Villa Aurora Events Archive
2013
Welcoming Reception
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Participants
Justin B. Rathke aka Justin Time is a multimedia artist, filmmaker, and curator. After training to be as a stonemason, he took to the road for 3 years and travelled all over Europe. Subsequently he studied Fine Arts / Sculpture at the Art School Berlin Weißensee and Urban Studies at the San Francisco Art Institute. He graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts in 2010. Since 2011, Justin is a member of Filmarche, Berlin, the first European autonomous film school. Rathke's work has been exhibited all over Germany, in Poland, the U.K., France and in the U.S.
For his fellowship at Villa Aurora, he is planning to realize the experimental documentary CHASING HOUSES. The film will analyze the social and economic constraints of a "migration with house" in the postcapitalistic U.S. of 2013. It takes into account the years of financial and real-estate crises, mobility under the pressure of economic adjustment, the reconstruction of the American Dream and the fascination of the Road Movie.
For more information, please follow the link: Justin Time Productions
Born in Moscow in 1973 Leo Khasin came to Germany as an 8-year-old and has been living in Berlin since 1984.
His professional life didn't start with filmmaking, as he went to medical school to become a dentist. At some point however, he followed his calling and joined a theater ensemble for two years. After that, he studied directing. His short film Liebe Mutter (Dear Mother) was shown at many national and international festivals.
In 2006 and 2007 he studied screen writing in Hamburg, where he wrote the screenplay for his first feature Kaddisch für einen Freund (Kaddish for a Friend). The award-winning film, that Khasin also directed, was shown at many international festivals. In 2012, it won the MFG-Star part of which is a three-month fellowship at Villa Aurora. During his stay in Los Angeles he is working on his newest script.
Born in 1963, Bernadette Conrad studied German Philology, Romance Languages and Social Pedagogy, and pursued a career as a social worker with a focus on addiction therapy. Today, she is a freelance writer and journalist, whose publications are regularly featured in DIE ZEIT and Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
Bernadette Conrad is the recipient of various grants and awards such as the 2010 Walliser Medienpreis and the 2012 Literary Fellowship of the State of Baden-Wurttemberg. Her publications include Nomaden im Herzen (Nomads at Heart, 2006), a collection of literary reports, and the biography Die vielen Leben der Paula Fox (The Many Lives of Paula Fox), published in 2011 to rave reviews.
During her residency at Villa Aurora, Conrad will do extensive research for her new book, a work of fiction examining the topic of a nomadic existence.
At the reception Bernadette Conrad will read parts of The Many Lives of Paula Fox and will talk about how stories evolve while working on them.
Reading and Discussion with Bernadette Conrad
Los Angeles
Author and journalist Bernadette Conrad reads from her book "The many lives of Paula Fox". A discussion will take place after the reading. http://www.skylightbooks.com
Pomona College to host Bernadette Conrad
Los Angeles
Current Villa Aurora fellow Bernadette Conrad will be a guest at Oldenborg's Luncheon Colloquim at California State University Pomona. Ms. Conrad will read from her book THE MANY LIVES OF PAULA FOX , a biography of American writer Paula Fox (grandmother of rock-icon Courtney Love). She will also discuss with students her experience on how stories take on a life of their own, while being composed. Participation is free. No RSVPs needed. The reading and discussion are in English.
FELLOWS & Friends
Berlin
FELLOWS & Friends meet up on Friday, February 15 at Dresden in Kreuzberg, Dresdener Straße 19, 10999 Berlin.
Eva Castringius and Marcel Bühler are discussing possibilities and subsidies granted to artists for residencies in California.
You are cordially invited to join us.
Oscar®-Reception 2013 at Villa Aurora
L.A.
Saturday afternoon, a day before the Oscar® ceremony, German Films, the Villa Aurora and the Consul-General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Los Angeles hosted the traditional reception for the German Oscar® nominees in Los Angeles at Villa Aurora. This year, it was held in the presence of the State Minister for Culture and Media Bernd Neumann and Björn Böhning, Head of the Berlin Senate Chancellery.
Blessed with typically warm and sunny Californian weather, State Minister Bernd Neumann, Dr. Markus Klimmer, Villa Aurora board chairman, and Mariette Rissenbeek, managing director of German Films, welcomed around 500 invited guests in the garden of the Villa Aurora. Martin Moszkowicz, chairman of the advisory board for German Films, Annette Rupp, executive director of Villa Aurora, and Margit Kleinman, director of Villa Aurora Los Angeles, were happy about the numerous guests.
Along with the teams of the nominated German co-productions Amour by Michael Haneke with the German producer Stefan Arndt (X Filme Creative Pool), The Gatekeepers by Dror Moreh with the responsible commissioning editors Patricia Schlesinger and Barbara Biemann (NDR) and Open Heart by Kief Davidson (US/DE) with the German producer Christian Beetz (Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion), representatives of the German and international film industry made use of the opportunity to network in the villa's historic setting.
Among those attending were actors like Thomas Kretschmann, Veronika Ferres and Udo Kier, director Uli Edel, presenter Karen Webb, the Austrian Culture Minister Dr. Claudia Schmied, the managing director of Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg Kirsten Niehuus, the BR Director of Television Bettina Reitz, Andreas Trautz (MFG Baden-Württemberg), the head of the BR feature film department Hubert von Spreti and FFA president Eberhard Junkersdorf as well as Uschi Obermeier, Thure Riefenstein, Elge Sharpe, Chief of Protocol for the Mayor of Los Angeles, and others.
Many German and international journalists seized the opportunity to obtain interviews and short statements from the nominees and those guests present. The German actress and board member of the German Film Academy Christiane Paul was also there in her capacity as an ambassador of the event's sponsor Annemarie Börlind Natural Beauty and introduced the nominees together with German Films' US representative Oliver Mahrdt.
The reception in honour of the Oscar®nominees was supported by German Films, the Villa Aurora, the Commissioner for Culture and Media of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Consul-General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Los Angeles, the Goethe-Institut in Los Angeles, the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Berlin Partner.
The official sponsors are Annemarie Börlind Natural Beauty, AUDI, airberlin, BOSCH, AMI, Apollinaris, BWR, Carpe Diem and Volvic.
Please find here the trailer of the Oscar®-Reception 2013!
The Esther Scroll
Los Angeles
Lecture
Another Promised Land: The Book of Esther and the Ambiguities of Diaspora
by Dr. Sharon Gillerman
Music
I Go Before the King... Tears Assist Me and Praise the Lord from Georg Friedrich Händel's Esther
performed by Jen Lee (soprano) and Aurelien Eulert (piano)
In the 1950s, Lion Feuchtwanger acquired a handwritten parchment scroll depicting a part of the Megillat Esther, or The Book of Esther. The book is an integral part of the Jewish celebration of Pirem and contains a firsthand account of the events of Pirem, written by the heroes themselves - Esther and Mordechai. Feuchtwanger's 18th century scroll is presumed to be Ashkenazic from Central Europe. At the time of the purchase Lion was working on his historic novel Raquel, also named The Jewess of Toledo inspired by the story of Esther, a topic he was intrigued by for decades.
Last year, the scroll was professionally restored by USC's Feuchtwanger Memorial Library and returns in new splendor to Villa Aurora.
