatro, cesellato nei particolari, esaltato da immagini proettate su un panello creato da semplici valigie.



    Gli attori poggiano, alzano, spostano, montano, smontano, utlizzano come letto, come sedia, tavolo, vaso per fiori, le valigie che diventano a loro volta quasi-attori.  Valigie  allacciate magari con lo spago, emblema di un mondo ancora poco conosciuto, a volte disconosciuto, negato.



    Particolarmente acuta la scelta di non far mai parlare direttamente Tommaso, sono i suoi cari i portavoce di un patrimonio che diventa da personale  profondamente culturale, rivolto a tutti. Diverse voci lo ricordano, lo interpretano, fanno parlare di lui, dialogano con lui.  Apparecchiano su di un’enorme tavola immaginaria l’epopea di una famiglia, tra date, eventi, matrimoni, liti familiari, morti, aborti, nascite.



    Particolare la descrizione del viaggio in nave della famiglia, insieme speranze,  sogni, disillusioni, i primi sapori de l’America già a bordo e poi a tempesta, il mare che li separa.

    In teatro l’atmosfera cresce davanti ad un fuoco che scalda e regala pagine di vita della saggezza di un emigrante. E ci sente come in un’antica casa, una sera, davanti ad un anziano che racconta, testimone da non perdere, per non dimenticare. Le sue parole come pietre preziose, pietre miliari di un futuro che non può dimenticare, “rigordi” preziosi.



    Straordinariamente efficace in teatro il linguaggio che usa Tommaso. Come ha scritto la Ginzburg, il libro è  in siculo-americano, ma attrae “il modo in cui è scritto, la verità naturale e rocciosa di questa scrittura rocciosa, simile a un sentiero di montagna che sale e scende in mezzo alle pietre”

    Sicilianismi, americanismi, parole deformate, abbreviazioni,  verbi all’infinito possono richiedere un po’ più di concentrazione, ma solo all’inzio.



    Bordonaro comunica abilmente  nella sua essenzialità. Cosi come fanno spesso nei loro racconti i nostri vecchi anche se in una trasmissione che purtroppo spesso è solo orale.

    Citiamo ancora un brano della stupenda introduzione della Ginzburg per rendere lo spirito con cui Tommaso ha lasciato la sua terra:  “La spartenza è ‘dolorosa e straziale’ per la separazione dagli ‘amorosi genitori’, ma il viaggio della nave, nonostante il mal di mare, è in qualche modo magnifico e magnifico l’arrivo in America e l’incontro con parenti mai visti prima, festosi e ospitali. Però i primi anni sono quanto mai difficili”.



    Vicende dolorosissime quelle della vita di Bordonaro, veri macigni riservati dal destino, eppure un intenso ottimismo permanea la sua esistenza. E colpisce fino alla fine la dimensione che si è riuscito a costruire con i suoi calli,  “casalinga”, mai lontana dalle sue radici. Anziano, poco prima di morire appunta “sono soddisfatto della mia vita passata, un po’ male un po’ bene …”.



    E per noi che scriviamo dello spettacolo nato dalle sue parole, la consapevolezza di aver assistito ad una rappresentazione rara ed un unico rammarico che diventa una domanda: ma perchè quel lunedì sera all’Italian Academy gli spettatori erano pochissimi?


     
  • Art & Culture

    Claudio Angelini. Promoter of the Italian Culture


    It’s the third time that Oggi7 visits Claudio Angelini in his Park Avenue office. We came to see him at the beginning of his term four years ago, to hear about his plans for the Istituto, and again two years later for a first assessment. This time we come here to say goodbye and to collect some reflections and opinions on a term that, even through difficult times, has seen this New York institution change tremendously.


