Villa Aurora Events Archive
2025
İlker Çatak – East Coast Tour
East Coast
German Movie Nights: The Teacher's Lounge
Screening & Discussion
January 31, 7 p.m. (ET)
Location: Goethe-Institut New York
About: The German Film Office is pleased to host a screening of İlker Çatak’s award-winning feature film The Teachers’ Lounge, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker, moderated by film critic Tomris Laffly.
A conversation with director İlker Çatak
Conversation
February 3, 12 p.m. (ET)
Location: Tufts University (Boston, Massachusetts)
About: To kick off the new semester the Tufts German Department is proud to welcome the Turkish-German director İlker Çatak for a conversation about his academy award nominated and German film award-winning movie The Teacher's Lounge.
İlker Çatak presents The Teacher's Lounge
Screening & Discussion
February 3, 7 p.m. (ET)
Location: Goethe-Institut Boston
About: Screening of İlker Çatak's award-winning feature film The Teachers’ Lounge, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker.
Screening & Discussion The Teacher’s Lounge with İlker Çatak
Screening & Discussion
February 5, 4 p.m. (ET)
Location: Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire)
About: Screening of Academy Award nominee film The Teachers' Lounge with Director İlker Çatak in person. Q&A to follow the screening.
Screening & Discussion Es Gilt das Gesprochene Wort (I Was, I Am, I Will Be) with İlker Çatak
Screening & Discussion
February 6, 6 p.m. (ET)
Location: Brandeis University (Waltham, Massachusetts)
About: Film screening of director İlker Çatak's Es gilt das gesprochene Wort (I Was, I Am, I Will Be). After the screening, İlker Çatak will be present for a conversation about the film.
About İlker Çatak
İlker Çatak, born in Berlin, studied film directing at the Hamburg Media School. Today, he works and lives as a screenwriter and director in Berlin. His films mainly deal with themes such as identity, power structures, and social conflicts.
Selected Awards
2024 | Academy Award Nomination for The Teachers’ Lounge
2023 | Golden Lola, Best Director, Best Screenplay for The Teachers’ Lounge
2020 | Bronze Lola for I Was, I Am, I Will Be
2015 | Gold Student Academy Award
Film Screening: Shadows by Rand Beiruty
Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Information
Shadows will be screened at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival as part of the "Animated Shorts" segment.
Director Rand Beiruty presents her film Shadows at the 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival in the segment "Animation Shorts,", discussing themes of resilience, sacrifice, and womanhood, and how her film brings these important stories to light.
Find more details about the festival and the 2025 program here.
Participants
Rand Beiruty is a writer, director, and producer. She holds a practice-based Ph.D. revolving around questions of representation and participatory filmmaking from the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. She has pitched her projects on international platforms and received awards from, among others, the Tribeca Film Institute, Mifa Animation du Monde, the Arab Cinema Center, and the European Network of Young Cinema. Her debut feature documentary Tell Them About Us celebrated its world premiere at CPH:DOX 2024 while her short animated documentary Shadows had its world premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival.
Selected Awards
2024 | Best European Feature Documentary for Young Audience, 64th Zlín International Film Festival
2021 | Haus am See Scholarship
2020 | Best Pitch, Reception of German Film Schools
2020 | Arab Cinema Award, Cairo Film Connection
2017 | Winner of Tribeca Film Institute – If/Then Competition, CPH:DOX
2016 | European Short Pitch (ESP) Jury Prize, International Script Pitch, Interfilm Berlin
Film Screening & Discussion: The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles (1901 W. 7th St. Suite AB, Los Angeles, CA 90057)
Join us on Friday, February 7th at the Goethe-Institut for a special screening of Mohammad Rasoulof's multi-award-winning film THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG, 97th Academy Awards® Nominee – Best International Feature Film.
