Villa Aurora Events Archive
2018
1550 SAN REMO DRIVE
BUILDING BRIDGES ART EXCHANG (Bergamot Station Art Center 2525 Michigan Avenue, Unit F2 Santa Monica, CA 90404)
Information
1550 SAN REMO DRIVE, Video, 17:50 min, HD Video, Stereo, 2017 (EN & GER Version)
Niklas Goldbach's 1550 SAN REMO DRIVE was filmed in February 2017 on the premises of the Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades, California, USA. The video features quotes from JR Davidson, Thomas Mann and the real estate companies which marketed the house, before it was bought by the German government in November 2016 for $13.25 million.
"The Thomas Mann House at 1550 San Remo Drive in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, was designed by the modernist architect JR Davidson for the exiled German writer Thomas Mann in 1941. Mann lived at the house between 1942 and 1952 before his emigration to Switzerland, where he spent the last three years of his life. The house is 5,000 square feet (460 m2 large and situated on a plot of an acre. In 2012, the house was put up for rent in 2012 for $15,000 per month, and for sale in 2016 for $14,995,000. The house was marketed as a potential "tear down", with no mention of Mann in accompanying sales literature. At the time of its potential sale, the house was not subject to any local historical protection orders. The house was bought by the Government of Germany in November 2016 for $13.25 million." (Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann_House)
Filmed with support of Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V.
Niklas Goldbach, born in Witten, Germany, lives and works in Berlin. After studying Sociology at Bielefeld University and “Photography and Video” at the Unversity of Applied Sciences Bielefeld, he was awarded with a “Meisterschüler” degree at the University of the Arts Berlin in 2006. In 2005 he received the Fulbright Grant New York and majored in the MFA program of Hunter College, New York City.
Niklas Goldbach received several sholarships (i.e. Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn 2010, Arbeitsstipendium Bildende Kunst des Berliner Senats 2013, Globalstipendium des Berliner Senats 2014, Dresdner Stipendium für Fotografie 2016) and presented his works in umerous solo shows, group exhibitions, and festivals such as at Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Mori-Art Museum, Tokyo, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n.b.k., Cornerhouse, Manchester, documenta 14 public programs, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Centre Pompidou, Berlinische Galerie Museum for Contemporary Art, Museum Ludwig, Cologne and the Short Film Festival Oberhausen. In 2014 he was awarded with the “Paula Modersohn-Becker Jubilee Award”.
Niklas Goldbach has been a visual artist-in-residence at Villa Aurora in early 2017. During his fellowship he started filming for “1550 San Remo Drive”.
www.niklasgoldbach.de
Eclectic Salon #1: Piano Spheres at Villa Aurora (SOLD OUT)
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
Program
Charles Ives: Three Quarter-Tone Pieces for two pianos
Arnold Schoenberg: Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11
Hanns Eisler: Three Songs from Hollywood Elegies
John Corigliano: Chiaroscuro
Chinary Ung: Seven Mirrors
Clarence Barlow: For Loise
Vicky Ray and Aron Kallay say this about the program: The Schoenberg, Eisler and Ung were written by ex-pats who came to the US during times of great crisis in their home countries. We picked the Ives and Corigliano for their rich harmonies and intriguing textures - to show off the new piano! The Barlow and Eisler are also great fun and add a certain wry humor to the evening…!
Partners
Villa Aurora would like to thank the Kasimoff-Blüthner Piano Company in Hollywood and Blüthner Leipzig for their support!
Co-presented by the Villa Aurora and Piano Spheres.
Co-sponsorerd by the German Consulate General.
Welcoming Reception
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Participants
Paul Frick was born in Berlin. He took composition classes since the age of twelve with Il-Ryun Chung. From 2000 to 2008 he studied composition at Universität der Künste Berlin. Since 2008 the group Brandt Brauer Frick with Daniel Brandt and Jan Brauer became the center of Fricks work, leading to the ten-piece Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble as from 2010, in which he plays the piano and notates the scores. Both formations have performed in over fifty countries, including stages as Lincoln Center New York, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Glastonbury Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival and Centre Pompidou Paris. On their four albums, the groups guest vocalists include Jamie Lidell, Nina Kraviz, Beaver Sheppard, Vic Mensa, Gudrun Gut and Om'Mas Keith. In 2016 Brandt Brauer Frick wrote their first Opera Gianni together with British director Martin Butler which premiered at Deutsche Oper Berlin. In May 2018 Paul Frick's solo debut album Second Yard Botanicals will appear on Apollo/R&S Records. Paul will give some audio impressions of his work.
Juan S. Guse, whose debut-novel "Lärm und Wälder" was published by S. Fischer in 2015, grew up in Germany and Argentina. He studied literature and sociology and is currently working on his PhD in the latter. For his prose he was awarded with The Fellowship of the State of Lower Saxony, the "Literaturpreis der Landeshauptstadt Hannover, the "Hallertauer Literaturpreis" as well as the Walter Kempowski Fellowship. In collaboration with the musician Paul Frick he will be presenting his new manuscript titled "Miami Punk", which he is working on at Villa Aurora.
