Not only Hollywood, but culture, fashion, entrepreneurship and good food as well. Los Angeles is no longer just the world capital of cinema. And the Italian Cultural Institute seems to be aware of it. At the beginning of the new year, we had a chance to interview IIC Director Valeria Rumori about her goals for 2018 in the many fields where the Institute has been operating for years.
How’s 2017 been for the Italian Institute of Culture in Los Angeles?
2017 was an intense and very positive year, both from the point of view of our events at the Institute and those organized with others. Along with Davide Accomazzo, Professor of Finance at Pepperdine University, and in collaboration with SVIEC (Silicon Valley Italian Executive Council), we launched MEETItaly, a new forum for Italian and Italian-American entrepreneurs and executives to promote networking and creativity. MeetItaly was launched on November 29th in 2017with a special introduction about the latest news of Italian design and publishing made by Silvio Angori, Pininfarina’s CEO and COO and president of the most prestigious and historic Italian literature magazine, L’Indice dei Libri del Mese.
The Institute has created Viaggi in Italia, a series of initiatives carried out with the National Agency of Tourism (ENIT) in Los Angeles to promote Italy and its territory. At the department of Italian Studies of the California State University in Long Beach, a cutting-edge program was developed to teach Italian to Spanish-speaking students.
What were the highlights of 2017?
The Grand Tour nell’Italia Contemporanea, a photo exhibition on the regional sets of Italian cinema from the 1940s on, promoted by the Centro Cinema Città di Cesena. The first West Coast solo show by Emilio Cavallini, L’armonia corre su un filo, curated by Peter Frank, whose works come from the artist’s experience in the contemporary fashion sector. Andrea Ferraris: Churubusco, a selection of original drawings by the author and illustrator Andrea Ferraris, selected from his most recent graphic novel, Churubusco, presented in occasion of 2017 Year of Mexico in Los Angeles. Recently, we inaugurated Cinema e Cibo, an exhibition that, through food and the presence of the most famous personalities of our cinema, traces the socio-economic changes of Italian society in the 20th century. It was presented during the Cinema Italian Style festival.
Has the Institute collaborated with local museums?
Yes, with the Hammer Museum for the exhibition Marisa Merz: The Sky is a Great Space, the first US retrospective dedicated to the talent and the influence of the Turin artist. And also with the J. Paul Getty Museum, in particular during the Giovanni Bellini: Landscapes of Faith in Renaissance Venice and Caravaggio: Masterpieces from the Galleria Borghese exhibitions, during which the Institute hosted presentations by the Getty Museum’s curator, Davide Gasparotto, and the Director of Galleria Borghese in Rome, Anna Coliva, who presented for the first time abroad the project of the Caravaggio Research Institute.
What about the movie industry?
The Institute has promoted Italian films at numerous festivals, including the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the Houston WorldFest, the Locarno Festival in Los Angeles, the Newport Beach Film Festival, the Starring Europe, the Hollyshorts, the San Diego Italian Film Festival and the AFI Film Fest. Important is also the collaboration with the two main events for Italian cinema in Los Angeles: the Los Angeles, Italy Film Fashion and Art Fest, and Cinema Italian Style.
The Institute has hosted several screenings including the West Coast premiere of Raffaello: il Signore delle Arti, docu-film on the life of Raffaello Sanzio, as well as Pizza … & the Art of Living by Matteo Troncone. On December 21st, the 2017 program wrapped up with the Italian Short Film Day, a special selection of shorts from the National Short Film Center in Turin and the Social World Film Festival in Vico Equense, Naples.
And with regards to the literary field?
The journalist and essayist Federico Rampini presented his latest book, Il Tradimento. Globalizzazione e Immigrazione: le Menzogne dell’Elite (Mondadori, 2016). To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Luigi Pirandello, the Institute presented a new project by visual artist Samantha Stella and musician Nero Kane; it presented a conference on the evolution of the author’s creative process and a screening of Enrico IV by Marco Bellocchio (1984). It co-organized a presentation along with the National Agency of Tourism of Los Angeles about Agrigento and the literary parks of Sicily.
We also have to mention the Italian Design Day, inaugurated in March 2017, coordinated by the Consulate General of Italy, the 17th edition of the Italian Language Week in the world in October, and the second Week of Italian Cuisine in the World in November.
Last but not least we organized, along with Lingua Viva, an institution known for its language and cultural classes, food and wine events at the institute, such as the lectures given by Alessandra Gambini, blogger of Italian cuisine based in Los Angeles and two olive oil workshops with Filippo Berio USA. These inaugurated the Road Show of the famous company on the West Coast. And finally, a series dedicated to wine in contemporary Italy and to the discovery of typical regional wines, presented with Vinomatica Wine Agency and its founder and CEO, Giammario Villa.
What are the main events for 2018?
The 2018 program will open with a meeting with writer Erri De Luca, who will present his book Diavoli Custodi (Feltrinelli, 2017). He will be paired with world-renowned biologist Paolo Sassone-Corsi, Director of the Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism at the University of California Irvine. The event will be presented in collaboration with the Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America Foundation (ISSNAF).
Then, we will have a special initiative in occasion of the match LA Clippers – Minnesota Timberwolvese, when two Italian artists will perform in two different musical shows, to celebrate basketball player Danilo Gallinari and Italy. The second edition of Filming on Italy will be held in February, with the participation of Italian and Hollywood stars, an initiative that will contribute to attract Hollywood’s attention to Italy and enhancing, through the local ICE Agency, the Italian legislation on tax credit, with the aim of supporting the movie sector.
The commitment with MEETItaly will be kept up, with meetings being held quarterly,
as well as the one with ENIT for the cultural and tourist promotion of Italy: its first event in 2018 will be dedicated to the Jewish itineraries of Italy, on Holocaust Memorial Day.
What about brand new initiatives?
Along with the ICE Agency in Los Angeles, the Institute will be at the 2018 edition of South By Southwest (SXSW), in coordination with the Consulate General of Italy in Houston. SXSW takes place every year in Austin, Texas, and is one of the most important events in the world dedicated to new technologies, music and the audiovisual.
Along with this specific Consulate General of Italy and the Consulates and Cultural Institutes of the participating European countries, the new edition of the European film festival Starring Europe will be presented. The event will also propose meetings with directors and actors of selected films.
In the context of two exhibitions organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), important Italian works of art will be presented, as well as LA lunga estate italiana, a series of in-depth meetings with the curators. On the occasion of LA Design Week initiatives dedicated to Italian design will be presented and, in conjunction with LA Fashion Week, we’ll present an exhibition and a meeting with young, successful Italian designers based in Los Angeles.
Lastly, special initiatives will take place on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Fulbright program, the 150th anniversary of the death of Gioacchino Rossini, and the centenary of the birth of architect Achille Castiglioni, to name a few.
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