Sharon Gillerman is Associate Professor of Jewish History at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion and at USC. Her publications focus on early twentieth-century Jewish history with particular emphasis on gender, the body, Jewish identity and popular culture in the interwar period. Presently, she is writing a book on the performances and reception of the popular Polish Jewish circus strongman and vaudeville star Zishe (Siegmund) Breitbart in eastern Europe, central Europe, and the United States.
In addition to teaching at HUC-JIR and USC, Professor Gillerman has also taught at Brandeis University, UCLA, the University of Hamburg, and Harvard University.
Jen Lee is a second year master's student of the Vocal Arts program at USC's Thornton School of Music. She recently performed the role of Ariel in the West Coast Premiere of Lee Hoiby's The Tempest with the USC Thornton Operaprogram. Ms. Lee made her debut with the Pacific Philharmonic under the baton of Dr. Bryce Seliger and was also the soprano soloist for Pacific University's Carmina Burana under the direction of Dr. Scott Tuomi. Ms. Lee has won many competitions and scholarships, such as the Encouragement Award by Metropolitan National Council Auditions. Ms. Lee's upcoming engagements include singing the part of Cunégonde in Candide with the Aspen Opera Theater.
Hailing from Alsace, France, pianist and vocal coach Aurelien Eulert performs frequently throughout Europe and the United States. He performs regularly with opera star Rod Gilfry, and has been musical director of the Chamber Opera of USC since 2008 and coach/rehearsal pianist with the USC Thornton School of Music Opera program since 2010. Aurelien has been on staff at the UCLA Alpert School of Music and on the faculty of the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival since 2011. He has also performed in professional and university orchestras, under conductors such as James Conlon, Robert Spano, Carl St-Clair and John Williams.
This event is a collaboration between Villa Aurora and the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library at USC, and is co-sponsored by the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion.
RSVP required: Please call 310.573-3603 or write an email to infola@villa-aurora.org
Admission: Members free, General $ 5
Location: 520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service begins at 7 pm and will start from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway.
Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
The Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism
Berlin
Like its predecessor "The Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism: Part 1", which took place in Los Angeles the second part of the transatlantic conference will investigate how the conditions of Semiocapitalism and Cognitive Capitalism have transformed the conditions of labour – specifically the fact that so much contemporary labour is immaterial, affective, and cognitive – and as a result detourned the role of emancipatory politics, art/architecture and education today. Might these new conditions also have lasting material ramifications for the brain and mind?
An international array of philosophers, critical theorists, media theorists, art historians, architects, and artists will discuss the state of the mind and brain under the conditions of contemporary capitalism, in which these cognitive apparati have become the new focus of labouring.
The schedule of the conference in Berlin you will find here. Information about Part 1 you will find here.
Kaddish for a Friend - Screening with Leo Khasin
Los Angeles
Pomona College, Oldenborg International Theatre, shows Kaddish For A Friend with Leo Khasin
Growing up in a Palestinian refugee camp, the 14-year-old Ali Messalam learned to hate Jews at an early age. After escaping Lebanon, he and his family end up in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Here, he tries to fit in and longs for nothing more than to be accepted by his fellow Arab youths. But to gain this recognition, he has to prove himself. In a test of courage, he breaks into the apartment of his Russian neighbor Alexander Zamskoy, an 84-year-old Jewish WWII veteran. But Ali’s “friends” follow him into the apartment and vandalize the old man’s home with abandon. Alexander only recognizes Ali when he returns home earlier than expected and reports him to the police. To avoid being sentenced and deported, Ali is forced to seek out closeness to his enemy…
"Kaddish for a friend" is a tragicomic story about friendship, trust and the art of forgiveness.
More details here.
A Diva's War
Los Angeles
The Consulate General of Switzerland, Presence Switzerland and Villa Aurora present: A Diva's war: Marlene Dietrich's military glamour - Lecture with Elisabeth Bronfen
Throughout her life, Marlene Dietrich was to insist that the only valuable thing she ever did was join the U.S. Army and do her share as a soldier during the European Campaign. This lecture will explore how she chose to turn the theater of war into a stage for herself, re-enacting certain aspects of her film roles in the real. It will also retrace how, after the Allied Victory in Europe, she insisted on remembering this war, in part by taking on roles in films such as Wilder’s A Foreign Affair and Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg that contradict her own war effort, in part by re-enacting her part as troop entertainer on stage until her last concert in London, 1973.
Elisabeth Bronfen is Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Zurich. She received her M.A. at Harvard, and her PhD at the University of Munich. A specialist in 19th and 20th century literature, she has published extensively in the area of gender studies, psychoanalysis, film, cultural theory and art.
Her most recent book publication is “Specters of War. Hollywood’s Engagement with Military Conflict”
Reception for Elisabeth Bronfon following the lecture.
RSVP required: Please call 310.573-3603 or write an email to infola@villa-aurora.org
Admission free
Location: 520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service begins at 3:30 pm and will start from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway.
Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
Villa Goethe presents Leo Khasin
Los Angeles
The Goethe-Institut Los Angeles continues the collaboration with the Villa Aurora’s “Artist in residence program.” Under the banner “Villa Goethe” artists residing in the Villa Aurora have the opportunity to showcase their projects (past, present, and future) with the friends, patrons and guests here at the Goethe-Institut.
Kaddisch für einen Freund (Kaddish For A Friend)
Dir. Leo Khasin, Germany, 2011, 94 min., German with English subtitles, digital.
Growing up in a Palestinian refugee camp, the 14-year-old Ali Messalam learned to hate Jews at an early age. After escaping Lebanon, he and his family end up in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Here, he tries to fit in and longs for nothing more than to be accepted by his fellow Arab youths. But to gain this recognition, he has to prove himself. In a test of courage, he breaks into the apartment of his Russian neighbor Alexander Zamskoy, an 84-year-old Jewish WWII veteran. But Ali’s “friends” follow him into the apartment and vandalize the old man’s home with abandon. Alexander only recognizes Ali when he returns home earlier than expected and reports him to the police. To avoid being sentenced and deported, Ali is forced to seek out closeness to his enemy…
"Kaddish for a friend" is a tragicomic story about friendship, trust and the art of forgiveness.
Discussion with Leo Khasin and Reception following the screening.
Location: Goethe-Institut Los Angeles / 5750 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90036
FREE OF CHARGE
Sviatlana Kurs at Literaturhaus Berlin
Berlin
On March 26, 2013, two top journalists met at Literaturhaus Berlin: Writer Sviatlana Kurs from Beloruss and Dr. Manfred Sapper, editor-in-chief of the magazine „Osteuropa“. They discussed current political developments in Eastern Europe including their societal and historic ramifications. Sviatlana Kurs and Olga Radetzkaya read excerpts from the short stories Der Besuch des Archivars (The Archivist’s Visit) and Das Fest kehrt wieder (The Fest Returns) in Belorussian and German.
Sviatlana Kurs started her career with the state-run Belorussian radio, but was let go after reporting critically on the national poll on national symbolism and the state of the Belorussian language. From 1994 to 2006, she worked as free-lance journalist for the papers Swaboda and Nascha Niwa, as well as for the radio stations Ratsyja and Radio Free Europe. She collaborated with the Helsinki based comittee Belarus editing their publication. Since 2008, Ms. Kurs has been working for Euroradio Belarus in Poland. She lives in Warsaw.
In April 2013 Sviatlana Kurs will start her 9-month Feuchtwanger Fellowship at Villa Aurora.