Program
6:30pm THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG
9:15pm Discussion with Mohammad Rasoulof + actor Setareh Maleki
10:00pm End of Event
Information
THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG
Germany/France/Iran (2024), 166 Min., Farsi with English Subtitles
Writer-Director – Mohammad Rasoulof
Cast – Misagh Zare, Soheila Golestani, Mahsa Rostami, Setareh Maleki, Niousha Akhshi, Reza Akhlaghi, Shiva Ordooei, Amineh Arani
Producers – Mohammad Rasoulof in Coproduction with Mani Tilgner, Rozita Hendijanian, Amin Sadraei, Jean-Christophe Simon
Production Company – Run Way Pictures in coproduction with Parallel45.
Shot entirely in secret, Mohammad Rasoulof’s award-winning thriller, THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG, centers on a family thrust into the public eye when Iman is appointed as an investigating judge in Tehran. As political unrest erupts in the streets, Iman realizes that his job is even more dangerous than expected, making him increasingly paranoid and distrustful, even of his own wife Najmeh and daughters Sana and Rezvan.
AWARDS
Cannes Film Festival – 2024 Special Jury Prize - Official Competition, Grand Prix - François Chalais Prize, Ecumenical Award (Prix du Jury Oecuménique), Fipresci Award, French Theater Association Prize (Prix des Cinémas Art et Essai)
Sydney Film Festival – 2024 Audience Award for Best International Feature,
San Sebastian Film Festival – 2024 City Of Donostia / San Sebastian Audience Award For Best European Film
Partners
Presented in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles, the German Consulate General Los Angeles, NEON and the German Films.
Film Screening & Discussion with Filmmaker Rand Beiruty
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles (1901 W. 7th St. Suite AB, Los Angeles, CA 90057)
Join us on Thursday, April 3rd, at the Goethe-Institut for a special screening of the films Shadows and Tell Them About Us, followed by a discussion with filmmaker and Villa Aurora Fellow Rand Beiruty. This event is presented in cooperation with the International Documentary Association (IDA) and the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles.
Program
7:00 pm Welcoming & Screenings of Shadows and Tell Them About US
9:00 pm Discussion with Rand Beiruty
9:30 pm End of Event
TELL THEM ABOUT US
Germany/Jordan (2024,) 92 min., German/Arabic/English with English Subtitles
Writer-Director: Rand Beiruty, Cinematography: Marco Müller, Editing: Patrick Richter, Abdallah Sada, Producers: Jude Kawwa, Alex Tondowski, Production Company: Shaghab Films, Tondowski Films
In the East-German province, a clique of Arab, Kurdish, and Roma teenage girls navigate the complexities of culture, friendship, and self discovery, boldly staging their conflicts and dreams in front of the camera. This coming-of-age story follows seven teenage girls adjusting to their new life in Eberswalde, an East German provincial city. Over the period of four years, we witness them steer through friendships, school, finding a career and even marriage.
The girls grapple with the pressures and conflicts of being immigrants and refugees while simultaneously navigating their roles as young women within their families and communities. Next to following them in their daily life, the director organizes writing, music, and acting workshops where the girls reflect upon their circumstances and future goals and dreams. After which, they write scenes to stage in front of the camera. These scenes are turned into dream sequences where the girls envision themselves in the future, as a way to work through painful experiences and playfully translate them into future perspectives under the cover of fiction.
SHADOWS
France/Jordan (2024,) 12 min., German/Arabic with English Subtitles
Writer-Director: Rand Beiruty, Animation/Graphic Author: Marta Magnuska, Editing: Abdallah Sada, Production Company: Shaghab Films, Piano Sano
At an over crowded airport, Ahlam, a 14-year old runaway mother, fights the lurking shadows that attempt to steal the only dream that will set her free.
Participants
Rand Beiruty is a writer, director, and producer. She holds a practice-based Ph.D. revolving around questions of representation and participatory filmmaking from the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. She has pitched her projects on international platforms and received awards from, among others, the Tribeca Film Institute, Mifa Animation du Monde, the Arab Cinema Center, and the European Network of Young Cinema. Her debut feature documentary Tell Them About Us celebrated its world premiere at CPH:DOX 2024 while her short animated documentary Shadows had its world premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival.
