rome blog

Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome presents an interesting exhibition about Robert Filliou, which is part of the activities of the Fluxus Biennial. The exhibition of the works by  Filliou, is curated by Achille Bonito and opens to the public free of of charge from the 2^nd of December to 15^th of January, 2012.

Filliou’s work is intimately connected to words. He was a poet; despite his artistic work it covered a wider world than poetry. Considered an innovative and disruptive, his work marked by iconoclastic aesthetic interest to make art a permanent state of creation, where creation was the limit to the imagination.

The organizers invited the Italian artist, living in London, Londra Sandrine Nicolettato to the opening of the exhibition. The artist, who will perform one of her performance in which public participation is critical as an actor, showing an interesting redefining the proposal to transform it into an environment of social, physical and mental health.

Robert Filliou was born in Sauve, France, in 1926. In the mid-40 he moved to live in the United States and studied economics at the University of California. After his graduation, he worked in the United Nations program for the development of Korea. In the early 60′s, his life has a twist that will change his career and his way of thinking, to join a group of poets and artists who are beginning to question the system of domination imposed and seek through art, liberating look, far from the alienation of the consumer society.

Among those friends were the dancer and Romanian-born Swiss poet, Daniel Spoerri, whose real name was Daniel Isaac Feinstein, and was known as one of the most important figures of postwar art. Along with Spoerri made Piège à mots (1964), which corresponds to a visual montage that is part of everyday expressions of speech.

In 1962, he decided to join the stream of Fluxus art, is presented in the Misfits, London Festival, where he presented a device made from bicycle wheels as a roulette was organized with words for poems, which caught the attention and the attraction of the public who enjoyed writing ephemeral poems.

The Fluxus (a word which in Latin means flow), arises in the 60′s and covers all expressions of art and its main purpose is to refuse to look at art as a commodity. Its initiator was the Lithuanian George Maciunas, who defined it as the anti-art and includes all materials breaking all the existing categorization of art.

Between 1965 and 1968, Filliou installed an opened  a space to create with George Brecht. This consisted of a workshop where artists and creators could attend to share all creative perspectives about the southern French city of Villefranche-sur-Mer.

during the 70’s, Filliou worked in various media, materials and forms of his work, including video works such as those in Canada. A piece of work with his own image that reproduces the codes of irony, so characteristic of Fluxus.

For more information http://www.auditorium.com/eventi/5095431

Nancy Guzman

This exhibition is a good excuse to spend some wonderful days in apartments in Rome Enjoy your holidays shopping and trying the best Italian food in all the charming trattorias and restaurants.

Contact Me 

Translated by: Hans
Contact Me

On July 25 the Auditorium Parco della Musica presents the concert by the legendary rock star Lou Reed, who after four years of absence comes back in the Italian stage. Reed is one of the living legends of rock, but also a composer, poet, writer and photographer.

The concert Lou Reed & Band. Sweet tooth, is sponsored by the Fondacione Musica per Roma and is part of summer activities with the aim to rediscover Reed’s classic themes with the new and old generations of rockers.

Lewis Allen Reed, known as Lou Reed, was born in Long Island, New York, in 1942. Considered the father of alternative rock, he started his career by founding the band The Velvet Underground in the 60′s. From this period his most acclaimed songs are dated such as: Rock and Roll, Heroin, and Sweet Jane.

Despite The Velvet Underground never became a commercial success, their music and the figure of Lou Reed were enormously influential among artists and creators of pop art. In 1970 the band formed by Sterling Morrison, John Cale, Maureen Tucker and Lou Reed broke up, although they had tremendous success in the American underground panorama.

Two years later, after having devoted himself to painting, businesses and a failed attempt to re-release of The Velvet Underground songs, he released his first album of glam rock, Transformer, which relocates him to the top of the alternative rock music.

Among his passions are literature, this is where the inspiration that gives life to the lyrics of their songs comes from. In 1973, he writes about the underworld of drugs, homosexuality, where love and human relationships go through complex codes of enormous humanity mixed with the squalor of the street and marginality. Reed makes an analogy of his experiences, making fiction of reality, just like Jean Genet and Allen Grinsberg.

His musical work opened the doors to the punk world and hard rock music with the album Metal Machine Music. In it he makes music with heavy metal distortion and sounds using synthesizers. Sounds are harsh, violent, consistent with the world described by Reed and reflecting a time of disenchantment that leads to anger against the system.

Reed plays his music with the frustrations of the postmodern generation that has lost the illusion of utopia, that embodies a maverick, but he does not see destination on any manifestation of change. It’s music that, like The Scream by Munch, shudders.

His relentless criticism of the arbitrariness of the political system has led him to launch campaigns against politicians and influential figures such as democrat Jesse Jackson, and former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim or against Pope John Paul II.

Among the curiosities of this remarkable musician, there is a tribute to his friend and fellow founder of the Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol made ??in minimalist pop-rock music.

For further info http://www.auditorium.com/eventi/4994895

Nancy Guzman

Good music and good company are the ingredients for the recipe of the summer if you’re in one of the apartments in Rome so be prepared if you plan to spend a hot summer in Italy.

Contact Me 

Translated by: Maria
Contact Me

Rome will hum with pleasure as the air fills with glorious soul musing during the upcoming concert by the reining anti- diva of neo-soul Erykah Badu on July 20 at the Auditorium Parco della Musica. She is an anti-diva, not because her singing or compositions are lacking: in fact she has one of the most beautiful voices of her generation. Anti-diva because you will never see this singer pulling a prissy star fit and only asking for green M & M´s backstage. She is touring to promote her new album New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh. The tour is called “Out my mind, just in time,” and if you aren’t lucky enough to see her in Rome, you might be able to catch her in Barcelona or Madrid.

Her debut album Baduizm (1997) reached platinum five times, and while other singers in the genre of Soul and R & B have made headlines for their extravagant costumes and personal lives (only need to think of Rihanna or Beyonce) Badu has always been the critics’ favourite, because, well, she makes awesome music and is not afraid of musical innovation or addressing political and social issues. Apart from being a very talented singer with a warm and expressive voice that harkens back to the queens of soul and jazz, she writes serious lyrics with a sense of social commitment, and chooses fantastic producers and collaborators. For example, in the disc New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) Madlib, 9th Wonder, Shafiq Husayn lent her a hand with the beats. Though she also deals with the romantic topics typical of soul, her music’s political attitude is inescapable, and she deftly melds soul music with hip-hop’s most experimental branches in a novel way.

Lately, her career has found her working on her own label, Control FreaQ, founded in 2005, raising her three children, and managing a charity for children. She is also working on another project, The Cannabinoids, with DJs, musicians and beatsmiths from Dallas. The project looks to sound like a live remix session.

Rent apartments in Rome and get your tickets for the concert to enjoy a couple of days to recharge your soul.