Political tendencies in Eastern Europe
Berlin
Sviatlana Kurs and Dr. Manfred Sapper will discuss political tendencies in eastern European societies focusing on Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. They take a close look at ideological foundations of a new spirituality, misogyny and the attempt of the restoration of the ‘Soviet human’ in Russia. There will also be a reading in excerpts of two short stories "Registrar" and "The holiday comes back" by Sviatlana Kurs in Belarusian and German language.
Sviatlana Kurs is a Belarusian writer and journalist. Born near Minsk she studied philology and graduated from the Belarusian State University. From 1994 she worked as a journalist at Belarusian State Radio, newspaper “Svaboda”, Radio 101,2, Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Radio Racyja, Transitions Online, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty European Radio for Belarus. She writes about Belarus in its European context and her works are translated into the Polish, Ukrainian, Czech. Sviatlana Kurs will be Villa Aurora Feuchtwanger Fellow in 2013.
Manfred Sapper, born in Kassel studied politics, history and sociology in Frankfurt, Siena and Moscow. He is chief editor of ‚Osteuropa‘, an interdisciplinary monthly journal for the analysis of politics, economics, society, culture, and contemporary events in eastern Europe, east central Europe, and southeastern Europe. A forum for East-West dialogue, Osteuropa addresses pan-European topics.
Location: Literaturhaus Berlin, Fasanenstraße 23, 10719 Berlin
Spiritual Standards
Los Angeles
The State of Sachsen-Anhalt and the German Consulate General present
Spiritual Standards
Featuring Markus Burger & Jan von Klewitz
The most well-known chorals and hymns stand as the foundation for one of the most exciting musical projects of the 1990s. Critically acclaimed German jazz performers saxophonist Jan von Klewitz and pianist Markus Burger blend modern improvisation with the art of interpreting baroque music while preserving its integrity.
Actor Eric Braeden and actor/director Louis Fantasia will read selected texts (in English and German) from the writings of medival philosopher and mystic Meister Eckhart, and Lutheran pastors Martin Niemöller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Both Martin Niemöller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were staunch opponents of the Hitler dictatorship. Whereas Niemöller spent 7 years in Nazi prisons and was liberated in 1945, Bonhoeffer was arrested in 1943 and executed 23 days before Germany’s surrender.
Markus Burger and Jan von Klewitz have toured this program through Germany, Switzerland, Ukraine, Lithuania, France, Poland and the U.S. They are the winners of the coveted 2000 Bach Award of the city of Erfurt.
Eric Braeden is a Film, Television, Emmy and People’s Choice Award winner and arguably the most popular actor in a day time series, watched internationally by huge audiences.
Author, actor, director Louis Fantasia is Chair of General Education at the New York Film Academy and director of "Shakespeare at the Huntington" at the Huntington Library. He has directed more than 150 plays and operas worldwide.
Spritual Standards is part of the LutherDecade, a 10-year build-up to 2017, the 500th anniversary of the reformation.
Reception following the program.
Admission: Free of Charge
RSVP required: Please call 310.573-3603 or write an email to infola@villa-aurora.org
Location: 520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service begins at 6:30 pm and will start from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway. Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
Alexander Granach
Los Angeles
Alexander Granach - From The Shtetl To Hollywood
Dir. Angelika Wittlich, Germany 2012, 105 min. digital
IN PERSON: Director Angelika Wittlich
The remarkable story of an unlikely path from a poverty-stricken, rough-and-tumble childhood to success as a leading stage and film actor in Weimar Germany. This is the account of a daring, curiosity-filled, and perceptive Jewish child from Galicia who was seized with a passion for the theater at the age of 14 and overcame great odds to pursue his dream. After working with directors such as Brecht and Murnau, Alexander Granach was forced to flee Germany for Russia. In November of 1937, he was arrested during the stalinistic purges on the grounds of espionage activities, but a successful intervention of Lion Feuchtwanger on his behalf persuaded Stalin to release Granach who then fled to Zurich, Switzerland.
He eventually ended up in the USA where he began his American career in Lubitsch's Ninotchka. He died in 1945 at only 52, just as the war was drawing to a close and he was looking forward to a reunion with Lotte Lieven, the love of his life.
Q and A and reception for the director following the screening.
RSVP required: Please write an email to infola@villa-aurora.org. You will receive a confirmation.
Tickets: Free for Friends of Villa Aurora // $ 5 for General Audiences (at the door)
Location: 520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service begins at 6:30 pm and will start from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway. Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
FELLOWS & Friends at City Hall Berlin
Berlin
„How to find means of financial support for artists“ was the topic of a meeting of FELLOWS & Friends of Villa Aurora. Hella Dunger-Löper, Permanent Secretary, State of Berlin Delegate to the Federation, Commissioner for European Affairs, and Commissioner for Active Citizenship at the Berlin Senate Chancellery opened the event at City Hall (Rotes Rathaus) on April 8, 2013.
After Annette Rupp, executive director of Villa Aurora, introduced the Villa’s history and eplained its activities the 50-plus guests, Dr. Konrad Schmidt-Werthern, Department Head of „Cultural Management“, and Christiane Zieseke presented a general outline of the Federal and Berlin-based funding sources for the arts.
Dr. Konrad Schmidt-Werthern pointed out that the websites www.kulturfoerderung.org and www.kulturpreise.de. contain a wealth of information on Germany-wide fora for artists.
A variety of funding sources of the Senate Chancellery are listed at http://www.berlin.de/sen/kultur/foerderung/index.de.html.
The Senate Chancellery – Cultural Affairs and Art Center College of Design (ACCD) in Pasadena/Los Angeles award one scholarship per year in the area of fine arts. The fellowship allows the artist to spend 12 months as a graduate student at the prestigious school in Pasadena. More information at: http://www.berlin.de/sen/kultur/foerderung/internationaler-kulturaustausch/auslandsstipendien/index.de.html.
Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin was mentioned in the context of large-scale projects. Film-funding is available at Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg .
Christiane Zieseke suggested to consult with members of the Senate Chancellery directly.
Eva Castringius and Marcel Bühler, former fellows at Villa Aurora, talked about the valuable impulses they experienced during their sojourn at Villa Aurora. They are determined to build on those during further stays in Los Angeles. They initiated a poll among the so far 264 fellows with the goal of identifying the need for residencies in Los Angeles and formulating common ideas and organizational strategies. The survey showed a major interest among many fellows to return to Los Angeles in the near future. Ideas on how to realize that were gathered, and will be discussed.
FELLOWS&Friends
Berlin
On April 8, 2013 at 7:00 p.m., FELLOWS&Friends of Villa Aurora will meet at the Rathaus Berlin (Louise-Schröder-Saal ). The new head of the Department for Cultural Affairs Dr. Schmidt-Werthern and Head of Unit Chistiane Zieseke will inform about and discuss different ways of finding funding for artistic projects.
Fellows of Villa Aurora will be able to add their thoughts having experienced the transatlantic network.
We would like to thank Secretary of State Hella Dunger-Löper for her suppport and are looking forward to seeing you on the 8th.
RSVP required: Please call 030-20623640 or write an email to infoberlin@villa-aurora.org
Location: Luise-Schröder-Saal, Berliner Rathaus, Rathausstraße, 10178 Berlin.