Selected Awards
2024 | Best European Feature Documentary for Young Audience, 64th Zlín International Film Festival
2021 | Haus am See Scholarship
2020 | Best Pitch, Reception of German Film Schools
2020 | Arab Cinema Award, Cairo Film Connection
2017 | Winner of Tribeca Film Institute – If/Then Competition, CPH:DOX
2016 | European Short Pitch (ESP) Jury Prize, International Script Pitch, Interfilm Berlin
Partners
Presented in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles and the International Documentary Association (IDA).
Feuchtwanger Refreshed: The Fire Last Time
Wende Museum (10858 Culver Blvd. Culver City, CA 90230)
Information
In 2025, as in 1961, fire came within feet of Villa Aurora. Feuchtwanger Refreshed: THE FIRE LAST TIMEpresents the work of USC student playwrights exploring resilience in the face of destruction and community in the face of diaspora. Reception to follow. Presented by USC Libraries Feuchtwanger Memorial Library and Villa Aurora.
Partner
This event is organized by the Wende Museum, USC Libraries, and Villa Aurora.
Villa Aurora X Lookout FM Radio - Start of the series "if the house could speak"
Radio LOOKOUT FM
In January of 2025 the Palisades Fire came within feet of Villa Aurora. Miraculously, the house survived, and with it the radio transmitter that broadcasts from there throughout the Santa Monica Mountains and the beaches below.
This series explores the voices, past and present, that reverberate at Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger’s former home. For the past 30 years, Villa Aurora has been an artist residence, a place where exile and expression meet, where history and contemporary events converge.
During the process of rebuilding and awaiting our artists’ return, we will be broadcasting newly produced, archival and historical footage for you to listen to and maybe wonder: Is this really only a house or, like Carl Jung suggests, can the composition of a room induce the realization of new truths?
Each episode of if the house could speak will be broadcast on a loop for 24 hours with no interruption. The first episode will air Thursday, June 26th beginning at 12 PM Pacific Daylight Time. For our listeners across the world, that corresponds to 7 PM Coordinated Universal Time.
Episode 1
We begin the series with Marta Feuchtwanger’s own account of the Bel Air Fire that threatened to swallow the house and its library in 1961. In this chapter from her interviews with Lawrence Weschler, Marta remembers what it was like and how the books were saved during that time.
Recording courtesy of the UCLA Department of Special Collections.
Feuchtwanger Refreshed: THE FIRE LAST TIME
Marta’s introduction will be followed by three pieces written by student playwrights of the MFA Dramatic Writing Program at USC. Three pieces that take on different perspectives on home as a place and as a sanctuary for the displaced, resilience and finding uplift in times of desperation.
Presented by USC Feuchtwanger Memorial Library and Villa Aurora, performed at the Glorya Kaufman Community Center at the Wende Museum.
- The Fire Creates Its Own Storm From the Heat - by Eliza Kuperschmid
- Home is a Revolutionary Act - by Claire Bernstein
- Turtle and Blaze - by Collin Romero
In cooperation with
LOOKOUT FM is a West Coast terrestrial radio home for the broadcast of "transmission art:" experimental audio composition, modern serials, data sonification, radio plays, multi-day compositions, and radio-centric performances. Their licensed stations in Burbank, Hollywood, and Pacific Palisades function as FM exhibition spaces where radio art is presented without regard to constraints of time, structure, or commercial consideration.
Villa Aurora supports the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival 2025
Los Angeles
The Glory of Life
LA Premiere
Saturday, June 28, 7:30 p.m. (PT)
Franz Kafka suffers from tuberculosis and is dependent on his overbearing family. In the summer of 1923, he meets Dora Diamant at a seaside resort on the Baltic Sea coast, where he is convalescing and she is working in a Jewish Volksheim. She embraces the indicative, he gets tangled up in the conjunctive. Together they go to Berlin and when Franz's health deteriorates rapidly, to a sanatorium in Austria. They are granted a single year together, a year that allows them to feel the glory of life.