Natalie Häusler is an artist and poet living in Berlin. She holds an MFA from Bard College, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, New York, and a Meisterschüler degree from the Braunschweig University of Art.
Her work has been exhibited internationally including PS122 Gallery, NY; Municipal Gallery of Lisbon; ICA, London; KM - Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz; São Paulo; Raven Row, London; Kunstverein Nürnberg; Herman Nitsch Museum, Naples; Nurture Art Foundation, NY; Goethe Institut, New York Library; and Kunsthalle Ravensburg.
Her book "A Virus Can be on a Mussel [...]" was published in 2014 by Mousse. Her writing also appears in "VierSomes 004," Birkbeck College Contemporary Poetics Research Centre, London and others. She has received grants and internatiolnal fellowships including the Berlin Senate Stipend for Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris; DAAD Study Scholarship, NY; and a MFA Scholarship, Bard College, NY.
nataliehaeusler.de
Julie Pfleiderer is a German director working across the boundaries of performance and film. After studying directing at Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch Berlin, she directed theatre in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium. Julie was nominated as "Best Talented Young Director" in 2006 and 2008 by German magazine Theater Heute.
Her short film "Infinite Jetzt" won the "Special Jury Award for Experimental Film" at Film Festival New Orleans in 2014. Her architecture film "Actual Time Real Size #1 Partial Views" was shown in the context of the architecture biennale Venice in 2016 and at Museum of Moving Practice/ Design Museum Gent, Belgium.
At Villa Aurora Julie is collaborating with composer Oxana Omelchuk on their creation SAFE - a performance with 3 musicians from Belgian contemporary music ensemble Ictus and performer Caroline Daish, premiering in November 2018 at Kaaitheater Brussels, Belgium.
On February 8th you will have the chance to see "Infinite Jetzt" at Villa Aurora.
Oxana Omelchuk, who was born in Belarus in 1975, lives in Cologne and is currently preparing her portrait CD for the Edition Zeitgenössische Musik des Deutschen Musikrates. She completed her master's degree in composition with Prof. Johannes Fritsch and studied electronic composition with Prof. Michael Beil (Cologne).
Oxana Omelchuk's last piece "wow and flutter" for 2 trombones and ensemble, written for Studio Dan - Ensemble Vienna, is about the history of the vinyl record. The center of her compositional interest is the material of the record, the different speeds, as well as the discovery of the unknown names. This "stroll through the musical history of the vinyl record" was premiered at Musikprotokoll Graz in 2017. Fragments of the piece will be presented to the audience.
At Villa Aurora Oxana is collaborating with director Julie Pfleiderer on their creation SAFE - a performance with 3 musicians from Belgian contemporary music ensemble Ictus and performer Caroline Daish, premiering in November 2018 at Kaaitheater Brussels, Belgium.
Jana Schulz lives and works in Berlin. She is ‚Meisterschülerin‘ at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig under Prof. Tina Bara. Before studying photography she was a stage assistant at Deutsches Theater Berlin. At present Schulz is holding a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation. In 2015 she received a working grant by the Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen and attended the Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt in Berlin. Schulz‘ works have been shown at different institutions and galleries including f/stop festival for photography in Leipzig and Nuremberg, SSZ Sued in Cologne, and Bethanien in Berlin. It has been broadcasted by the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. Her work has also featured in Camera Austria International. In her multimedia works Schulz deals with the different kinds of interpersonal communication. She is focused on observing structures and dynamics within different social groups. Further more she extends her documentary approach by restaging scenes or giving specific instructions.
Viva con Agua Night / Waterweek LA
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
Arts & Music Festival with Live-music acts by Villa Aurora Fellows Natalie Häusler (Berlin), Oxana Omelchuk (Cologne) & Julie Pfleiderer (Berlin) + Allergy Boy (Berlin) and Malte Hagemeister (LA), visuals by KYMAT (Hamburg)
Water tasting with Martin Riese - Water Sommelier (L.A.)
Lecture and Concert: Schönberg and Hollywood
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
With Kenneth Marcus, Larry Schoenberg, Movses Pogossian, Jocelyn Ho, and David Newman
Arnold Schönberg’s connections to Hollywood were vital to his American career, and he left a lasting impact on many American and exile composers who studied and worked with him. Among his American friends in Hollywood were George Gershwin, Alfred Newman, and David Raksin, who all feature prominently in this lecture-concert at the Villa Aurora on Saturday, May 26, from 4 to 7 pm. Professor Kenneth Marcus (University of La Verne) will highlight aspects of his recent book, Schönberg and Hollywood Modernism (hardback 2016, paperback 2018), in which he demonstrates the fascinating ties between Schönberg, the Hollywood entertainment industry, and the modernist movement in southern California.
Even before moving to the West Coast from New York in 1934, Schönberg saw the entertainment industry as his main source for students, and he hoped to teach theory and harmony to film composers and studio musicians. Hollywood figures also commissioned works, performed in concerts of Schönberg’s music, and even tried to persuade him to write a film score, for which sketches survive. And when Schönberg first referred to himself as a “California composer,” Alfred Newman had just arranged the first complete recording of the Four String Quartets on a Hollywood sound stage.