Music Memory Metamorphosis
Los Angeles
Viktor Ullmann:
Piano Sonata Nr. 7 (1944) &
"The Lay of Love and Death of the Cornet Christoph Rilke" (1944)
12 excerpts from the poem by Rainer Maria Rilke for speaker and piano
As Cinematic-Musical-Montage
Produced and directed by Gwyneth Bravo with the support of REZN8's founder Paul Sidlo and featuring live performances by Neal Stulberg and pianist Steven Vanhauwaert, this multi-media program presents composer Viktor Ullmann's final 1944 works—the Piano Sonata No.7 and his melodrama The Lay of Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke — against a cinematic backdrop. In the spirit of early film and Erwin Piscator's experimental Berlin theater of the 1920s, the production re-imagines the theater and concert hall as a cinematic space where the live performance of these works takes place inside a cinematic framework, where a kaleidoscope of projected and slowly shifting montage images serves as a visual counterpoint to the poetry and music. Employing a postmodern compositional aesthetic, her film, which Robert Elias, President of the OREL Foundation, describes as "a moving and beautifully wrought immersive work of art," unfolds in thirteen, short movements and is comprised of a series of densely-textured images constructed from the superimposition and animation of a multi-layered and harmonically-conceived series of visual elements.
Neal Stulberg, Recitation
Steven Vanhauwaert, Piano
Paul Sidlo, Technical Production & Design
Gwyneth Bravo, Producer & Artistic Director
For more information and tickets, please go to the following website: http://musicmemorymetamorphosis.brownpapertickets.com/
Admission: Members & Students $10, General Admission $25
Location: Villa Aurora, 520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service begins at 6:30 pm and will start from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway. Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
Two Who Dared
Los Angeles
Villa Aurora, Artemis Joukowsky III and Robert Lemelson present
Two Who Dared - A documentary by Artemis Joukowsky III (USA, 2012, 76 min., digital)
Q & A and reception for the filmmaker after the screening.
This film tells the story of Unitarian minister, Waitstill Sharp and his wife Martha who, just days prior to the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia, left their young children in Wellesley, Massachusetts to help save thousands being persecuted in Eastern Europe.
Who were these American heroes? What drove their willingness to put the well-being of strangers over that of themselves and their family?
Waitstill and Martha were also involved in the Feuchtwangers’ escape from France. They are two of only three Americans who have been honored as “Righteous Among Nations” by Yad Vashem.
Two Who Dared has received a number of awards in 2012 including the Special Jury Prize from the Amsterdam Film Festival; Official Selection, River’s Edge Film Festival, and Redemptive Storyteller Award, Redemptive Film Festival
The screening at Villa Aurora is part of a grassroots, community-based effort, at synagogues, churches, theaters, and schools; in cities world-wide!
For more information visit www.TwoWhoDared.com
Free for members. General admission $5.
Location: 520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service begins at 7 pm and will start from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway.
Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
Welcoming Reception
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Participants
Fine artist Dirk Stewen was born 1972 in Dortmund. He lives and works in Hamburg. After art school he worked as a commercial photographer. Camera work has long been part of his repertoire. In some series, photographic paper is drenched in black ink and exposed to light to create mottled surfaces. Stewen also works with pages taken from antiquated art catalogues, posters, confetti of all sizes and colors, streamers, book covers, and sometimes with industrial prefab wood or metal. Blotting with Indian ink, folding, embroidering, layering one kind of paper on another, printing or copying onto it. He combines the emergent work into ensembles, collages or mural sculptures that cautiously extend into the surrounding space.
During his scholarship at Villa Aurora Dirk Stewen would like to analyze the vegetation of the Californian West Coast. In an artistic way he compares the plants of his own cultural background and its "transplanting" to America. Questions like "What happens with art in exile?" and "In which way can aesthetic be an escape or a safety zone?" will lead him through cultural and natural landscapes.
Dirk Stewen will give an introduction into the way he works and show some images from his last exhibitions in Bregenz (Austria) and New York.
Feuchtwanger Fellow Sviatlana Kurs
Belarusian writer and journalist Sviatlana Kurs (Pseudonymes Eva Vieznaviec, Sviatlana Adziniec) was born in the countryside around Minsk. Ms. Kurs studied philology and graduated from the Belarusian State University in 1994. From 1994 on, she has worked as a journalist for the Belarusian State Radio, newspaper "Svaboda", Radio 101.2, Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Radio Racyja, Transitions Online, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty European Radio for Belarus.
Sviatlana Kurs writes about Belarus in its European context. Her work revolves around topics such as "assimilating evil", "countering platitude", "mixing witchcraft and magic of daily routine", "treating alcoholism religiously and moving forward as an end in itself".
Her works are translated into Polish, Ukrainian and Czech.
On April 30th, Ms. Kurs will read her short story "The Archivist's visit" in both Belarusian and English.
Composer Tom Rojo Poller was born in 1978 in Osnabrück, Germany. He lives and works in Berlin. Tom studied composition in Berlin (University of the Arts) and London (Royal College of Music) and also holds an M.A. in Literature, Philosophy and Musicology from Humboldt University Berlin. His music is often based on references to literature and philosophy. Recent works follow an explicitly experimental approach, trying to explore conceptional issues such as the relation between language, text and music. During his stay he would like to continue on a multi-part project called "Die Unheimlichkeit der Zeit" [The Uncanniness of Time], composing one piece that is based on rehearsal recordings of Stravinsky and Schoenberg as well as researching for a multimedia work about Sunset Boulevard. On the evening of the Welcoming Reception he will perform on the former piano of Ernst Toch two of his pieces: The early "Three Pieces for Piano" and "Zeit ist nicht gutmütig" from the aforementioned "Unheimlichkeit" project.
If you would like to know more about Tom's work, please follow the link!
After the revolution
Los Angeles
Villa Aurora, Pacific Palisades Film Festival presents:
After the Revolution (Nach der Revolution)
by Dörte Franke and Marc Bauder
Germany, 2010, 91 min., digital
After the Revolution deals with the situation directly after the fall of the Wall. It includes rare footage of roundtable discussions with the political elite of the GDR and reflects the situation from a present-day persprective.
Lifetime Achievement Presentation and a highlight reel to UDO KIER following the screening.
The screening is one of two special events during The 9th Annual Pacific Palisades Film Festival.
For more information about Friends of Film and The 9th Annual Pacific Palisades Film Festival visit http://www.friendsoffilm.com/
Admission: Suggested Donation $ 5
RSVP required at infola@villa-aurora.org. You will receive a confirmation.
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service begins at 5:30 pm and will start from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway.
Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
The night, when books were burning in Germany
Berlin
On May 10th, the 80th anniversary of the book burning by the Nazis, Villa Aurora Forum and Literaturhaus Berlin, supported by Atlantik-Bruecke commemorated the literature of then persecuted and banned authors and journalists.
In front of a packed house, the overwhelmingly intense and gracious Frank Arnold read texts by authors such as Pablo Neruda, Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Liao Yiwu and Joseph Brodsky. Ernest Wichner, Director of Literaturhaus, adeptly introduced the authors and gave the night a bitterly humorous ending with texts by 8th century Persian author, Abu Nuwas.
The Night, when the Books Burned in Germany
Berlin
On the 80th anniversary of the „book burning“ by the National Socialists Villa Aurora e.V. and Literaturhaus Berlin in collaboration with Atlantik-Brücke commemorate the literature of those writers and journalists, who were persecuted and silenced.
On May 10th, 1933, professors and students of National Socialistic conviction „cleansed“ the libraries in many cities of the „Reich“ of „un-German spirit“ and ceremoniously burned the books of many German authors and scholars.We know today, that it was the trigger, Heine talked about, when saying they not only burned books, but humans. It all ended with millions of deaths in gas chambers, on battle fields and in bombed-out cities.