Directed by Georg Maas and Villa Aurora Fellow 2020 Judith Kaufmann
Germany/2024/Drama/98 MinutesGerman with English subtitles
Q&A to follow the screening with Jeffrey High, leading international scholar on Kafka and Professor of German Studies at CSULB.
location:
Laemmle Town Center 5
17200 Ventura Boulevard #UNIT 121
Los Angeles, CA 91316
Plunderer
LA Premiere
Sunday, June 29, 7 p.m. (PT)
Historian Jonathan Petropoulos investigates the life of former Nazi art dealer Bruno Lohse, who became Hermann Göring’s personal collector in Paris, tasked with finding the most desirable works of art the Nazis stole from Jews.
With a look at stunning masterpieces and a deep archive of personal letters, Plunderer reveals the dark underbelly of the international art world.
Q&A to follow screening with subject in the film, historian Jonathan Petropolis and Randy Schönberg, subject of "Woman in Gold" and art restitution attorney.
location:
Museum of Tolerance
9786 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90035
The Zweiflers
LA Premiere
Tuesday, July 1, 7 p.m. (PT)
This compelling series is a comic-dramatic, multigenerational saga following the travails of an extended Jewish family sorting out the future of its vast delicatessen empire in contemporary Germany. Symcha (Mike Burstyn), the patriarch of the Zweifler clan and a Holocaust survivor, is looking to sell off his deli business. Yet potentially damaging secrets from the past throw his future—and that of his children and grandchildren—into question and the Zweiflers’ present into disarray.
Episode 1 is directed by Villa Aurorora Fellow 2016, Anja Marquardt
Episode 2 is directed by Clara von Arnim
Starring: Mike Burstyn, Eleanor Reissa, Mark Ivanir, Sunnyi Melles
Germany/ Dramatic Series/2024/90 mins
German, English, Yiddish, Hebrew with English subtitles
location:
Museum of Tolerance
9786 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90035
Villa Aurora X Lookout FM Radio - Episode 2 of "if the house could speak"
Radio LOOKOUT FM
In January of 2025 the Palisades Fire came within feet of Villa Aurora. Miraculously, the house survived, and with it the radio transmitter that broadcasts from there throughout the Santa Monica Mountains and the beaches below.
This series explores the voices, past and present, that reverberate at Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger’s former home. For the past 30 years, Villa Aurora has been an artist residence, a place where exile and expression meet, where history and contemporary events converge.
During the process of rebuilding and awaiting our artists’ return, we will be broadcasting newly produced, archival and historical footage for you to listen to and maybe wonder: Is this really only a house or, like Carl Jung suggests, can the composition of a room induce the realization of new truths?
Each episode of if the house could speak will be broadcast on a loop for 24 hours with no interruption starting at 12 PM Pacific Daylight Time. For our listeners across the world, that corresponds to 7 PM Coordinated Universal Time and 9 PM Middle European Time.
Episode 2
Part 1: We are starting off the episode with Angela Brussel's poetic essay echo of a sound removed.
Angela Brussel wrote this piece during her residency as a distinguished visitor at Villa Aurora in December of 2024. Beirut, where Angela lives was under bombardment.
While geopolitical forces brought her to California, she unknowingly created the last account of living in the artist residence before the Palisades Fire broke out.