PROGRAM
Introduction
by Kenneth Marcus: Schönberg and Hollywood
Presentation
by Larry Schoenberg: Arnold Schönberg's Friendship with Alfred Newman
Performance
Schönberg’s Phantasy for Violin with Piano Accompaniment, Op. 47, featuring UCLA professors of music, violinist Movses Pogossian and pianist Jocelyn Ho
World Premiere
Performance of the transcription of Alfred Newman’s Academy Award-winning score to The Song of Bernadette for string quintet and piano by David Newman (in person)
Reception and Book Signing
Film Screening
String Trio, Los Angeles 1946 by David Starobin
Partners
Supported by the Austrian Consulate General as part of the new series "Vienna in Hollywood”, highlighting the major impact of Austrians on the U.S. film industry from the Golden Age of Hollywood to the present.
Welcoming Reception
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Participants
Onur Burçak Belli is a Turkish-Syrian journalist mainly covering political conflicts as
well as its far-reaching outcomes both in Turkey, Middle East and the broader region.
She has 11 years of experience as a journalist working for both national and international mainstream media outlets. She started her career as a journalist at Hurriyet Daily News of Turkey's leading media conglomerate Dogan Group. She successively worked for Newsweek Turkey, HaberTurk TV, RTL, BBC World Service, Channel 4 News, Fairfax Media, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, and more.
She has closely followed the war in Syria and the recent military operations against the Kurdish minority in Turkey. She was based in Damascus researching Syria's reform plans and the Sunni-Alawite conflicts amongst the ruling elite regarding these plans, when the uprising started in March 2011.
Burcak's main focus recently has been the unrest and the authoritarian transformation of the state in Turkey. She is now working on her book about her testimony as a journalist, a human and an ordinary citizen to the milestone incidents of transformation through state crack down, unrest and violent attacks.
Berlin-based composer Stefan Beyer, recipient of the 2017 Toru Takemitsu Award, resides at Villa Aurora from April through June. He has studied composition in Leipzig, Germany and Gothenburg, Sweden. Past fellowships include Cité des Arts Paris, France, Beethoven House Bonn, Germany, and Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf, Germany. He received grants and scholarships i. e. by the Berlin Senate, the State of Saxony, the Else Heiliger Fonds at Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes).
Stefan will be talking about his past works as well as his current artistic activities.
Maria Schrader is one of Germany's most acclaimed actresses, she is a two-time winner of the German Film Award and three-time winner of the Bavarian Film Award. She has worked with directors such as Margarethe von Trotta, Doris Dörrie, Peter Greenaway and Agnieszka Holland ("In Darkness"). She was awarded the Berlinale's Silver Bear as Best Actress in "Aimée & Jaguar" by Max Färberböck, nominated for the Golden Globes in 2000.
Her debut as a director, "Love Life" was shot in Israel and premiered at the Festa del Cinema in Rome in 2007. "Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe" screened at the 2016 Locarno Film Festival and had theatrical releases in more than 15 countries. It was Austria's 2017 Oscar submission and opened in the US shortly after. It won the People's Choice Award for Best European Movie at the 2017 European Film Awards.
As an actress Maria Schrader recently appeared in the renowned series "Deutschland 83" (International Emmy for Best Series in 2016). She completed the second season during the last year as well as the BBC mini "The City and The City", which screened at the Series Mania Festival in Lille, France, just last month.
She will use her time at the Villa Aurora to work on new directing projects.
Tweetup: #LNDI2018
Berlin
Information
In times of echo chambers and populism, we place the theme of open society at the center of the Long Night and at the same time want to make visible the diverse work of foreign cultural and educational policy in Germany.
In prominent locations in the Berlin cultural landscape, from the Humboldt Forum to the Gorki Theater to the Silent Green Quartier in Wedding, we will show you the range of foreign cultural and educational policy in more than a dozen events. What can we do about the culture and education of increasing skepticism about Europe? What must we do to build up and protect pre-political freedom for art and culture, science and opinion? How will Artificial Intelligence shape our society? These questions and much more are at the center of a total of 14 events - from exhibitions, interactive experiences, music, theater and literature to poetry slam.
This year, Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V. is participating in a Twitter project: accompanying the other events of the Long Night of Ideas, Fellows of the Villa Aurora will lead a discussion on open society and postnational cultural politics on Twitter. Against the background of their experiences with other cultural areas our fellows will fan the debate on Twitter under the hashtag # LNDI2018 with their observations, arguments and comments on the events of the Long Night of Ideas 2018. Be there!
Concert: "Three poems" by Olga Rayeva
Monk Space (4414 W 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90004)
Information
Performed by gnarwhallaby @ Tuesdays Monk Space
Supported by Villa Aurora.
The ever-adventurous and virtuosic ensemble gnarwhallaby performs at Tuesdays at Monk Space with a program of new works, each written specifically for them and their unique sonic profile. World premieres include "Three Poems" by Olga Rayeva (2016 Villa Aurora composer-in-residence) and a set of variations by UCSD-alum Daniel Tacke, inspired by the Morton Feldman miniature "Half a minute, it's all I've time for." Filling out the program are two very recent quartet commissions: one by local favorite Élise Roy, and the other by the world-renowned Richard Barrett, an epic homage to four great American composer-performers: Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy, and Miles Davis.
