Monday 18 June, 7pm
History and Democracy #10: Does culture still matter?
With Arianna Bove (Queen Mary), Stefano Jossa (Royal Holloway) and Marco Mancassola(writer and FILL)
Chaired by Andrea Mammone (Royal Holloway)
Following our successful event on education and democracy, this final seminar focuses on another overlooked, but rather hot, issue: what role is culture playing, or can eventually play, in the age of demagogues, populism and anger? In a sense, it is evident how television, trolls and “hate speech” seem to set up the public/political agenda, while hashtags are replacing real reflections and commentaries. How can we react to this? Our panel, featuring scholars, activists and writers, will look at the various dimensions of contemporary cultural activism and production – from novels to public engagement – and the ways intellectuals can contribute to improve the society we live in.
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Tuesday 19 June, 7pm
Gio Ponti. La casa all’italiana / The Italian House
On the occasion of the London Festival of Architecture
In collaboration with MUSE
In the first issue of the magazine Domus, which he founded in 1928 and edited until 1941 (and then again from 1948 to 1979), Gio Ponti wrote an editorial entitled La casa all’italiana [The Italian house].
The features of the Italian house, he argues, are distinct from the concepts of dwellings imported from Northern Europe. In particular, he points out the lack of distinction in Italian architecture between the interior and the exterior, both in forms and materials.
Also, the Italian house is not a “machine à habiter”, a machine for living in, as Le Corbusier stated in Vers une architecture [Towards an Architecture] in 1923. The Italian comfort “does not just consist in the correspondence of things to necessities and needs of our life or in the organisation of services”. The architecture of the house is rather meant to shape our thoughts, suggest simple and healthy habits, invite to peaceful and serene recreation thanks to its opening towards nature.
This talk will deal with the question of the “Casa all’italiana”, also in the light of the key role played by Ponti and Domus in the interwar years, appropriating of some of the European contemporary trends on domesticity, but also reclaiming the specificity of the Italian tradition and thus forging for it a specific identity.
The documentary Loving Gio Ponti is a picture of the man and the architect, aspiring painter, promoter ante litteram of Italian design who, in more than fifty years of activity, has tried it all – arts, occupations, objects, architecture and material – with untiring energy, from small to big, from the design of a handle to the formulation of a town plan.
The film is based on historical material and iconographic sources, such as the Ponti Archives and Teche Rai, as well as on an interview with Gio Ponti in his studio in via Dezza. It also features his architectural designs and customized furniture, ranging from Villa Planchart to Palazzo Montecatini, right through to the Pirelli skyscraper, and short interviews with, among others, Benedikt Taschen, Enzo Mari, Vittorio Gregotti, Alessandro Mendini, Nanda Vigo, Fulvio Irace, Giovanna Mazzocchi.
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Wednesday 20 June, 7.30pm
Academy Voices: Transcending Borders III – Scandinavia
With soundscapes that reflect their unique homelands, Academy Voices presents a programme of works by Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish composers, including Grieg, Nielsen, Sibelius, Stenhammar and Rangström.
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BFI, Luce Cinecitta’, Institut français
From Friday 22 June to Sunday 22 July 2018
Satire and Morality: the Cinema of Marco Bellocchio
Complementing the BFI’s retrospective, Satire and Morality: the Cinema of Marco Bellocchio,the Institut français is delighted to present a selection of his films and to welcome one of the greatest living Italian directors.
Political, iconoclastic and psychoanalytical, Marco Bellocchio’s cinema has constantly explored the complexity of human desire and challenged Italian society and its establishment. The result is an eclectic body of work, committed, thought-provoking, baroque at times, truly original.
This season is curated by Adrian Wootton and presented in collaboration with the BFI, Film Italia and the Italian Cultural Institute.
Members of the Italian Cultural Institute can obtain concessionary prices for the screenings at the Cine Lumiere.
See the rest of Marco Bellocchio’s work as the season continues at BFI Southbank:
Dormant Beauty
Fri 22 June, 6.20pm + Q&A
Thu 05 July, 8.30pm
The Witches’ Sabbath
Wed 27 June, 8.30pm + Intro
Thu 12 July, 6.30pm
Devil in the Flesh
Sat 07 July, 8.30pm
Fri 13 July, 9.00pm
The Butterfly’s Dream
Sun 15 July, 4.10pm
Thu 19 July, 8.50pm + Intro
The Conviction
Wed 18 Jul 6.30pm
Sun 22 Jul 6.30pm