Part 2 - Outerlands by Hanno Leichtmann
During his 2021 stay at the Villa Aurora, Hanno Leichtmann composed a four-channel sound installation for the historic Villa Aurora organ. The organ was built in 1929 by the Artcraft Organ Company Santa Monica, CA and fully restored in 2010. It is comparable to theatre organs in cinemas of the silent era and is not only equipped with a wide range of organ pipes, but also with an effects section, a beautiful 49-piece marimbaphone, and 25 tubular bells in the echo chamber, which can all be played mechanically from the console. Additionally, the organ was outfitted with a MIDI input in 2010 and therefore can be remote-controlled by any MIDI device such as a computer program, a MIDI controller or any hardware sequencer. Hanno Leichtmann recorded the instrument in all possible ways: improvising on the organ, playing the pipes, bells, the marimbaphone and the effects section from the console, or midi-controlled from various DAW sequencers. In addition to these techniques, Leichtmann also recorded the percussion section using different mallets and various metal, wooden and plastic tools, capturing diverse experimental percussion sounds.
In cooperation with
LOOKOUT FM is a West Coast terrestrial radio home for the broadcast of "transmission art:" experimental audio composition, modern serials, data sonification, radio plays, multi-day compositions, and radio-centric performances. Their licensed stations in Burbank, Hollywood, and Pacific Palisades function as FM exhibition spaces where radio art is presented without regard to constraints of time, structure, or commercial consideration.
Villa Aurora X Lookout FM Radio - Episode 3 of "if the house could speak"
Radio LOOKOUT FM
In January of 2025 the Palisades Fire came within feet of Villa Aurora. Miraculously, the house survived, and with it the radio transmitter that broadcasts from there throughout the Santa Monica Mountains and the beaches below.
This series explores the voices, past and present, that reverberate at Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger’s former home. For the past 30 years, Villa Aurora has been an artist residence, a place where exile and expression meet, where history and contemporary events converge.
During the process of rebuilding and awaiting our artists’ return, we will be broadcasting newly produced, archival and historical footage for you to listen to and maybe wonder: Is this really only a house or, like Carl Jung suggests, can the composition of a room induce the realization of new truths?
Each episode of if the house could speak will be broadcast on a loop for 24 hours with no interruption starting at 12 PM Pacific Daylight Time. For our listeners across the world, that corresponds to 7 PM Coordinated Universal Time and 9 PM Middle European Time.
Episode 3
Part 1 - POLITUNES
This episode starts with a piece by Sergey Khismatov, a composer and multimedia artist whose works are presented at concert halls, art exhibitions and film festivals worldwide.
His multi-focused media work explores the spatial distribution of sound.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, he invented a new audio-visual format called Video Ensemble. This innovative medium intertwines spatial sound distribution with visual elements, creating intricate, mosaic-like structures.
In 2023, while a fellow at Villa Aurora, Sergey worked on the Video Ensemble composition POLITUNES.
In Khismatov’s words:
POLITUNES is a project about dictators and populists who keep singing the same tunes over and over again.
More than 100 political figures took part — unwillingly but truthfully.
All the sounds in this video come directly from the politicians you see on screen.
Only unprocessed sounds and videos were used.
Though we obviously feel the audio of this piece stands on its own, you are encouraged to watch the video online.
Part 2 - Feuchtwanger Refreshed
Sergey Khismatov's work will be followed by the second part of our latest Feuchtwanger Refreshed edition. Feuchtwanger Refreshed is an ongoing collaboration between USC's School of Dramatic Arts MFA Dramatic Writing Program, USC Libraries, and Villa Aurora. Graduate playwrights and their instructors present short scenes inspired by archival holdings and writings from USC's Feuchtwanger Memorial Library.
In this episode we hear three pieces performed earlier this year at The Wende Museum as part of “The Fires Last Time”. Written and performed by student playwrights of the MFA Dramatic Writing Program at USC, these three excerpts take different perspectives on what it means to be home, and the way in which that definition can create a sanctuary for people in exile.
• Field Trip by Alessandra Viegas
• The Comics Section by Jason Grasl
• The Whole Palisades is Lost by Moriyah Dichter
In cooperation with
LOOKOUT FM is a West Coast terrestrial radio home for the broadcast of "transmission art:" experimental audio composition, modern serials, data sonification, radio plays, multi-day compositions, and radio-centric performances. Their licensed stations in Burbank, Hollywood, and Pacific Palisades function as FM exhibition spaces where radio art is presented without regard to constraints of time, structure, or commercial consideration.