Russian-born Olga Rayeva received numerous awards and scholarships, including two stipends from the Berlin Senate, a residency fellowship at the German Academy Rome, Casa Baldi, as well as a Villa Aurora Fellowship in 2016. Her compositions are presented at many of Europe’s most important festivals, as well as in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Korea.
Silent Film Special
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
Following the Silent Film Special of THE ANCIENT LAW (by E.A. Dupont) on June 5th, we will honor Ernst Lubitsch featuring four of his lesser known German comedies.
We would like to thank The Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek for their support. “Before the Lubitsch Touch” was curated by Martin Koerber, Head of Audiovisual Heritage - Film of the Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen.
June 5: Silent Film Special
July 7: Before the Lubitsch Touch #1
July 28: Before the Lubitsch Touch #2
August 18: Before the Lubitsch Touch #3
L.A. premiere of the digitally restored version by Deutsche Kinemathek: The Ancient Law (Das alte Gesetz)
(Dir. E.A. Dupont, Germany 1923, 128 min., starring Ernst Deutsch)
With Live accompaniment by Donald Sosin (piano) and Alicia Svigals (violin)
Presented in cooperation with the L.A. Jewish Filmfestival
The film tells the story of Baruch, the son of a rabbi in Galicia during the 1860s. Fascinated by the theater, Baruch leaves his shtetl for Vienna to pursue an acting career, against his father’s wishes. Through the love and support of an archduchess he succeeds at becoming a great classical actor. But he longs for home and is reconciled with his family, where he embraces his heritage as his father comes to appreciate the beauty of secular literature. “The movie paints a complex portrait of the tension between tradition and modernity and was made at the last moment when the future of German an Austrian Jewry still looked hopeful.” (Hannah Brown for the Jerusalem Post, 2/24/2018)
Pianist and Composer Donald Sosin grew up in Rye, NY and Munich, Germany. Since 1971 he has performed his silent film music at Lincoln Center, MoMA, the Kennedy Center, and major film festivals here and abroad. He records for Criterion, Kino, Milestone and TCM. His one-act opera, Esther, was performed at the National Yiddish Book Center. Other Jewish music includes a short children's opera, A Parakeet Named Dreidel, Yiddish folk song arrangements, and Three Psalms, which was premiered in 2009 by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.
Violinist/composer Alicia Svigals is the world's leading klezmer fiddler and a founder of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics. She has worked with violinist Itzhak Perlman, the Kronos Quartet, playwrights Tony Kushner and Eve Ensler, poet Allen Ginsburg, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Debbie Friedman and Chava Albershteyn. Svigals was awarded a Foundation for Jewish Culture commission for her original score to the 1918 film the Yellow Ticket, and is a MacDowell fellow. With jazz pianist Uli Geissendoerfer, she recently released a recording of contemporary interpretations of klezmer music from a long-lost Soviet Jewish archive.
Screening: The People vs. Fritz Bauer
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
In Person: Burghart Klaußner (Thomas Mann Fellow)
Dir. Lars Kraume, color, 105 min., Germany 2015
Germany, 1957. The Hessian Chief Public Prosecutor Fritz Bauer receives vital clues about the whereabouts of SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann, a key figure in the mass deportations and murders of European Jews. Allegedly, Eichmann is hiding in Buenos Aires. Fritz Bauer, a Jew and Social Democrat, who had made it his objective since returning from Danish exile to bring perpetrators of the Nazi regime before the courts, tries to arrange the trial of Adolf Eichmann in West Germany.
"Energizing the entire film (...) is the compelling performance of veteran German actor Burghart Klaußner, who captures Bauer's firebrand intensity exactly. (Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times)
Post screening discussion with Burghart Klaußner and Hilary Helstein, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Jewish Filmfestival.
Morals & Machines
St. Elisabeth (Invalidenstraße 4a, 10115 Berlin)
Information
JUNE 27・PRE EVENT EVENING
WirtschaftsWoche is not only shaping a visionary day, but giving “Morals & Machines” due attention: In the course of an exclusive pre-event evening on June 27 starting at 7 pm, we’re initiating the discussions and entering new European AI strategy dimensions – speaking to Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and Special Guest “Sophia” from Hanson Robotics.・More Information
JUNE 28 ・ PROGRAM
9:00 CHECK-IN & COFFEE TO GO
10:00 KICK-OFF Miriam Meckel, Publisher, WirtschaftsWoche
THE FUTURE OF HUMANKIND – TECHNICAL REVOLUTIONS VS. CONSCIOUSNESS・Moderation: Léa Steinacker, Chief Innovation Officer, WirtschaftsWoche
10:05 FUTURE FORECAST: Homo deus – are humans and machines merging to cyborgs? Miriam Meckel in conversation with Yuval Noah Harari, Israeli Historian & Bestselling Author
11:05 KEYNOTE: Artificial intelligence for competitive advantage – verifying European approaches.
