LIVING ROOM, the digital programme dedicated to culture and contemporary art
LIVING ROOM
Manifattura Tabacchi’s Living Room dedicated to the discussion of culture and contemporary art goes digital.
6 weeks through the mediums of films, books, podcasts, poems, interviews and artistic contributions.
Monday 27 April, Manifattura Tabacchi launched its new interdisciplinary program, Living Room. Each week, on its Facebook and Instagram pages, Living Room features original cultural projects to explore a different themes, such as Space and Nature.
While we await meeting and speaking with artists, curators, and experts in person, the MT Living Room program has temporarily shifted its location from Manufattura’s basement to its digital platform, offering fresh food for thought on the unprecedented reality of daily life during the COVID-19 emergency while simultaneously providing an exposition space for all forms of cultural initiatives.
Every week it presents and examines a different concept — space, nature, time, body, identity, and community — through the mediums of films, books, podcasts, poems, interviews and artistic contributions, in a multidisciplinary approach and thanks to the participations of exceptional partners and guests.
If I woke up one day
every monday
Spatial elaborations from another world: six original artistic contributions using video, performance, sound, images to reexamine temporal and physical space.
if i woke up one day
What would happen if the world woke up one day in a different place than usual? If I woke up one day is a project in which six artists will be asked to experiment with new ways of thinking about space, both temporal and physical, in relation to the concept of limits. Videos, performances, sound, images: every week an original artistic contribution will be revealed. In addition to each new piece, supporting material and conversations about the artists’ work will be provided.
During this slow return to the world we once knew, life’s rhythm has become intertwined with time spent waiting. Meanwhile, we bake bread as if it were going out of style, like Penelope weaving her tapestry. It is a return to our roots: flour, water, and yeast (provided we can find these ingredients on raided supermarket shelves…). The 6-episode podcast series LIEVITI is a moment in which we can reflect upon today’s themes. Generative yeasts, nutrients, victuals, food for thought to consume slowly.
A succession of six themes – Space, Nature, Time, Body, Identity, and Community – and one work of art per episode will serve as catalysts to provoke reflections and questions of varying complexity: how does our perception of the present change when the mind cannot envision a future? How do our inner and outer landscapes change, what sounds do they make? How does our body change when influenced by digital platforms? Will we ever go back to holding hands? How do we perceive others in times of social austerity? Artists, experts, and researchers will join us in these discussions: we invite you to listen with us, to tune in to the frequencies of the world yet to come. We will be accompanied by the voices of Danilo Correale, Tiziano Bonini, Tehching (Sam) Hsieh, Vincenzo Estremo and others.
Radio Papesse is an online audio archive devoted to contemporary art; it is a place for the documentation and the articulation of a critical discourse around the visual arts and at the same time it is a radio platform dedicated to sound art, experimental sound and radiophonic production and distribution. It has embraced radio as a medium and as a language to communicate art making today. Founded in 2006, Radio Papesse is curated by Ilaria Gadenz and Carola Haupt and since 2011 it’s hosted by Villa Romana, in Florence.
POPOLI STREAMING ROOM
6 documentaries curated by Festival dei Popoli can be viewed for free on the CG Digital.it platform: 6 journeys outside the neighborhood, 6 personal stories with universal significance.
During these days of home isolation we find ourselves roaming from room to room, trying to devise a means of escape. One route is called ‘cinema’, a place where reality is reimagined, an instrument that allows us to take back our freedom, a means of reinforcing connections.
With this in mind, the Festival dei Popoli and CG Entertainment have decided to make their ‘room with a view’ in the large house built with the help of friends from Manifattura Tabacchi available to us all. The Popoli Streaming Room proposes 6 documentaries from Festival dei Popoli’s film archive.
Every Wednesday for six weeks (starting on 29 April) these documentaries will be available for viewing free of charge on the CG Digital.it platform for two days. 6 journeys outside the neighborhood, 6 stories of resilience, innovation, tenacity and courage, stories of personal struggle which acquire universal significance put forth for the common good.
the cinema programme
Librarti
6 book recommendations by Florentine publishing house Centro Di which focus on the analysis and the history of ‘libri d’artista’, in which works of art take the form of a book.
The artist’s book is a fascinating object, one that is much debated and subject of controversy because it is difficult to define and categorise.
What is the artist’s book? It is a book-piece, a non-book, an anti-book.
Perhaps it is better defined in terms of what it is not.
It is not an art book, or a book about art, but it is art. It is not a book which reproduces or analyses the work of an artist, and it is not a book illustrated by an artist. The artist’s book is not created to contain and transmit information: it exists as an expression of the artist’s research, the way in which the artist has decided to express him or herself for a certain oeuvre, as the achievement and expression of a specific idea.
As a work of art and artistic expression, the artist’s book is free of constrictions, rules, impositions. It can utilise any form of art: music, photography, graphic design, typography, and employ many different mediums. It can be read, looked at, touched, and framed. It can be visual, verbal, or both. The relationship between image and word need not follow a linear narrative: it can be imitative, satirical, or mutable.