Helga Kasimoff: Her Store and her Stories
YouTube
Info
On the occasion of what would have been her 94th birthday. We are premiering a documentary about the life and work of Helga Kasimoff and the legendary Blüthner piano store that is still on Larchmont Boulevard to this day.
A film by Richard Haufe-Ahmels with thanks to Serge, Ivan and Kyril Kasimoff, Dr. Christian Blüthner-Haessler, Margit Kleinman, Dr. Claudia Gordon and Friedel Schmoranzer.
Music Sonata for two pianos, I., II. and III, (op. 87) by Ernst Toch performed by Friederike Haufe and Volker Ahmels.
Thanks to the generosity of the Ernst Toch Society, Ernst Toch's Bluethner is housed at Villa Aurora today and is cared for by the Kasimoff-Blüthner Piano Company.
Villa Aurora X Lookout FM Radio - Episode 4 of "if the house could speak"
Radio LOOKOUT FM
In January of 2025 the Palisades Fire came within feet of Villa Aurora. Miraculously, the house survived, and with it the radio transmitter that broadcasts from there throughout the Santa Monica Mountains and the beaches below.
This series explores the voices, past and present, that reverberate at Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger’s former home. For the past 30 years, Villa Aurora has been an artist residence, a place where exile and expression meet, where history and contemporary events converge.
During the process of rebuilding and awaiting our artists’ return, we will be broadcasting newly produced, archival and historical footage for you to listen to and maybe wonder: Is this really only a house or, like Carl Jung suggests, can the composition of a room induce the realization of new truths?
Each episode of if the house could speak will be broadcast on a loop for 24 hours with no interruption starting at 12 PM Pacific Daylight Time. For our listeners across the world, that corresponds to 7 PM Coordinated Universal Time and 9 PM Middle European Time.
Episode 4
In this week’s episode of “if the house could speak” we focus on Thomas Mann’s influential speeches in the face of political challenges on both sides of the Atlantic.
Join us in commemorating the 150th birthday of one of the most influential German writers of the 20th century with a timely exploration of his relevance, the challenges for freedom of expression and the power of literature today.
In part 1 actor, writer and educator Renea Brown is reading excerpts from The Coming Victory of Democracy & Listen, Germany!
Part 2 is connecting the dots of Mann’s words and his artistic legacy in the sound artwork by Grammy-nominated musician Kokayi.
Both pieces were part of An Appeal to Reason, a transatlantic event in partnership with the Goethe-Institut Washington, D.C., the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles, USC Libraries, and the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research at the USC Capital Campus in Washington on May 10, 2025.
About LOOKOUT FM
LOOKOUT FM is a West Coast terrestrial radio home for the broadcast of "transmission art:" experimental audio composition, modern serials, data sonification, radio plays, multi-day compositions, and radio-centric performances. Their licensed stations in Burbank, Hollywood, and Pacific Palisades function as FM exhibition spaces where radio art is presented without regard to constraints of time, structure, or commercial consideration.
Villa Aurora X Lookout FM Radio - Episode 5 of "if the house could speak"
Radio LOOKOUT FM
In January of 2025 the Palisades Fire came within feet of Villa Aurora. Miraculously, the house survived, and with it the radio transmitter that broadcasts from there throughout the Santa Monica Mountains and the beaches below.
This series explores the voices, past and present, that reverberate at Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger’s former home. For the past 30 years, Villa Aurora has been an artist residence, a place where exile and expression meet, where history and contemporary events converge.
During the process of rebuilding and awaiting our artists’ return, we will be broadcasting newly produced, archival and historical footage for you to listen to and maybe wonder: Is this really only a house or, like Carl Jung suggests, can the composition of a room induce the realization of new truths?