11:35 ENERGY BOOST Networking break & interaction in the “AI Experience Area“
STATEMENTS & POWER TALK・Industry & science – investigating morality and machine intelligence
12:05 SCIENCE STATEMENTS Developing algorithm decision-making systems Prof. Dr. Katharina Zweig, Director of Study for Social Computing, TU Kaiserslautern
12:20 Networks of control – about human behavior and ethical conflicts Prof. Dr. Sarah Spiekermann-Hoff, Director for Management Information Systems, WU Wien
12:35 Challenging algorithms of oppression Dr. Safiya Noble, Assistant Professor,Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California
12:50 TECHNOLOGY POWER TALK・What’s next for AI? Exploring machine learning technologies. Astrid Maier, Chief Correspondent, WirtschaftsWoche Quarterly in Power Talk with Deborah Harrison, Writing Manager for Cortana & AI, Microsoft and Martina Koederitz, Global Industry Managing Director, IBM
13:20 THE ACADEMIC CHALLENGE・Questioning new tech dimensions – are we going to programme ethics in 2030? Dr. Safiya Noble, Prof. Dr. Sarah Spiekermann-Hoff and Prof. Dr. Katharina Zweig vs. Deborah Harrison and Martina Koederitz
13:45 NETWORKING BUSINESS LUNCH feat. „Reflection Rounds“・Reflecting on the future of humankind, discussing visionary scenarios and questioning intelligent systems – an interactive mission we‘ll approach during our extended lunch break in “reflexion rounds“: We‘ll thematise previous topics and speakers and deepen trains of thoughts – at talkative round tables.
MEN & MACHINE – THE AI CHALLENGE
15:00 BRIGHT SPOT・Technology to increase accessibility and enhance human lives Talk with Haben Girma, Disability Rights Lawyer & Author
15:20 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS・Ethics in application – about “Corporate Digital Responsibility” and new ways of making business
16:05 ENERGY BOOST・Networking break & interaction in the “AI Experience Area“
16:35 TECH & ETHICS ON THE GROUND・Live switches to Lea Deuber, China Correspondent, WirtschaftsWoche and Matthias Hohensee, Silicon Valley Correspondent, WirtschaftsWoche
16:55 TECH MECCA CHALLENGE・Fighting bias in algorithms Joy Buolamwini, Poet of Code & Founder, Algorithmic Justice League (Video)
17:15 FOOD FOR THOUGHT・Technology bringing our society together while driving it apart Zeynep Tufekci, Techno-sociologist
17:35 LEARNINGS & OUTLOOK
17:40 NETWORKING GET-TOGETHER & END OF CONFERENCE
For more Information on Morals & Machines and the program visit anmeldung.me/morals-machines/
Silent Salon 2018
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
Following the Silent Film Special of THE ANCIENT LAW (by E.A. Dupont) on June 5th, we will honor Ernst Lubitsch featuring four of his lesser known German comedies.
Ernst Lubitsch arrived in Hollywood in 1922. He was 30 years old. He soon achieved fame for his class comedies, expressing the unspeakable with a twinkle in the eye, clever editing and suggestive dialogue making any and all attempts at censorship impossible.
The German Lubitsch is less widely known, however, his more sweeping comedic effects are well-worth rediscovering. THE OYSTER PRINCESS (1919) already foreshadowed America. One inter-title reads "Das imponiert mir gar nicht" ("I am not impressed") tossing barbs at the country’s nouveau-riches. The slightly earlier I DON’T WANT TO BE A MAN (1918) stuns with a cross-dressing-plot anticipating the "anything goes" atmosphere of the "sin city" of Berlin in the 20s. THE DOLL (1919) comes across like a Punch and Judy Show, rife with paper decor and earthy comedic effects. And last but not least THE MOUNTAIN CAT (1921). The film is a satire on militarism where everything, from the camera to the props go crazy. After Germany’s loss in WW1, this masterful film was no success then, but today it is more enjoyable than ever, also due to the fact, that Pola Negri, who later played Hollywod’s statutory vamp, was able to prove her comedic talent. (Martin Koerber, Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin)
We would like to thank The Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek for their support. “Before the Lubitsch Touch” was curated by Martin Koerber, Head of Audiovisual Heritage - Film of the Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen.
June 5: Silent Film Special
July 7: Before the Lubitsch Touch #1
July 28: Before the Lubitsch Touch #2
August 18: Before the Lubitsch Touch #3
DOUBLE FEATURE
THE OYSTERPRINCESS (Die Austernprinzessin)
(Germany, 1919, 47 min., starring Ossi Oswalda, Harry Liedtke, Victor Janson and Julius Falkenstein)
The tale of an heiress to a fortune, who wants to marry a real-life prince. Her father, eager to please her, sends for Prince Nucki, who, instead of answering the call, sends his friend Josef to check things out.
“This film is characteristic of what would be called later “The Lubitsch Touch” a ritualization of breaches of sexual or social property in an unexpected and absurd way” (A Cinema History)
I DON'T WANT TO BE A MAN (Ich möchte kein Mann sein)
(Germany, 1919, 44 min. starring Ossi Oswalde)
“This film is a sprightly examination of an adventurous young woman posing as a man for a day. Precociously challenging social and sexual status-quo politics that don’t seem all that alien today, it’s a revitalized artifact that functions just as well as a saucy romp.” (Guy Lodge, The Observer, July 2015)
Participant
Introduction by daughter of the filmmaker Nicola Lubitsch!