On the occasion of the 80th anniverary of the book burning we will look back at the historic events and the decades that followed, as books were and are being burnt, and authors and journalists -in their pursuit of the truth- are still being persecuted, jailed and murdered.
Location: Literaturhaus Berlin, Big Hall, Fasanenstraße 23, 10719 Berlin
Villa Aurora FELLOWS & Friends @ Torstraße 111 in Berlin
Berlin
On May 22nd, FELLOWS & Friends met at the artists’ residency Torstrasse 111 in honor of Alice Wang and Benjamin Tong, Villa Aurora’s 2013 Berlin fellows,
The Berlin fellowship was founded in 2012. It gives L.A. artists the opportunity to work and live in Berlin for a period of several months. The Villa’s goal is to foster transatlantic exchange. Whereas the fellowship program offers artists living and working in Germany a chance to stay and work at Villa Aurora in Los Angeles, Fellowship Berlin is designed to invite artists from the Los Angeles area to stay in Germany.
In addition to housing facilities, Torstraße 111 offers gallery spaces, where Alice Wang and Benjamin Tong presented their works.
Alice Wang was born in China and studied in Toronto, Los Angeles and at New York University. The artist and fimmaker lives in Los Angeles, and since 2012 she has been spending time in Paris as an art fellow. Her work on view at Torstrasse was titled ‚The Secret Blackness of Milk‘.
A native of Toronto, Benjamin Tong studied computer sciences and has a Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts. He was an arts’ fellow in Mexico City and currently exhibits in the U.S., in Canada and Europe. His performance had the title: ‘In a thousand years we will have corrected the earth’s rotational axis shifting it 45 degrees aligning to that of Venus, and the polar icecaps will have melted giving the seas a flavoring of lemonade’.
Dr. Miriam Kellerhals opened the evening with a lecture on art and copy right. She explained the prerequisites, an artistic creation has to have in order to enjoy copy right protection and the rights resulting from it. Furthermore she discussed the circumstances, under which the work can be quoted, copied or satirized by others, without violating copy rights. Kellerhals cited German legal opinions and the decision by the New York Court of Appeal in the case of „Patrick Cariou vs. Richard Prince“ (April 4th, 2013).
Dr. Miriam Kellerhals studied in Konstanz and Munich, and trained as a lawyer in Berlin. Then she worked as research associate at FU Berlin. She wrote her dissertation about copy right in employment. As an attorney, she specializes in copy and media rights and media law, teaches at various colleges and lectures internationally
Ulrike Seyboth and Ingo Fröhlich, our hosts at Torstrasse 111, presented their catalogue „ich zeichne die Zeit, du malst den Moment“ (I draw the time and you paint the moment) published by Lukas Verlag in Berlin.
FELLOWS & Friends @ Torstraße 111
Berlin
Program
6:00 p.m.
Art and Copyright
Lecture by Dr. Miriam Kellerhals & Discussion
7:30 p.m.
ich zeichne die Zeit, du malst den Moment
Catalog presentation by Ulrike Seyboth & Ingo Fröhlich / Torstraße 111 - Lukas Verlag Berlin
8:00 p.m.
Opening & Party with Alice Wang & Benjamin Tong, Villa Aurora Fellows in Berlin at Torstraße 111
Exhibitions:
The Secret Blackness of Milk / Alice Wang
In a thousand years we will have corrected the earth’s rotational axis shifting it 45 degrees aligning to that of Venus, and the polar icecaps will have melted giving the seas a flavoring of lemonade. / Benjamin Tong
Free entrance
Please R.S.V.P. at infoberlin@villa-aurora.org or 030 – 20 62 36 40 until May 20, 2013
Alice Wang (b. 1983, China) is an artist and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She received her BSc from the University of Toronto, BFA from the California Institute of the Arts, and MFA from New York University. Since the summer of 2012, Alice has been living and working in Paris through the support of the Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Foundation. Alice has exhibited work at The Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, Deutsches Haus in New York, and forthcoming projects at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, and Immanence in Paris. Her experimental film The fallacy of misplaced concreteness is distributed by Vtape, and part of their permanent collection.
Benjamin Tong (b.1981), studied computer science at the University of Toronto, and then received an MFA at the California Institute of the Arts. His projects have appeared in various spaces such as; The Hart House (CAN), Images Festival (CAN), REDCAT Gallery (CA), Sonja Roesch Gallery (TX), Hochschule für Bildende Kunst HBK (GER), RosaB.net, and LA Mart (CA). A transcript of The Parrot Lecture, published by Golden Spike Press and performed at CalArts, can be found at Printed Matter (US), Ed. Varie (US), Art Metropole (CAN) and Ooga Booga (US). He has also been in residence in Mexico City for the SOMA summer program.
Vögelein Schwermut
Los Angeles
Villa Aurora and the Austrian Consulate General present
Vögelein Schwermut
A Liederabend presenting Irene Wallner and Maria Raberger
In Person: Walter Arlen
Vögelein Schwermut is a collection of songs for alto and piano, featuring Jewish composers who were banned, persecuted and/or murdered during the Nazi regime. The concert’s title is derived from a song by Erich Zeisl of the same title, based on a poem by Christian Morgenstern.
The program includes songs by Walter Arlen, Viktor Ullmann, Erich Zeisl, Erich Schulhoff and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
Irene Wallner studied vocal performance at the University of Music and Performig Arts in Vienna. She has performed as a soloist in Austria, Germany, Italy and Norway. Inspired by performing with exil.arte*, Irene is dedicated to the interpretation of Austrian composers, who were persecuted durin the Nazi regime.
* exil.arte operates as a centre for the reception, preservation and research of Austrian composers, performers, musical academics and thinkers who, during the years of the ‘Third Reich’ were branded as ‘degenerate’.
Maria Raberger studied at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She focused her studies on repetition, chamber music and vocal accompaniment. For many years, she has played the orchestra piano and celesta with the Bruckner orchestra of Linz. She is a member of the trio “donau3klang” and “Ensemble versatile”.
Tickets: Free for Friends of Villa Aurora // $15 for General Audiences (at the door)
RSVP required: infola@villa-aurora.org. You will receive a confirmation.
Location: 520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service begins at 4:00 pm and will start from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway. Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
Group 47 – When German Literature Wrote History
Berlin
Reading and Discussion with Helmut Böttiger, SODA Salon @ Kulturbrauerei, May 29, 2013
Helmut Böttiger, whose book “Group 47 – When German Literature Wrote History” was awarded the Prize of the Leipzig Bookfair, presented his strong work on the legendary alliance in German literature.
A group of unknown authors was brought together in 1947 by Hans Werner Richter, and, at the end of the 50s - a time without competing literary cycles and festivals - had risen to the leading voice of the literary scene in Germany.
From this very group emerged stars and personalities such as Ingeborg Bachmann, Günther Grass or Peter Handke and literary critics such as Joachim Kaiser or Marcel Reich-Ranicki.
In discussions with Johan de Blank, initiator of the series “Literary Freedom”, the history, the development and the perpetual charges of the group’s anti-Semitism and rejection of the literary community in exile were analyzed along with individual statements by members of the Group 47.
The audience was left with the lasting impression, that literature can occupy a prominent political place, should it choose to voice the ills that politicians and society fail to address.
