News

Director RP Kahl was a Fellow of Villa Aurora in 2013. During this time he began his work on the feature film A THOUGHT OF ECSTACY, which is coming to German cinemas these days. We met him in Berlin for a chat.

Last Saturday night the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (BBAW) at the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin gave room to the question borrowed by Kurt Tucholsky “Is language a weapon”. “One could be afraid of language and its effects”, stated Martin Grötschel, President of the Academy, in his welcoming address.

Villa Fellow Silke Scheuermann takes over the renowned Frankfurt Poetikdozentur. As of January 23, 2018, she will speak about her poetology on three consecutive Tuesdays under the title JUST STILL DARK ENOUGH.

On December 8 and 9 the Berlin Congress on Exile during 1933-1945 titled "Off to Moscow! Travel Reports from the Exile" took place at Literaturhaus Berlin under the direction of Hermann Haarmann (Berlin) and Anne Hartmann (Bochum) with the support of the Prussian Seehandlung Foundation, the Institute for Communication History and Applied Cultural Studies of the Free University Berlin and Villa Aurora   & Thomas Mann House e. V.

Berlin, November 22 and 23, 2017: Circuit Training is a workshop ensemble initiated & founded by Ignaz Schick 2013 in Berlin with the aim of bringing together musicians from different styles and scenes once or twice a year for working on new pieces of its core members.

At the annual get-together of this and next year's Villa Fellows, we presented "Staahaadler Aff", a composition for percussion and sample pad by Oxana Omelchuk.

Around 300 invited guests from culture, politics and the media came to the Komische Oper Berlin at the end of October to celebrate the VILLA AURORA & THOMAS MANN HOUSE NIGHT.

Villa Aurora Fellow Jan Wagner was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize on Saturday at the autumn conference of the German Academy of Language and Literature. The 50,000 Euro prize is deemed the highest German literary honor. In his acceptance speech Wagner spoke of Georg Büchner's political and literary writings in which language is no longer "a means to an end".

Filmmaker Justin B Rathke, also known as Justin Time, was a Fellow at Villa Aurora in spring 2013. Now he presents his film "Chasing houses", which was created during his stay in LA, this November in Berlin. We met him there.

Berlinische Galerie presents What Do You Want Here, an exhibition by Villa Fellow Cyrill Lachauer

The journalist Sylke Tempel died on Thursday in an accident caused by the storm "Xavier". In September she was selected to be one of the first Thomas Mann Fellows. Sylke Temple died at the age 54 years.

The MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg and FernsehfilmFestival Baden-Baden have announced the four nominees for the MFG-Star star award. The juror Dorothee Schön will award the prize-winner on December 1, 2017.

In 2016, Alwin Lay spent three months at Villa Aurora as a fellow of KunstSalon Cologne. The exhibition TILT & SHIFT at will be Fuhrwerkswaage Kunstraum closely related to his stay.

Kirsten Reeses's composition "Atmende Kugel" will premiered at Kontakte'17.

The Board of Trustees of Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V., whose members include representatives of the Federal Foreign Office and the office of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, has nominated the first group of fellows for the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles

Sebastian Stumpf stayed at Villa Aurora in 2016. Some works that were created during this period are now being presented at Galerie Thomas Fischer in Berlin.

Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V., this year together with the project space 68projects of Galerie Kornfeld Berlin, will once again award the Berlin Fellowship to an outstanding artist from Los Angeles. The choice fell on Sandeep Mukherjee.

We congratulate the following artists, who have been selected for a fellowship at the artists' residence Villa Aurora in Los Angeles in 2018 by the jury from numerous applications. We look forward to welcome them in California.

The Federal Republic of Germany has acquired the former residence of exiled author and Nobel Laureate Thomas Mann in Los Angeles. The artist residence Villa Aurora will be entrusted with the administration of the house. Villa Aurora Chair Markus Klimmer, and Executive Director Annette Rupp, together with Doris Barnett, Member of the German Bundestag, were officially presented the keys.