    Angelini, writer, poet (he debuted at a very young age thanks to Salvatore Quasimodo) and journalist, began working at RAI at the same time as Bruno Vespa, Nuccio Fava and Paolo Fraiese. At the height of his career he knew how to translate his lengthy experience as an able communicator to his new appointment as Director of the Istituto. In our first visit, his enthusiasm was apparent from the way he presented his program; the enthusiasm of a man strongly tied to Italian culture: organizer of literary prizes, curator of cultural programs and well-known news anchor as well as correspondent from the Quirinale. Two years later, when we met Angelini again, we found him still productive, but more aware of the difficulties, particularly the bureaucratic ones, that he’s had to deal with. He couldn’t accomplish all that he had planned and promised.


    During his term he’s had his share of criticism. In particular regarding some events he organized. Nevertheless, considered the means available to him, we must recognize how much this man has given to this institution he led. First of all the office on Park Avenue, which no longer has the decaying air it had four years ago. Of course the newly appointed director had dreamed of a renovation plan that was more ambitious, and would involve famous architects: “I tried to get some financing. There was a project with the Public Works Superintendency of Lazio. The basement was going to be turned into a theater with a concert hall…we got a lot less accomplished. We cleaned up the headquarters…we redid the lighting, created an art gallery, renovated the basement which now houses the offices of IACE and the Dante Alighieri…The attic is still left, where I would have liked to dig out another room…I now place my faith in my successor. You need ‘papers’, authorizations…it’s not just a problem of funds.”


    In this third meeting we expected a final assessment from him, instead we realize that in some ways Angelini leaves an “open balance” – open to his successor, but also to the effort that he now intends to put forth directly in the world of Italian culture in the United States.


    Affable as always he welcomes us into an understated yet well renovated office. On a table we notice his book translated into English: The Mystery of Simonetta (Guernica Editions). “It’s the story of a woman in Florence during the 1400s at the court of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Simonetta is the woman painted by Botticelli in Primavera and The Birth of Venus. I recreated the setting of renaissance Florence and the character of this woman, who some thought was an angel, others a courtesan. But then why can’t those two things go together? It was a biographical and ambient research that lasted some years. Piero Bargellini (remembered as the mayor of Florence during the flood) a great popularizer of the history of Florence, introduced me to Simonetta and I read some of her writings. The mystery surrounding her fascinated me. Officially she died of natural causes, but I discovered that the doctors that had visited her did not agree with this diagnosis. And so I created a real thriller around it. But I can’t reveal now if I have her being murdered…”


    The decision to translate it into English was made because of the cultural curiosity Americans have towards the Italian Renaissance: “ I think it is a novel that appeals to them. Of course the translation – as is often the case – had its difficulties, but thanks to Marta King and the excellent editing of Michael Moore we succeeded.”


    The promotion of Italian culture in English and now the Italian language. Angelini will be the new president of New York’s Dante Alighieri. As they say – another hot potato… “I have some clear ideas, but I have to go to Rome to discuss the funding,” he says about it. In a recent article Magdi Allam spoke of the “suicide of Italian”, caused by the few “pennies given to the Società Dante Alighieri (only 1.7 million euro, compared to the 300 million that the Goethe Institut receives from Germany)”. In the Corriere della Sera he wrote: “it’s ridiculous that we are shocked if the European Union and the United Nations declassify Italian”.


    On this subject Angelini’s opinions is realistic: “Europe is hard terrain. There are cultural jealousies in all families. Italy has to set its sights on larger continents like Asia, China, and the two Americas. In particular in the United States, where Italian is so loved. It has it is more widely studied that German or French. And it is third after English and Spanish. I’m not suggesting it’s going to be second or first, but it should maintain its spot. The Dante Alighieri can help this by increasing the diffusion of the language. But it is necessary that the US offices coordinate with each other and there need to be funds to boost the courses. I also want to create an arrangement and work with IACE (Italian American Committee on Education). And I would like to use Italian writers, maybe with the help of the Istituto di Cultura, to hold special Italian lessons. Italian courses give back. Of course there needs to be some initial funding.  A sum of about…60, 70 thousand dollars.