The group dispersed with the beginning of the Brandt era and the 68 generation.
Exil-Literature and Group 47
Berlin
Exil-Literature and Group 47 - Helmut Böttiger and Ingo Schulze discuss the legend of a federal literary establishment
Group 47 originated from a circle of German authors with the goal of renewing German literature after the fall of the "Third Reich", and by doing so foster the democratization of the German post-war society.
To this day, the literary discourse is influenced by former members of Group 47, such as Günter Grass, Martin Walser or Marcel Reich-Ranicki. Others were Ingeborg-Bachmann, Paul Celan, Ilse Aichinger, Siegfried Lenz, Alexander Kluge and Heinrich Böll. In 1967 the group dissolved due to fierce disputes on the relationship between politics and literature. The group's take on the topic of "Exile" and the members' relation to the writers, who left Germany in the 30s and 40s, was characterized as "problematic". Helmut Böttiger's book „Die Gruppe 47. Als die deutsche Literatur Geschichte schrieb“ (The Group 47. When German literature wrote history) was a prize-winner at the 2013 Leipziger Buchmesse. He and writer Ingo Schulze will discuss the group and how relevant it is for today's literary environment.
Helmut Böttiger was born in 1956. He studied German philology in Freiburg. Until 2001, he was the editor of the cultural pages of the Frankfurter Rundschau. Today Böttiger works as author, journalist and critic in Berlin. His book on the Group 47 won a prize at the 2013 Leipziger Buchmesse.
Ingo Schulze was born in 1962 in Dresden. He studied classical philology in Jena and worked as theatrical adviser and journalist in Altenburg. His prize-winning books have been translated into more than 30 languages. Today Ingo Schulze lives and works in Berlin.
This program of Villa Aurora and Literarische Freiheit (Literary Freedom) is part of the over- arching Berlin cultural theme for 2013 called „Zerstörte Vielfalt“, "Diversity Destroyed". The events commemorate the power grab of the National Socialists in 1933 and the November progroms in of 1938, and reflect on the subsequent destruction of the social diversity in Berlin.
Place: Soda-Salon of Kulturbrauerei, Schönhauser Allee 36, 10435 Berlin, as part of the series „Literarische Freiheit“ (Literary Freedom)
Tickets are 5,00 EURO
MicroFest at Villa Aurora "I (tune) NY"
Los Angeles
Now in its seventeenth year of celebrating the beauty that lies “between the note”, MicroFest is the worldʼs leading concert series devoted to the glorious universe of non-standard tunings. Founded by microtonal guitarist and radio personality John Schneider in 1997, MicroFest has grown to a festival of multiple events at Southern California venues ranging from Pacific Palisades to Claremont; Pasadena to Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA.
In 1931 New York, Basque composer/pianist Emiliana Zubeldia met the Mexican theorist Augusto Novaro and popularized his revolutionary tuning system for pianos. Aron Kallay resurrects this fascinating sound and the new perspective it gives to piano music from that era, including works of Toch*, Copland, Gershwin, and Zubeldia herself.
* The grand piano at Villa Aurora is on permanent loan from the Toch Society.
$20/$10 students and members
Tickets @ http://www.brownpapertickets.com
Shuttle Service starts at 6:00 p.m.
Park on Los Liones Drive off Sunset Boulevard 2 blocks east of the Pacific Coast Highway.
Villa Aurora under the Stars
Los Angeles
Echo Park Film Center and its roving band of cinematic troubadours come to the beautiful hills of Malibu to present a night of short animated and experimental films to remind you of the beauty of life and living. Bring a blanket, a loved one and an open mind to sit under the stars and watch a collection of short films made by the Echo Park Film Center collective (& friends) between the years of 2001 – 2013.
This magical evening will include prizes and surprises, popcorn, Dagie Brundert (a visiting filmmaker from Berlin), laughter, love and the occasional tear.
All ages welcome. Sell your TV and come to the cinema. We look forward to seeing you.
For more information you can call or email Echo Park Film Center
(213) 484-8846
info@echoparkfilmcenter.org
Grounds open at 6 PM, screening starts at 8 PM
Admission is free
RSVP required: infola@villa-aurora.org
You will receive a confirmation
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service starts at 6 PM from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway.
Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
50 Fingers & 88 Keys
Los Angeles
Jacaranda Music at the edge
Summer Garden Party „50 Fingers & 88 Keys“
Five sensational pianists play at the Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades for the announcement of Jacaranda’s Tenth Anniversary “Season of Journeys”. More Information: http://jacarandamusic.org/
SILENT SALON - silent films and the villa organ
Los Angeles
T H E
A C A D E M Y O F M O T I O N P I C T U R E A R T S A N D S C I E N C E S
A N D V I L L A A U R O R A P R E S E N T
Max Davidson – Guenter Buchwald on Organ
Max Davidson (1875-1950) is one of the numerous forgotten Hollywood supporting actors who acted in innumerable movies. His heyday was in the late 1920s when he was engaged at the Hal Roach Studios for a series of Jewish comedies which belong to the best and funniest shorts the studio ever produced. All films focus on Davidson as the henpecked Jewish family father who has to struggle with his good-for-nothing son(s) and a daughter who falls in love with a non-Jewish boy.
Since his beginning in 1978 he has accompanied more than 2,100 silent films in more than 2,500 film concerts. He is regularly invited as musician in residence to international film festivals and is Musical Director of the annual Bristol Silents Slapstic Festival and resident conductor of the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchstra for "film in concert".
Buchwald is a great stylistic virtuoso playing anything from baroque to contemporary music, and from folk to jazz. He is in great demand as a composer as well being a solo film accompanist.
For the first time, the Villa gardens will be open for patrons to come early and picnic, watch the sunset and then settle into the salon for a program of comedies, by Hollywood's leading comedians. Bring a picnic and enjoy the Villa garden, followed by a sceening of silent shorts with live organ accompaniment. Grounds open and shuttle starts at 6 pm.
Program:
JEWISH PRUDENCE, 1927 - 21’
THE BOY FRIEND, 1928 – 20’
PASS THE GRAVY, 1928 - 25´
Tickets are $15
Friends of Villa Aurora $5
For tickets go to: www.brownpapertickets.com
For the other Silent Salons visit our event calender.
SILENT SALON - silent films and the villa organ
Los Angeles
T H E
A C A D E M Y O F M O T I O N P I C T U R E A R T S A N D S C I E N C E S
A N D V I L L A A U R O R A P R E S E N T
Dedicated to Katharina and Thierry Leduc
Max Linder predated and influenced Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, or Harold Lloyd by several years, and was largely responsible for the creation of the classic style of silent slapstick comedy. He debuted in French theater in 1905, but quickly became an enormously famous and successful film comedian on both sides of the Atlantic, thanks to his character "Max," a top-hatted dandy. By 1912, he was the highest-paid film star in the world.
Dean Mora was born and raised in Los Angeles; his interest in pre-WWII America was forged early on as a child. After he received his Bachelor of Music, at CSU Northridge, Dean was offered the job of accompanying silent films at the Silent Movie Theatre in Hollywood, where he worked for 6 years accompanying over 200 movies. He studied theatre organ with the legendary Gaylord Carter, learning all the tricks and techniques needed to effectively accompany a silent film.