Screening・Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe
Los Angeles
Information
Dir. Maria Schrader, Germany, 2015/16, 106 min, color, digital
In her haunting and subtly contemporary film, starring Josef Hader, Maria Schrader follows Austrian-Jewish writer Stefan Zweig's move from Europe into his South-American exile.
There is a banquet given in his honor in Rio, he takes part at the P.E.N.Congress in Buenos Aries, and spends some time in New York. In the fall of 1941 he and his wife Lotte settle in the Brazilian city of Petropolis. This is where he finishes his famous "The Royal Game" (Schachnovelle). In early 1942 the couple commits suicide.
STEFAN ZWEIG: FAREWELL TO EUROPE was Austria's entry for the 2018 Academy Awards and won the People's Choice Award for Best European Movie at the 2017 European Film Awards. The film was released theatrically in over 15 countries.
Maria Schrader is one of Germany's most acclaimed filmmakers and actresses. Two-time winner of the German Film Award and three-time winner of the Bavarian Film Award, she has worked with directors such as Margarethe von Trotta, Doris Dörrie, Peter Greenaway and Agnieszka Holland ("In Darkness"). She was awarded the Berlinale's Silver Bear as Best Actress in "Aimée & Jaguar" by Max Färberböck, which was nominated for the Golden Globes in 2000.
As an actress Maria Schrader recently appeared in the renowned series "Deutschland 83" (International Emmy for Best Series in 2016) as well as the BBC's "The City and The City". At Villa Aurora Maria Schrader is working on a new directing project.
Silent Salon 2018
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
Following the Silent Film Special of THE ANCIENT LAW (by E.A. Dupont) on June 5th, we will honor Ernst Lubitsch featuring four of his lesser known German comedies.
Ernst Lubitsch arrived in Hollywood in 1922. He was 30 years old. He soon achieved fame for his class comedies, expressing the unspeakable with a twinkle in the eye, clever editing and suggestive dialogue making any and all attempts at censorship impossible.
The German Lubitsch is less widely known, however, his more sweeping comedic effects are well-worth rediscovering. THE OYSTER PRINCESS (1919) already foreshadowed America. One inter-title reads "Das imponiert mir gar nicht" ("I am not impressed") tossing barbs at the country’s nouveau-riches. The slightly earlier I DON’T WANT TO BE A MAN (1918) stuns with a cross-dressing-plot anticipating the "anything goes" atmosphere of the "sin city" of Berlin in the 20s. THE DOLL (1919) comes across like a Punch and Judy Show, rife with paper decor and earthy comedic effects. And last but not least THE MOUNTAIN CAT (1921). The film is a satire on militarism where everything, from the camera to the props go crazy. After Germany’s loss in WW1, this masterful film was no success then, but today it is more enjoyable than ever, also due to the fact, that Pola Negri, who later played Hollywod’s statutory vamp, was able to prove her comedic talent. (Martin Koerber, Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin)
We would like to thank The Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek for their support. “Before the Lubitsch Touch” was curated by Martin Koerber, Head of Audiovisual Heritage - Film of the Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen.
June 5: Silent Film Special
July 7: Before the Lubitsch Touch #1
July 28: Before the Lubitsch Touch #2
August 18: Before the Lubitsch Touch #3
THE DOLL (Die Puppe)
(Germany, 1919, 66 min., starring Ossi Oswalda, Victor Janson and Ernst Lubitsch)
Baron de Chanterelle, afraid for his lineage, implores his nephew Lancelot to get married. Shy Lancelot, however, can’t deal with the onslaught of candidates, his uncle is recruiting and flees into a monastery. When the monks hear, that there is a dowry to be expected, they suggest to Lancelot to just marry a doll. After the wedding-ceremony the “bride” turns out to be much more alive than expected.
Participant
Introduction by daughter of the filmmaker Nicola Lubitsch!
Welcoming Reception
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Participants
Vika Kirchenbauer - visual artist, writer and music producer based in Berlin - will give a short introduction into her interdisciplinary method. Focusing on the political frictions between sound, moving image and performance, she will talk about the role of research and context in her work.
Stef Heidhues: "I regard my works as spatial images, as stage sets for a not (yet) written, not (yet) lived or experienced but potential narration. Thus, they create what I describe as tension fields: resonating spaces which arise out of the encounter of visually experiencable situations that can be experienced visually and read individually by their viewers."
Berlin based Hanno Leichtmann, electronic music producer, sound artist and curator will give insight to his various projects as well as to his current work in progress here in LA, a multichannel sound installation for the German dance company Sasha Waltz and guest.
Sarah Kürten's art is based on language. The author and artist creates conceptual texts, which she transforms into theater- and audio plays, large prints, installations and artists books. Thus her oeuvre meanders between performative expression, installation and narration. Her obvious interest in typography, graphic design, and text-image create the illusion of visual poetry. Kürten writes all of her texts herself, mostly in English. Many of them evolve from personal experience and situations, regarding architectural and institutional contexts.