    Along with that, Angelini will return to RAI as a journalist. He has always said with pride how he organized the Istituto di Cultura as a newsroom. “I nominated “managing editors” of sorts. Actually I wouldn’t want them to sue the journalist order…one for art and cinema (Amelia Carpenito Antonucci), one for literary events (Renata Sperandio) and one for music and theater (Silvia Giampaola). I leave a great Istituto among women, like New York itself, a city fascinated by Italian culture. It doesn’t just love the Florentine renaissance, but also our way of life, our music, our new cinema…there is fertile ground, we just opened it up. But I have to say one thing, when I was a director at RAI I had an administrative executive follow me all the time… in the Istituti there should be an analogous figure that reports to the director. I know that in the so-called Baccini reform it was proposed…As far as administrative and bureaucratic matters I think the Istituti have to further themselves more from the consulates. I say it even though I personally was lucky to find the two consul generals I worked with.”


    The funds that should have arrived thanks to an elusive “targeted legislation” never arrived. The Istituto still managed to have its renaissance. “Yes, those funds were diverted who knows where…I think it’s the one thing that really upset me. But in the meanwhile beyond working with our own resources to renovate we intensified our collaboration and the synergy with other centers of Italian culture. The Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, the Italian Academy at Columbia University, the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute at CUNY, since Anthony Tamburri took over. The mission of the Istituto di Cultura is also that of sorting, involving, spreading the culture and in the second half of my term I think we accomplished this. We worked with museums, universities, American organizations. I already prepared some events for the future…I’m not leaving a void. I am happy with the nomination of my successor. Renato Miracco has already collaborated with the Istituto, and there are events that we organized together to maintain continuity.”


    So, more projects. Good luck then, Director…

     

    Oggi7 - America Oggi

     
  • Facts & Stories

    “Istituto virtuale” o virtuali “di chiara fama”?


    Vogliamo parlare di ricerca anche in questo magazine. Ma vogliamo farlo portando all’attenzione dei media e dei lettori della Rete qualcosa di diverso dal solito. Abbiamo scelto di raccogliere infatti nel mondo della ricerca italiana in America testimonianze, proposte e provocazioni che spesso hanno difficoltà ad arrivare a destinazione, nonostante siano molto accreditate le persone che le avanzano.

    Cominciamo quindi con Prof. Michele Pagano* (Ellen and Gerald Ritter Professor of Oncology presso il Cancer Institute della New York University School of Medicine) che occupa una posizione di rilievo nella nell'ambiente scentifico americano da anni.


    E la prima domanda che gli porgiamo la rivolgeremo un po’ a tutti.

    Ha senso parlare di “fuga dei cervelli”?


    “In un mondo globalizzato non ha molto significato se vivi e lavori in un Paese o in un altro. Essere italiano e fare lo scienziato negli USA non è diverso da essere brasiliano e fare il calciatore nell’Inter (anche se i calciatori di seria A di solito guadagnano di più).”

    Ma la ricerca biomedica è indubbiamente migliore negli USA. No?


    “Non c’è dubbio che l’Italia investe molto poco nella ricerca biomedica, sia di base che quella collegata alla clinica. In più non possiede un’industria che guadagna dalla ricerca, e non mi riferisco solo a quella innovativa, ma anche alla produzione di tutto quello che serve per la ricerca. Per cui la ricerca rappresenta in Italia solo una spesa, ma nessuna entrata. Però è anche sbagliato generalizzare affermando che la ricerca in USA sia sempre di qualità.”


    Perché?



    “E’ un’idea totalmente erronea che crea la nozione che se un ricercatore riesce a trovare lavoro in un’università degli Stati Uniti sia per definizione migliore di chi lavora in Italia.”

    Sembra che lei voglia sfatare un luogo comune….


    “Si, gli Stati Uniti sono enormi e hanno università prestigiose ma anche altre estremamente mediocri e spesso succede che scienziati di scarso valore trovino una collocazione in queste università di scarsa importanza. Io personalmente conosco tanti italiani, europei, asiatici, ecc. (ed americani, naturalmente) che fanno una ricerca assolutamente di seconda classe negli USA. Questi stessi italiani sono spesso il soggetto di mirabolanti articoli su giornali nazionali e telegiornali della RAI, solo perché svolgono un’attività all’estero, non perché stiano facendo qualcosa di particolarmente meritevole o interessante.”