Dean has performed in venues such as the Orpheum Theatre (Los Angeles), Copley Hall (San Diego), Fox Theatre (Hanford, CA). In addition, he has also performed at film festivals in various locales, including The Roger Ebert Film Festival in Champaign, IL, the UCLA Film Archives Series, The Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Academy in Beverly Hills, CA, and the Silent Movie Film Festival in Osaka, Japan. He leads a big band (Dean Mora & His Orchestra), playing dance music of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.
For the first time, the Villa gardens will be open for patrons to come early and picnic, watch the sunset and then settle into the salon for a program of comedies, by Hollywood's leading comedians. Bring a picnic and enjoy the Villa garden, followed by a sceening of silent shorts with live organ accompaniment. Grounds open and shuttle starts at 6 pm.
MAX TAKES A PICTURE – 13:06
LOVE’S SURPRISES – 6:15
TROUBLES OF A GRASS WIDOWER – 9:51
MAX SETS THE STYLE – 13:11
EXCERPT FROM “BE MY WIFE” (1921 Feature) 13:11
Tickets are $15
Friends of Villa Aurora $5
For tickets go to: www.brownpapertickets.com
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service starts at 6 pm from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway.
Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
For the other Silent Salons visit our event calender.
Welcoming Reception
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Participants
In their own way, Berlin-based sound artists Serge Baghdassarians and Boris Baltschun have retraced Condamine’s journey, though instead of the tropical wilderness, they’ve measured the urban jungle of Rio de Janeiro. Instead of compass and quadrant, their tools are microphone and recorder. What remains unchanged is the physical effort of exploring foreign terrain—hence the title, “Bodybuilding.” On foot, and with an assortment of quasi-ritual exercises, Baghdassarians and Baltschun move from their residence in Rio to the triangular plaza Largo do Guimarães. At the end of their aural training session stands the ideal form of a place, an artificial sounding-body that seems strangely familiar in the way it further alienates the alien.
RP Kahl presents first fragments from the filmic work he is producing during his stay at Villa Aurora. In this work he refers to the aura of the Villa, finding inspiration from its former inhabitants, first of all Marta Feuchtwanger. The first film fragments focus on "sculpture on film". Therefore Kahl collaborates with artist Stephanie Keitz. The notion of "the absent" builds the thematic framing of this cooperation. The work will be presented as a video as well as an installation.
SILENT SALON - silent films and the villa organ
Los Angeles
Comedian Harold Lloyd - Christoph Bull on Organ
One of the world’s most unique organ artists, equally versed in classical and popular music, Christoph Bull has performed in Europe, the United States, El Salvador, Russia and India, at venues including Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Lincoln Center in New York, the Catholic Cathedrals of Moscow, Salzburg and Saint-Denis, as well as rock clubs such as The Viper Room, The Roxy and The Whisky in Los Angeles.
He has won first and second prizes in numerous organ and songwriting competitions, including Jugend Musiziert, Chamber Music Competition of the City of Bad Dürkheim, Michael Masser Songwriting Competition, Berklee Songwriting Competition, International Organ Competition Marcello Galanti.
For the first time, the Villa gardens will be open for patrons to come early and picnic, watch the sunset and then settle into the salon for a program of comedies, by Hollywood's leading comedians. Bring a picnic and enjoy the Villa garden, followed by a sceening of silent shorts with live organ accompaniment. Grounds open and shuttle starts at 6 pm.
Program:
NEVER WEAKEN – 20 min.
NUMBER PLEASE – 30 min. (Filmed on location in Santa Monica)
Tickets are $15
Friends of Villa Aurora $5
For tickets go to: www.brownpapertickets.com
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service starts at 6 pm from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway.
Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
For the other Silent Salons visit our event calender.
SILENT SALON - silent films and the villa organ
Los Angeles
Charles Chaplin came to Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studios late in 1913 as a little-known British vaudevillian, and after a year, had not only established his Tramp character, learned to write and direct his own films, and also achieved public recognition as a star comedian. Although Keystone did not publicize its performers by name, standees of Chaplin's likeness outside theatres sufficed to attract audiences. Some of the films, especially Tillie's Punctured Romance, remained in theatrical distribution for decades.
Program:
MABEL’S MARRIED LIFE – 14:38 w/Mabel Normand and Roscoe Arbuckle, directed by Mack Sennett
THE ROUNDERS – 13:15 – Chaplin and Arbuckle
THE MASQUERADER – 12:21 – Behind the Scenes in a Movie Studio
DOUGH AND DYNAMITE – 28:29 – Chaplins most popular Keystone, last three all directed by Chaplin.
Tickets are $15
Friends of Villa Aurora $5
For tickets go to: www.brownpapertickets.com
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive.Shuttle service starts at 6 pm from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway.
Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
For the other Silent Salons visit our event calender.
Screening of "Angel Express"
Los Angeles
Set in 1990s Berlin, Angel Express focuses on a “jigsaw puzzle” of off-beat and often unsavory anti-heroes, creating an unusually dynamic portrait of the city that captures the restless, nervous energy of a metropolis on the verge of a new century. The protagonists include a corrupt policeman, a prostitute, and a star photographer and her insecure associate. On an endless search for the next big thrill and united by their common mood, feelings, and attitude toward life, the characters are sucked into a deadly whirlpool of events.
A Techno-Symphony of a Metropolis… a strange and wild stroke of genius
-Tagesspiegel
Discussion with RP Kahl and reception following the screening.
Since the late 90s his work has included music videos, theatre productions, performances and video art.
Since 2001, he has taught art and film at universities and art academies.
He is a member of the selection commissions of the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale Shorts) and the Oldenburg Film Festival as well as the German Film Academy.
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles, 5750 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90036
German with engl. subtitles
Sommerfest 2013
Los Angeles
Villa Aurora's Sommerfest 2013*
Open House, Sound Salon, Curry-Wurst and Bowle!
presented by the staff of Villa Aurora in cooperation with the web-radio collective dublab.
CELEBRATE the golden glow of late summer with a site-wide sound salon.
DISCOVER the full expanse of this historic, cultural retreat while enjoying live performances and DJ sets curated by dublab.
EXPLORE the gardens, courtyard, libraries and studio spaces of Villa Aurora with a sonic accompaniment reflecting the residency's rich heritage.
Tickets are $30 general, $15 for Friends of Villa Aurora and Friends of dublab
Become a member of Friends of Villa Aurora today and get tickets for friends and family at the membership rate.
Give us a call at 310.454.4231
Tickets can be purchased at www.brownpapertickets.com
Location: Villa Aurora, 520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service starts at 3 pm from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway.
Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
*Proceeds from our 2nd annual Sommerfest will help us make Villa Aurora wheelchair accessible. To be finished in 2014!
Goya-Screening
Los Angeles
Based on the novel by Lion Feuchtwanger
Dir.: Konrad Wolf, 1971, color, 131 min. digital, German w/English subtitles
This screening is generously supported by the DEFA Film Library on the occasion of their 20th anniversary at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles
5750 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 100
Los Angeles, CA 90036
The screening is free of charge:
Please RSVP @ 323.525.3388
Romanticism Renewed
Los Angeles
The Karl Weigl Foundation and Villa Aurora present:
John McLaughlin Williams is a Grammy Award-winning conductor and violinist known for his relentless research into musical diamonds hidden from view.
Glen Inanga is best known for his award-winning work in the Micallef-Inanga Piano Duo, which has appeared with, among others, the BBC Philharmonic and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.