Each episode of if the house could speak will be broadcast on a loop for 24 hours with no interruption starting at 12 PM Pacific Daylight Time. For our listeners across the world, that corresponds to 7 PM Coordinated Universal Time and 9 PM Middle European Time.
Episode 5
Part I
In this week’s episode of “if the house could speak” we air
The Auroras by Laurie Schwartz
recorded on June 16, 2024 at Villa Aurora
composed by Laurie Schwartz
performed by Laurie Schwartz and Tim Leanse
recorded and edited by Sam Rowell
Laurie Schwartz is a composer, intermedia artist, and curator. Her works bring together field recordings, spoken fragments, choreography, and video, interwoven with instrumental, vocal, and electronic sound. She is also the founder and curator of itinerant interludes, a multi-disciplinary performance series presented in galleries and art spaces throughout Berlin.
Regardless of the media Schwartz is exploring, her curiosity is a main motivator. During her 2024 residency at Villa Aurora, she collaborated with members of
LOOKOUT FM to create this recording of the Villa’s pipe organ. The organ is an architectural feature as much as a musical one. The whole of the house resonates when it is played. To capture this sonic effect, microphones were placed throughout the Villa: in the upstairs writer’s room, inside the fireplace, along the main stairway, and in the library, grand salon, and the mechanical room that houses the organ’s pipes, keys, and bellows. These recordings were then edited and layered into a single composite piece to create a soundscape that evokes the experience of hearing the organ from every part of the house at once.
Part II
In this episode we hear the final pieces performed as part of Feuchtwanger Refreshed “The Fire Last Time.” Written and performed by student playwrights of the MFA Dramatic Writing Program at USC, these dramatic vignettes present different perspectives on what it means to be home, and the way that definition of home can create sanctuary for people in exile.
Remind Me of Someone by Mayookh Barua
A Whole Life In… by Nena Martins
Feuchtwanger Refreshed is an ongoing collaboration between USC's School of Dramatic Arts MFA Dramatic Writing Program, USC Libraries, and Villa Aurora through which graduate playwrights and their instructors present short scenes inspired by archival holdings and writings from USC's Feuchtwanger Memorial Library.
The edition “The Fire Last Time” was organized by USC Feuchtwanger Memorial Library and Villa Aurora, performed at the Glorya Kaufman Community Center at the Wende Museum on April 29, 2025.
About LOOKOUT FM
LOOKOUT FM is a West Coast terrestrial radio home for the broadcast of "transmission art:" experimental audio composition, modern serials, data sonification, radio plays, multi-day compositions, and radio-centric performances. Their licensed stations in Burbank, Hollywood, and Pacific Palisades function as FM exhibition spaces where radio art is presented without regard to constraints of time, structure, or commercial consideration.
Villa Aurora X O-Town House Exhibition "Whispering Bells"
O-Town House
Info
In January of 2025, the Palisades Fire came within feet of Villa Aurora. Miraculously, the house survived, allowing us to continue our work promoting intercultural exchange and fostering dialogue in arts and culture.
Located at the former home of Jewish-German writer Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta, Villa Aurora is dedicated to preserving the legacy of artists and intellectuals who found refuge from Nazi persecution in Los Angeles. For the past 30 years, Villa Aurora has been an artist residence, a place where exile and expression meet, where history and contemporary events converge. During the process of rebuilding, we are working with local partners to present our artists’ work within the city.
At O-Town House, Villa Aurora has found a temporary home away from home. A magical residency place located in the Granada Buildings, built in 1927 Spanish Revival Style echoing Villa Aurora’s architecture on the other side of Wilshire Boulevard. In addition to that we have found a kindred spirit and true inspiration in the founder and curator of O-Town House: Scott Cameron Weaver.
This group exhibition at O-Town House gallery is our kickoff anniversary show with works of artists spanning the many years of our residency program. At the same time, it is the beginning of an annual exhibition series that will promote future fellows’ works in Los Angeles.