    E’ una provocazione coraggiosa…


    “Si forse, a questo punto si potrebbe aprire un discorso sul desiderio di apparire nei media che spesso è inversamente proporzionale al valore scientifico dei suddetti ricercatori. O si potrebbe ricordare che per motivi storici (siamo stati dominati per secoli da straniere) e geografici (siamo un popolo di mare e marinai…) gli italiani sono esterofili. O invece si potrebbe (e forse si dovrebbe) aprire un discorso sulla stampa, incluso quella scientifica, e come questa propaghi informazioni sbagliate e spesso non verificate su scoperte scientifiche e su chi le ottiene.”

    Informazione sensazionale quindi…


    ‘Malinformazione’ che allontana dai media italiani tanti ricercatori seri che avrebbero cose sensate da dire ma che hanno il terrore di essere confusi nel gruppo e banalizzati."



    Ma secondo lei esiste una forma di esterofilia scientifica    ?


    "Assolutamente! Pensi che il governo italiano offre da anni posizioni di professore (chiamate di ‘chiara fama’) ad italiani col solo di titolo di essere professori negli Stati Uniti, senza distinzione tra l’essere professore al Massachusetts Institute of Technology o alla Prairie View A&M University. Così, come paradosso, se uno non ha gli ‘amici’ giusti o il pedigree per diventare professore in una facoltà Italiana (e non è particolarmente brillante) potrà emigrare in una università sperduta nel centro degli Stati Uniti, fare carriera là (non è molto difficile, né molto lungo, dalla laurea ad Assistente può prendere dai 3 ai 5 anni) e rientrare in Italia come professore di ‘chiara fama’, ‘ex-cervello in fuga’.”



    Ma allora come possiamo migliorare la ricerca in Italia?


    “Tenendo conto della globalizzazione, io penso che si potrebbe (e si dovrebbe) creare un “Italian Biomedical Institute”, un “Istituto virtuale” che, sebbene italiano, comprenda ricercatori italiani sia in Italia che in USA (ed altre parti del mondo). Questa iniziativa di grande utilità e visibilità “sfrutterebbe” le avanzate infrastutture scientifiche che esistono in prestigiosi istituti americani e sarebbe assolutamente meno costosa di qualsiasi progetto che voglia creare un nuovo, tradizionale istituto di ricerca. Questo istituto virtuale verrebbe formalmente riconosciuto dalle università ospitanti (l’affiliazione o il gemellaggio formale di multiple università è un’operazione molto facile negli USA) e facilitare:

    1. Scambi tra USA e Italia di Know-how e Tecnologie Biomediche.


    2. Scambi tra USA e Italia di Brevetti nel campo biomedico.


    3. Periodi di preparazione ed aggiornamento in USA di Dottorandi, Post-Dottorandi e Ricercatori italiani.


    4. Raccolti di fondi per la ricerca sul cancro presso la comunità Italo-Americana, possibilmente con l‘aiuto delle ambasciate e consolati italiani in USA.”


    In questa intervista lei ha toccato dei punti cocenti e ha fornito delle idee controcorrente. Ma ha anche avanzato una proposta molto interessante… Però come si fa a creare questo “Istituto Virtuale”?


    “Io penso che con l’aiuto di validi elementi italiani (sottolineo, validi) presenti nelle università americane, il ministero dell’Università e Ricerca Italiano possa raggiungere questi obiettivi. Chiaramente c’è bisogno di un’interfaccia con un serio gruppo politico italiano che si impegni nel raggiungimento di questa comune iniziativa, la quale sarà di grossa utilità educativa, scientifica e, possibilmente finanziaria, e potrà rappresentare il fiore all’occhiello della ricerca biomedica italiana.”


    Apparentemente facile, vediamo se qualcuno prende in considerazione l’idea.




    * Michele Pagano

    Ellen and Gerald Ritter Professor of Oncology

    Director of the Growth Control Program

    New York University Cancer Institute

    New York University School of Medicine

    550 First Ave., MSB 599

    New York, NY 10016

    Email: [email protected]

    Website: http://www.med.nyu.edu/pathology/Pagano


    Michele Pagano, M.D.