The artist’s book therefore falls into an indefinable category which eludes classification’s ordinary schemes.
For these reasons, we can affirm that the artist’s book is the most democratic, independent, and direct artform in existence.
In contrast to a work of art which is a unique piece, the artist’s book can be reproduced in an unlimited number of copies: it is portable and affordable, both qualities which encourage easy access and fruibility and communicate in an immediate, intimate manner with the reader.
Centro Di publishing house was founded in Florence by Ferruccio and Alessandra Marchi in 1968. Today, Centro Di is directed by Ginevra Marchi and specialises in the publication of books on art history, architecture, and the decorative arts — including exhibition catalogues, monographs, conference proceedings, museum catalogues, and periodicals.
Until 2004, Centro Di was both a publishing house and bookstore. When the bookstore was closed an archive consisting of 20,000 titles published between the 1960s and 80s (including exhibition catalogs, artist’s books, and publications on specialized topics) was left behind.
In June 2018, Centro Di opened Gallibreria, a space where thematic exhibitions of books from various private collections are presented. Gallibreria’s inauguration featured an exhibition of artist’s books selected from the Centro Di archives and artist Maurizio Nannucci’s personal archive.
In 2018, with the collaboration of curators Alberto Salvadori and Giacomo Zaganelli, Centro Di created a new series of books dedicated to Italy, XXI. Guide d’artista.
Centro Di also publishes the following periodicals: Perspective (in collaboration with the Universities of Siena and Napoli); OPD Restauro, Opificio delle Pietre Dure’s annual bulletin; Mitteilungen des kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz by the German Institute of Art History in Florence; and the Rivista di Storia della Miniatura, the annual publication of the International Society of the the same name.
Space / giacomo zaganelli
nature / Maurizio Nannucci
time / john baldessari
documento
6 experimental video performances curated by Fumofonico give the poetry of Amelia Rosselli a new voice. The performances are accompanied by an original soundtrack.
Certain voices are enhanced by the passage of time, voices that, like a good wine, only grow stronger with age. The Fumofonico collective bore this in mind when it decided to take a new look at the oeuvre of Amelia Rosselli, one of the most significant female poets in 20th century european literature. Fumofonico gives her a new voice by having her work be read aloud by members of the collective and other representatives of the italian oral poetry and performance scene accompanied by sounds crafted by a team of exceptional musicians.
Poetry unites different languages and physically distanced bodies that, thanks to technology, are able to be in contact and communicate with one another. The result is a virtual performance which rediscovers and renders Roselli’s verses contemporary and breathes new life into them.
the video performances
Amelia Rosselli (1930-1996) is one of the most important european poets of the second half of the 20th century. Her language and expressive modalities run parallel to neo-avantgarde experiences. They create imagery which is influenced by extra-literary sources, from music to psychology to architecture. Her mode of incorporating inspiration from these sources was to become a constant of european cultural experimentation and still influences artists to this day.
Portions of text extracted from an anthology of Rosselli’s selected works will be read aloud and enhanced by an apparatus of electronic music which emphasises and modernises the themes of her work. DOCUMENTO is a contemporary product inspired by concepts expressed by the critic Simon Reynolds in his most recent view of electronic production, or, as he defines it, ‘conceptronic’: ‘conceptronic’ music finds inspiration and meaning in a 360° vision of the artistic environment in which it was born.
The poetry readers will be paired with musicians. They will interact in real time thanks to the ZOOM communication platform. The content produced will be made available to the public on Manifattura Tabacchi’s various online channels. The result will be a hybrid, a unique work on the italian performance art scene whose aim is to experiment with different yet complementary languages and the use of technology to create a form of digital joint participation.
Fumofonico è un collettivo di artisti performativi e organizzatori di eventi culturali nato a Firenze nel 2017 con la volontà di operare e sperimentare nel campo della poesia performativa. Nel corso degli anni ha organizzato rassegne e partecipato a festival nella città di Firenze e in tutta la regione. Nel corso degli anni, l’attenzione del collettivo si è rivolta verso una visione dell’arte in senso multimediale, dove i vari linguaggi e tecniche si incrociano per partorire nuovi modi di creazione e fruizione delle opere.
entrevue
Brief conversations with 6 protagonists of today’s artistic and cultural scene in which we will explore various themes according to each guest’s field of expertise .
the interviews
Entrevue is a device which gives a voice to experts in the fields of art, architecture, biology, and fashion. It is designed to provide educational and analytical information in a number of disciplines in terms that are accessible to everyone. The concepts of space, nature, time, identity, the body, and community will be reexamined according to the areas of expertise of each guest in light of the changes we are all currently experiencing. Each brief dialogue will be available for viewing on Manifattura Tabacchi’s Instagram page, and subsequently on our YouTube channel with the aim of forming a lasting archive that will be accessible at any time.