The exhibition’s title Whispering Bells lends its name from the drought-tolerant flower species known as fire followers. The dry, bell-shaped flowers play a rustling song when caught in the wind. Its seeds are triggered by burnt material to start a new life cycle.
Whispering Bells offers a glimpse into the rich artistic legacy created by almost 500 resident artists since 1995 with works by Villa Aurora alumni Achim Mohné (2000), Klaus Pockrandt (2016), Sarah Szczesny (2021), Joram Schön (2024) and Fern Liberty Kallenbach Campbell (2024).
Together with O-Town House, this anniversary show celebrates old friends and new partners: international alliances showcasing our role as transatlantic bridge-builders and local connections anchoring our resident artists in Los Angeles.
Whispering Bells is curated by Friedel Schmoranzer and Scott Cameron Weaver. The exhibition is funded by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, with generous support from our long-standing partner, the Art Foundation of Saxony-Anhalt.
About the Artists
Achim Mohné's interdisciplinary, media-artistic research into the extension of photography and its paradigmatic change through digitality is constantly evolving with new media and their apparatuses. In multimedia installations, sculptures, performances, sound and video works, interactive 3D visualizations with augmented reality or in VR game engines, as well as sculptural translations between digital and real space, works in public space and publications, he calls for a critical distance to the authenticity of the post-photographic image. His complex interventions address media-immanent issues of surveillance, manipulability, artificial intelligence, and virtuality, and examine our interaction with the world in terms of pressing social, technological, geopolitical, ecological, or cultural issues, with a particular focus on nature and environmentalism.
Klaus Pockrandt focusses on graphics, typography, exhibition and illustration as a freelance designer of visual communication, artist and teacher.
Co-founder and partner of the design studio atelier42 / visual communication furák, girod, pockrandt gbr
He holds a guest professorship for creative and artistic basics and drawing at the Department of Design Burg Giebichenstein art academy Halle.
Sarah Szczeny’s method of dissecting, distorting and separating images, such as cartoon film elements, characterizes her collage, painting and video work.
She examines the conditions of painting by stretching the medium’s boundaries through experimental interventions – for example by using gif and loop techniques as well as sound effects -, a multidimensionality is created that gives the painting character of movement and thus locates it in the tradition of cartoons. In this process of animation of collages, which is so essential for her work, Szczesny combines formal studies and citations of pop culture and art history.
Joram Schön, born and raised in Berlin-Moabit, is an artist and filmmaker. He studied fine arts at UdK Berlin in the class of Thomas Zipp. He has participated in several group, duo, and solo exhibitions in Germany and abroad. In his drawings he combines nature and urban observations. He preserves urban change in his critical questions about topographies and architecture. He is currently doing his master's degree at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne (KMH), combining the mediums of drawing and filmmaking to realize autobiographical short stories.
Fern Liberty Kallenbach Campbell, born in New York, grew up in Berlin, and lives and works in Halle (Saale). She studied communication design at Burg Giebichenstein and completed her bachelor's degree in 2021 with a focus on illustration in the class of Prof. Georg Barber. In 2023 she completed her diploma in textile art in the class of Prof. Caroline Achaintre. Fern processes her personal and digital reality in the form of tapestries. Here, the boundaries between good and evil become blurred, as well as the boundaries between self-medication and addiction, chaos and harmony. The dining table is a recurring element in her works.
Visit + Location
O-TOWN HOUSE
672 S. Lafayette Park Place, Suite 44 / 43
Los Angeles, CA 90057
T: +1 213 263 9428
home@o-townhouse.art
Hours:
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 12 - 6 pm and by appointment
Please contact us if you would like to come by at another time!
Street parking available and at Wii Spa with car wash included.
Access to the building at the gate by using the call-box to call O-Town House from its menu (Dial: 044). Take the stairs immediately to the left.
The gallery is accessible by elevator. If you need assistance please let us know.