    Ellen and Gerald Ritter Professor of Oncology

    Department of Pathology and Cancer Institute


    Dr. Pagano, an internationally recognized molecular and cell biologist, studies the cell division cycle and how the deregulation of this process contributes to malignant transformation. He received his doctorate in Medicine and a Specialty Diploma in Molecular Endocrinology in 1989 from the Federico II University in his native Napoli, Italy. He was subsequently a post-doctoral fellow at the EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany (1990-92) and a principal investigator and scientific co-founder of Mitotix Inc., Cambridge, MA (1992-96). He joined the NYU School of Medicine in September 1996 and has been the director of the Growth Control Program of the NYU Cancer Institute for the past seven years. He has received many prestigious grants and in 2006 obtained a MERIT Award from the National Cancer Institute in recognition of his outstanding achievements in cancer biology. Dr. Pagano serves as an Associate Editor of Cancer Research and Journal of Biological Chemistry and he is the founding Editor of Cell Division, a journal of the BioMed Central. He has published 127 leading papers and has been invited to present seminars to more than 150 international conferences, universities or research institutions in the USA and abroad    .
  • Binary Data 1315_
    Op-Eds

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    ... as a tool to enable people to collaborate in the creation and exchange of information.



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  • Art & Culture

    A rebel, between past and future


    ... But his are thoughts of freedom, memories, acknowledgements, and reflections. He wants to talk about the past, the future, everything. Maybe even the Universe.


    Aldo is like this, every time you meet him he manages to sweep you away. He involves you. A retrospective on Aldo will be held in a few days in Lucca, a very important first in Italy. I contacted him to get his impressions on his return to his origins, the city where he spent his infancy and adolescence. I try to grasp his feelings, emotions and above all his recollections. It is like an overflowing river. It’s impossible to embank him, you follow him and you become a stone being slammed from one bank to the other.


    And yet there is something more profound that goes beyond his way of communicating, his American being but also his indissoluble ties to Italy. His artistic and human path is a burning fire of constant rebellion. He’s a man ready to feel - not just artistically - the responsibility to contest those that which others know only to accept.


    “My goal is the masses; I look for simultaneity...for me humanity is sharing, giving of my personal experiences to others. One might say, ‘I own a Van Gogh,’ but I’d like to also say that even those who have nothing, share similar experiences.  The same courage, the same tormented heart, the same human concept that anyone else may share.”


    His has been a life linked to four cities: Syracuse, Lucca, New York and Cambridge. Son of a Brazilian father and an Italian mother, he was born in Syracuse, New York in 1930, and at 18 months he was taken to Lucca, where he began his artistic studies, but war interrupted his life. He was close to death at least two times: during the bombing of Lucca and soon after in the fields when the S.S. arrived.


    In 1945 he returned to Syracuse where he attended university. In 1959 he moved to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, organized an underground movement called “Group Center,” and became the leader of a group of counter-culture artists. He opened the first experimental film theatre, the Gate Theatre, and with German artist Otto Piene, the Black Gate Theatre for live multimedia performances. At the beginning of the 60’s he began “the Black Film Series” and “Black TV” (now at the Museum of Modern Art), which won at the Oberhausen Festival. Since 1974, Aldo has been a Fellow at CAVS at MIT.


    Aldo’s personality is multifaceted. He is an intense writer of prose and poetry. The abrasive witness and peace activist of our times tells me that in the past few years he has dedicated more time to his writing activities as an artistic outlet. Among his latest accomplishments was the Exhibit in Berlin No Art! Show and his digital film LISTEN, which won the Howl Festival 2004 in New York, the New England Experimental Film Festival, and the Syracuse International Film Festival.


    Aldo is to some an agitating figure of the 60s and 70s, yet to others, a soothsayer. He puts forth political and social themes in his art: often-uncomfortable themes spanning from the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, to black youth, to the Vietnam War, to Italian-American issues, and civil rights.