This concert is endorsed by the OREL Foundation, which was founded by Los Angeles Opera Music Director James Conlon for the purpose of recovering creative voices that were lost to the musical repertory because they were suppressed for political and ideological reasons during the time of Hitler’s Germany and afterward.
We would like to thank the Austrian Consulate General for their support.
Tickets: $25 general, $15 friends of Villa Aurora can be purchased at: www.brownpaperticket.com
Location: Villa Aurora, 520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service starts at 7 pm from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway.
Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
JazzIndeed meets North Atlantic Jazz Alliance
Berlin
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service starts at 6 pm from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway.
Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
Find all information about the Euro Jazz Festival at UCLA here.
Marta Feuchtwanger – An Emancipated Woman
Berlin
Marta Feuchtwanger – An Emancipated Woman
Marta Feuchtwanger, born Marta Löffler in 1891 in Munich, represented the undisputed center of gravitation in the exiled community of the forties in Los Angeles.
She and her husband, the writer Lion Feuchtwanger, opened their home, the Villa Aurora in the Pacific Palisades as a venue for gathering and intellectual exchange.
After her husband’s death, the Villa remained a societal center thanks to Marta Feuchtwanger. A collection of extensive correspondence is proof of her close friendship with many exiles in California.
In 1980 the University of Southern California (USC) awarded her an honorary doctorate. Marta Feuchtwanger remained poitically and culturally active until her death in 1987.
The event at Literaturhaus Berlin in honor of Marta Feuchtwanger is part of the 6th International Feuchtwanger Conference, held October 24 through 26 at the Jewish Museum Berlin.
It is part of a year-long program called “Destroyed Diversity” –an initiative by the Berlin Senate, commemorating the power grab by the National Socialists in 1933 and the November pogroms in 1938. The series deals with the National Socialists’ destruction of the diverse society in Berlin starting in 1933.
The program includes an interview Reinhart Hoffmeister did with Marta Feuchtwanger for ZDF and a talk by State Secretary Hella Dunger-Löper about Marta Feuchtwanger in Berlin. Finally a discussion between Journalist Marianne Heuwagen, who knew Marta Feuchtwanger personally and Alexandra Tyrolf, a researcher on “women in exile” will illustrate the life and impact of this exceptional woman.
Welcoming Reception
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Participants
Nairy Baghramian was born in 1971 in Isfahan, Iran. She has lived and worked in Berlin since 1984.
Nairy Baghramian includes elements of furniture design, set design and fashion in her work. Her still lives in space involve references to material history, recontextualized and turned into political statements, pieces referring to literature and theatre.
Baghramian wishes to discover which topics of Early Modernism did not transmit to the new homeland of emigrated architects from Europe. Starting point is the construct of 'Home', a concept framing the burdens and chances of creative personalities who came to America voluntarily in the beginning of the 20th Century (like Neutra and Schindler) and those who where forced out of Europe.
Nairy's works were shown in Scottland, U.K., Germany, Canada, Australia, Switzerland and Italy.
Jan-Ole Gerster was born in Hagen. He studied script writing and directing at the Berlin Film and Television Academy (DFFB). In 2010 Gerster started work on his graduation film 'Oh Boy!' with Tom Schilling in the lead role. The movie premiered at the 2012 Munich Filmfestival. 'Oh Boy!' garnered international acclaim and won the 2013 German Film Prize in six categories, among them for Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best Film.
At Villa Aurora, Gerster will tackle his new project 'Cool Germania', a rise-and-fall story of two friends in the Berlin of the 90s and zeros.
At the Welcoming Reception, Gerster will show a scene from 'Oh Boy' and talk about his work.
Watch the trailer here.
'Oh Boy' has been nominated for the European Film Awards. Support Jan-Ole by voting here.
Volker Harry Altwasser, born in 1969 in Greifswald, is the recipient of the 2012 Italo-Svevo-Preis for his deap sea epos 'Letzte Fischer' ('Last Fishermen'). He was among the finalists for the Alfred Doeblin Award and the Ingeborg Bachmann Award.
Altwasser's thesis "literature about the ocean is always literature about failure - the ocean always prevails" links his works to American highlights of the genre, such as 'The Old Man and the Sea' or 'Moby Dick'. It took Altwasser 17 years to finish this novel, which shines with rigor, poetry and authenticity.
There will be a 20-minute reading of excerpts of the the novel (in German and English).
During his stay at Villa Aurora, the writer will trace the life story of writer Bruno Frank, a Feuchtwanger friend, who fell into oblivion.
Hannah Arendt Conference
Los Angeles
WHAT IS POLITICS?
A Conference on Hannah Arendt at Villa Aurora on November 9th and 10th, 2013
On November 9th, the date of “Reichskristallnacht“ in Germany in 1938, Villa Aurora, together with the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, hosted a conference on Hannah Arendt by the title of “What is Politics?”.
The German-Jewish-American thinker Hannah Arendt, born in Hannover, exiled to Paris and later to New York, dedicated her work to the reinvention of the public realm and to freedom in political action. Today, as in the 1960s, the ideas of this woman philosopher inspire theoretical debates as well as civil political initiatives. The conference with lectures by experts on Hannah Arendt’s work focused on the influence of her European-American experience and the particular importance of transcultural exchange in Arendt’s theory of political action.
Please find videos of the following lectures on our media-page:
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Annette Rupp, Executive Director Villa Aurora & Marie Luise Knott (Concept), Freelance Author, Journalist and Translator
The Origins of Totalitarianism in Historical Perspective
Anson Rabinbach, Princeton University
Revolutionary Declarations and the Status of Human Rights
Peg Birmingham, DePaul University
The Aesthetics of Arendt’s Politics
Equality, Plurality, and the Enthusiasm of the Spectators
Martín Plot, California Institute of the Arts
Hannah Arendt: The Primacy of Appearance
Robert Harrison, Stanford University
Who is Capable of Performing Action? Some Thoughts on the Importance of Personality
Wolfgang Heuer, Freie Universität Berlin
As part of the conference, Roger Berkowitz, Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, talked about Jewish Voices in the Eichmann-Controversy at Skirball Cultural Center on November 10th. The lecture was followed by the screening of Margarethe von Trotta’s movie Hannah Arendt and a Q&A session.
Oh Boy
Los Angeles
OH BOY, Germany 2012, 83 min., digital
Jan Ole Gerster's wry and vibrant feature debut OH BOY, which swept the 2013 German Film Awards, paints a day in the life of Niko, a twenty-something college dropout going nowhere fast.
In Person: Director Jan-Ole Gerster
Watch the trailer…
At Villa Aurora, Gerster will tackle his new project 'Cool Germania', a rise-and-fall story of two friends in the Berlin of the 90s and zeros.
Admission: Free
Location: Villa Aurora, 520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272
Street parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service starts at 6 pm from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North-East of Pacific Coast Highway.
Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!
Villa Aurora Night
Berlin
In November 2013 Villa Aurora celebrated the annual Villa Aurora Night to welcome the 2014 Fellows and to present their works. For the first time the event was held at the Lapidarium in Berlin with a close circle of invited guests from arts, culture, politics and the media.
The opening speeches were delivered by Dr. Hans-Ulrich Seidt, Head of Culture and Communication at the Federal Foreign Office, and Björn Böhning, head of the Senate Chancellery.
Former Villa Aurora Fellow Dietrich Brüggemann and the German BeatBox Champion, Daniel Mandolini, marked the beginning of the event by accompanying a silent movie from the 1920s. DJ Paul Kaeding provided the night with music.