Villa Aurora X Lookout FM Radio - Episode 16 of "if the house could speak"
In January of 2025 the Palisades Fire came within feet of Villa Aurora. Miraculously, the house survived, and with it the radio transmitter that broadcasts from there throughout the Santa Monica Mountains and the beaches below.
This series explores the voices, past and present, that reverberate at Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger’s former home. For the past 30 years, Villa Aurora has been an artist residence, a place where exile and expression meet, where history and contemporary events converge.
During the process of rebuilding and awaiting our artists’ return, we will be broadcasting newly produced, archival and historical footage for you to listen to and maybe wonder: Is this really only a house or, like Carl Jung suggests, can the composition of a room induce the realization of new truths?
Each episode of if the house could speak will be broadcast on a loop for 24 hours with no interruption starting at 12 PM Pacific Daylight Time. For our listeners across the world, that corresponds to 7 PM Coordinated Universal Time and 9 PM Middle European Time.
Episode 16
MARTA REMEMBERS
Episode 16 returns to Marta Feuchtwanger’s interview with Lawrence Weschler published in 1976.
This compilation of excerpts traces her arrival in Los Angeles and the émigré community that formed around it.
Marta begins with her departure from Marseille, recalling the improbable flight that brought her to the United States—at one point invited by the pilot to take control of the plane. From there, the scene shifts to Los Angeles, where displacement gave way to a provisional but active cultural life.
Writers, directors, and actors recently arrived from Europe moved between temporary homes and borrowed spaces, forming a loose, shifting community. Housing was scarce, resources were limited, and living conditions were nomadic and inconsistent.
Throughout, Marta’s account remains grounded in logistics and memory: securing housing, arranging transport, managing finances, and maintaining working relationships under unstable conditions. The result is a portrait of exile not as abstraction, but as a series of decisions, negotiations, and daily adjustments that made continued work possible.
The excerpts heard in this episode come from a 50-hour interview conducted by Lawrence Weschler beginning on September 15, 1975, under the auspices of the UCLA Oral History Program. Excerpts were compiled from tapes 17, 22 and 23.
Recordings courtesy of the UCLA Department of Special Collections.
About LOOKOUT FM
LOOKOUT FM is a West Coast terrestrial radio home for the broadcast of "transmission art:" experimental audio composition, modern serials, data sonification, radio plays, multi-day compositions, and radio-centric performances. Their licensed stations in Burbank, Hollywood, and Pacific Palisades function as FM exhibition spaces where radio art is presented without regard to constraints of time, structure, or commercial consideration.