    He has no brakes. He explores new technologies and makes experimental videos. He works directly on film with chemical agents and inks, he scratches them, and inserts commercial footage. “I used media as a social reaction against those who didn’t consider media as an art form. No gallery or museum in New York in 1967 would have given importance to a low quality VHS tape.”


    When Tambellini picked up an amateur video camera, he intuitively realized he had a cheap, immediate, powerful tool in his hands. And everywhere in his films was the color black.  “Black to me is like a beginning - a beginning of what it wants to be rather than what it does not want to be. I don’t mean black as a tradition or non-tradition in painting, nor as having anything to do with pigment, nor as an opposition to color. As I am working and exploring black in different dimensions, I’m definitely more and more convinced that black is actually the beginning of everything. Black gets rid of historical definitions. Black is a state of being, both blind and more aware. Black is oneness with birth. Black is within totality, the oneness of all. Black is the expansion of consciousness in all directions. Blackness is the beginning of the re-sensitizing of human beings. I strongly believe in the words ‘black power’ as a powerful message, for it destroys the old notion of western man, and by destroying that notion it also destroys traditional concepts of art.”


    Memories of war permeate his whole life, personal and artistic - and even here, “black” appears….”The jeeps came down from the mountains; there were black Americans who came to liberate us. Only their commanding officers were white. Maybe this is the reason why I am one of the few Italian-Americans involved with blacks.”

    Curious and immersed in the future, but always holding onto a thread of the past, Tambellini narrates his memories as events as though they’ve just happened. Lucca unleashes on a non-stop emotional trip through his memories. Events of thirty or sixty years ago come to life. Memories of the art school where he made a fresco with images of the city. Memories of his military service and the first protests in which he took part. Memories of his mother, who was destroyed psychologically by the war, becoming more distant and fragile, to whom Aldo says he owes his artistic beginnings. Memories of that brother so different from him who used to attended fascist meetings. “I used to refuse to go, I was a lively child, I was only calm when I used to draw or paint.”


    Proud of his Italian Culture, Aldo talks about how critical his foundation was, steeped in the classics, which he brought with him to America. “Dante was critical in my formation.” But with anger he insists that the media overshadows the image of the Italian-American. “When I returned to the United States I represented “Art” and the Italian culture to many, but now, however, it’s not the same. Italian-Americans are best known for their money, pizza and spaghetti, but never for their culture.”


    “I respect people who are involved and militant, not those who think that nothing will ever change. Culture is important in keeping a connection with one’s roots, but Italian-Americans have not given serious consideration to this aspect, I must say, and no Italian-American has ever helped my art.”


    “I am one of the oldest, very few of us are left”...and then more memories and comments. Since his arrival in Syracuse, his works have dealt more with blacks, and with world conflict still fresh in his mind, he captures the desperation in poor neighborhoods, where he finds yet another war - one on poverty. And this work becomes his door to the academy. “I went to the Museum of Fine Arts and I showed them my paintings. I was 17 years old and they told me ‘you should be teaching here.’ I became a teacher with my broken English. It was my first job. Then someone spoke to me about a group of artists who sublet a loft on Salina Street called Vedet. They were all much older than I was, they used to go there to paint, and they accepted me among them. They were modern. I knew little then of Modern Art, like De Chirico and Boccioni, for example, because in Italy, reproductions of their works appeared in literature books. Marinetti was the Minister of Culture then.


    It’s now 2007 and his works will return to Italy thanks to the interest of a young researcher, Nicola Borelli and not because of a politician (the Minister of Culture). Moved by Tambellini’s work, and above all by the fact that Italy has known little of his work, the student of cinema has worked so lavishly to bring a consciousness of an artistic career which may have developed far away but, in a certain sense, still belongs to Italy. The program in Lucca is well articulated, the details of which may be found on the Lucca Film Festival (September 28-October 6) website http://www.vistanova.it.


    A question comes to mind: how much time must pass before Italians and Italian-Americans become conscious of (and begin to recognize) such important cultural phenomena as that of the creative works of Aldo Tambellini?   

     

     

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