Excerpt of a Performance FRAU BERLIN FRAMED (multimedia performance with i-pad camera, waterproof interior moulding frame, tripod easel with canvas, neoprene catsuit , 2 projectors, performer)
In the 2 large-format projection images, reflective intersections and performative actions arise between physical action and pictorial representation. Between staging and reality, between intentionality and medium, between image and space, my body confronts, acts, mediates. An attempt to demonstrate how the urgency and atmosphere of physical gestures can only produce meaning in close entanglement with their multiple media avatars. Between failure and appropriation, I try to choreograph a field of tension live and in projection.
Silent Salon 2018
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
Following the Silent Film Special of THE ANCIENT LAW (by E.A. Dupont) on June 5th, we will honor Ernst Lubitsch featuring four of his lesser known German comedies.
Ernst Lubitsch arrived in Hollywood in 1922. He was 30 years old. He soon achieved fame for his class comedies, expressing the unspeakable with a twinkle in the eye, clever editing and suggestive dialogue making any and all attempts at censorship impossible.
The German Lubitsch is less widely known, however, his more sweeping comedic effects are well-worth rediscovering. THE OYSTER PRINCESS (1919) already foreshadowed America. One inter-title reads "Das imponiert mir gar nicht" ("I am not impressed") tossing barbs at the country’s nouveau-riches. The slightly earlier I DON’T WANT TO BE A MAN (1918) stuns with a cross-dressing-plot anticipating the "anything goes" atmosphere of the "sin city" of Berlin in the 20s. THE DOLL (1919) comes across like a Punch and Judy Show, rife with paper decor and earthy comedic effects. And last but not least THE MOUNTAIN CAT (1921). The film is a satire on militarism where everything, from the camera to the props go crazy. After Germany’s loss in WW1, this masterful film was no success then, but today it is more enjoyable than ever, also due to the fact, that Pola Negri, who later played Hollywod’s statutory vamp, was able to prove her comedic talent. (Martin Koerber, Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin)
We would like to thank The Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek for their support. “Before the Lubitsch Touch” was curated by Martin Koerber, Head of Audiovisual Heritage - Film of the Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen.
June 5: Silent Film Special
July 7: Before the Lubitsch Touch #1
July 28: Before the Lubitsch Touch #2
August 18: Before the Lubitsch Touch #3
The Mountain Cat (Die Bergkatze)
(Germany 1921, 85 min., starring Pola Negri, Victor Janson and Paul Heidemann)
A charismatic lieutenant, newly assigned to a remote fort, is captured by a group of bandits, thus setting in motion a madcap farce. This is Lubitsch at his most unrestrained. (imdb)
Participant
Introduction by daughter of the filmmaker Nicola Lubitsch!
Eclectic Salon #3: Mark Robson - The Debussy Project
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
Piano Spheres supports and encourages the composition and performance of major new works for the piano. It enlarges the piano repertoire by commissioning new works and sustaining a concert series that focuses primarily on works by contemporary composers. Piano Spheres was founded in 1994 by pianist Leonard Stein to present the best of contemporary piano music as well as rarely heard treasures from centuries past.
Eclectic Salon, in the historic surroundings of Villa Aurora, celebrates the diversity of the musical landscape of Los Angeles and is produced in collaboration with a variety of ensembles, some of which have been founded during the last decade, when L.A. became a true hub for new music.
Participant
Mark Robson has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times as a pianist with “one of the great techniques,” “an inquiring mind” and a performer capable of evoking an “exquisite engulfing pastel haze,” and he continues to impress with his multi-faceted career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. Mr. Robson is equally comfortable in styles ranging from early music played on the harpsichord and organ to the great Romantic repertoire and beyond to contemporary piano works demanding theatrical participation from the performer. As a collaborative artist with singers and instrumentalists, he commands the respect of his peers in both the recital and chamber settings.
Partner
Thanks to the Consulate General of France in Los Angeles for their friendly support.
Eclectic Voices: Tuesdays @ Monk Space at Villa Aurora
Los Angeles
Pianist Vicki Ray will be joined by Timur, Ted Hearne, Elissa Johnston, and Carmina Escobar.
More infos to come
Film screening: GOLDEN BOYS by Jana Schulz
ACUD Studio (Veteranenstraße 21, 10119 Berlin Mitte)
Participant
Jana Schulz (* 1984) lives and works in Leipzig and Berlin. Earlier this year, she received a six-week residency in the Villa Aurora awarded by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes in cooperation with Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V. During her stay in L.A., Schulz filmed Golden Boys.
Schulz's work will be shown this year at the Kunsthalle Wien and at the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig. In her cross-media work Schulz deals with forms of interpersonal communication. In a procedural way of working, she observes structures and dynamics within social groups, restages individual scenes and expands her documentary approach with fictitious elements.
Partner
This event is a cooperation of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes e. V. and Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V.
Welcoming Reception
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Participants
Juliane Henrich studied film, art, and creative writing in Leipzig, Berlin, and Jerusalem. Her films often deal with the changing definitions that are applied to places.
On November 9th she will show an excerpt of "From the West", an essay film revolving around memory connected to grayish post-war architecture in Western German cities, and her latest short film "koordinaten", asking how history is inscribed into Berlin's cityscape.
Monika Rinck lives in Berlin. She studied religious studies, general and comparative literature and German philology in Bochum, Berlin and Yale. New Haven. From 1989 on, she has published extensively with different companies. In the spring of 2012, kookbooks released HONIGPROTOKOLLE, her most recent collection of poems for which she was awarded the prestigious Huchel Prize, followed by RISIKO & IDIOTIE, Streitschriften in the spring of 2015. Monika Rinck is a member of P.E.N.-Club, Lyrikknappschaft Schöneberg, the Academy of Arts Berlin and the German Academy for Language and Poetry. Monika Rinck is he recipient of the Kleist Prize (2015) and the Ernst-Jandl-Prize (2017). In 2017, she curated the poetry festival POETICA in Cologne. She works as a translator from the Hungarian, together with Orsolya Kalász, works with musicians and composers and occasionally teaches at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Her upcoming book KRITIK DER MOTORKRAFT will be released shortly by brüterich Verlag.
Ann Cotten uses various media, among which the written word has a central place, to explore the world's understanding of the worlds mechanisms and to add her contribution to the fine-tuning of their description. Her lack of roots has made her a restless wanderer among cultures and continents, and slowly realizing this she has begun to develop a kind of passive ethnology, trying to survey the narratives of different cultures and percieve their similarities and differences, without ever importing it into a superposed language of supposedly superior knowledge. In other words, she allows herself and her language to be shaped by the cultures she is among, and the negative is her main medium.
This is in effect more entertaining than its description. On the evening of the 8th, Cotten will perform a few poems and cover versions in English, German and possibly Japanese with guitarist Takashi Doi, after briefly elucidating her previous work and current project at the Villa Aurora.
Filmmaker Heidi Specogna is going to show an excerpt from her movie "The short life of José Antonio Gutierrez". A look behind the heroic story of a Guatamalan immigrant who became the first U.S. soldier to die in the American-led war in Iraq.
She is also going to give an inside into her new project dealing with images and stories from the Amazonas
During his fellowship at Villa Aurora, Stefan Stuckmann will develop his new series "Jugend" (Youth), a mix of comedy and drama set in contemporary Berlin. Creating a counter concept for Berlin's image of the last twenty years, "Jugend" portrays the German capital not as a solution to all problems, but as a problem itself. Berlin appears as a cold city that uses people and attracts the young with empty promises - just to spit them out years later, when their dreams have died.
Andreas Stichmann studied at the Deutsches Literaturinstitut Leipzig. In 2008 "Jackie in Silber", a volume of short stories, was published, for which he received the Clemens Brentano Prize, the Kranichsteiner Literaturförderpreis and the Hamburger Förderpreis für Literatur. "Das grosse Leuchten", his first novel, was nominated for the Bachmann Prize and was awarded the "Förderpreis" for the Bremen Literary Prize. "The abduction of the optimist Sydney Seapunk" was published in February 2017 by Rowohlt Verlag.
Reading: Feuchtwanger Diaries
Los Angeles
Information
During his lifetime, German-Jewish novelist Lion Feuchtwanger claimed not to keep a diary. Yet, in the 1990s, a treasure trove of his diaries from the years 1906-1940 was found in the apartment of Feuchtwanger’s long-time secretary Hilde Waldo. Now, for the first time ever, these diaries have been published by Aufbau publishing house in Berlin, allowing us to get to know Feuchtwanger as a chronicler of his life and of a central part of German history. As an outspoken critic of the national-socialists, Feuchtwanger, who was on a reading tour in the U.S., could not return to Germany when Hitler became chancellor in January 1933. Instead, he and his wife Marta went into exile in the south of France where he was able to continue his success as a writer and as a resistance fighter, and where he continued to quench his thirst for love affairs and life in general.
Please find a recording of the event on our YouTube channel.
Partner
An event in collaboration with USC Libraries
Location: Villa Aurora, 520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272
Admission is free
RSVP mandatory via 310.454-4231 or infola@vatmh.org
Street Parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service starts at 6:30 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!
Cinema: The Day of Reckoning | Xu Xing
Babylon (Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30 10178 Berlin)
Participants
Xu Xing 徐星 is a prominent Chinese writer and documentary filmmaker. Often called ”The Chinese Jack Kerouac,” his works have consistently engaged with national and international issues of politics, power, and moral responsibility. Xu enjoyed his most prolific period as a writer during the 1980s and 1990s, and his books reached a broad international audience when they were translated into French, English and German. In the early 1990s he migrated to Germany, staying in Heidelberg. After returning to his hometown Beijing, he began shooting documentary films. Xu Xing worked in Villa Aurora as a Feuchtwanger Fellow in 2008.
Dr. Lorenz Bichler is a PhD Sinologist with a degree in Sinology, Japanese Studies and Modern History in Zurich, Beijing and Tokyo. He taught at New York University and is currently teaching at the Sinological Institute of the University of Heidelberg.
Partners
An event by Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V. the Institute of Sinology of the University of Heidelberg with the kind support of the Cinema Babylon.
