The virtually confident world of “ American Dreamers” at the Strozzina, Florence

Pubblicato il 9 Marzo 2012 da Beppe

CCCS stands for Contemporary Culture Centre Strozzina. Its eleven rooms, covering an area of 850 sqm, located  under the courtyard of the Florentine Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, are the former cellars of the jewel of the Italian Renaissance.

Since November 2007 the Strozzina has been organizing thematic exhibitions, workshops, performances on socially relevant issues, paying particular attention to  contemporary artistic communication. From March 9th up to July 15th  2012 the exhibition “ American Dreamers: Reality and Imagination in Contemporary American Art”, born from the joint work of Franciska Nori, director of the Strozzina and Bartholomew F.Bland of  the Hudson River Museum (Yonkers, New York). The visitor is guided into a maze, opening into fantastic worlds, built out of humble stuff and recycled scraps. For this thrilling views

he is requested  to call on new patterns  of the interpretation of reality.

The main issue of the exhibition is  the pervading loss of economic and social certainties, due to the 2001 attack to the New York Twin Towers and its consequent financial crisis in the States and in the world at large.

The American Dream which lay at the basis of the American way of life, promising success and happiness has broken down.

However,  in spite of the watershed represented by September 11th 2001, the basically  American optimistic belief in a happy future steadily goes on. The optimistic spirit and imagination are able to escape from  harsh reality,  finding out a shelter in an alternative virtual  world which  is peopled by mythical creatures and images  fulfilling radiant virtual dreams. Plenty the artists. Among them Laura Ball, Adrien Broom, Nick Cave, Will Cotton, Adam Cvijanovic, Richard Deon, Thomas Doyle, Mandy Greer, Kirsten Hassenfeld, Patrick Jacobs, Christy Rupp. They all aim at setting up,  through fantasy and imagination, a world able to counteract  the increasingly complex real one. The exhibition  offers the visitor  multifaceted  features. Some artists  deepen  to the essence of reality through miniatures while others  simplify the process, drawing  back to reassuring themes like family and home. This last one is the favourite approach of  Patrick Jacobs.

He creates  careful miniature environments, dioramas visible through small portholes on the walls. At first sight his  exhibition space seems  to be empty, but at a closer look  some openings on the wall invite the visitor to peep through the keyhole at  bright landscapes, natural close-ups or  details of cosy and safe rooms. These are his dioramas, intense artificial worlds created through visual perception,  altered by  intense lighting and circular convex  lenses . The result is a greater virtual reality which sounds  reassuring,  purified of any human presence. Let us mention just few works, the most impressive ones Fairy Rings with Dandelions, Mushroom Clusters # 1 and # 2 or  View of Gowanus Heights, all dealing with idealized,  inaccessible  and uncorrupted worlds . Nothing can destroy the harmony and balance of his dioramas.  Wrapped in a virtually  confident world  we feel,  for the time of the visit,  happily trustful to the future.

May it be enough?

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International Women’s Day in Florence

Pubblicato il 8 Marzo 2012 da Beppe

Today, March the 8th, is  the International Women’s Day. Its historical roots draw backs to the beginning of the 20th century when it was called International Working Women’s Day. Now it is being  celebrated, as each year, all the world round from  different perspectives, ranging from a non-committal, vague respect, appreciation and love towards women  to a  more specific acknowledge of their economic political and social achievements.

Florence has  chosen, on this day, a celebration far from ritual stereotypes, privileging  human rights and cultural,  political, social awareness, following   the issues stated by United Nations. It is  a day to be spent at theatres,  at the museums.  Most of cultural Florentine institutions are free for women, who can thus  visit  the Galleria degli Uffizi,  the  Cappelle Medicee, Palazzo Pitti, the Museo di San Marco and the Cappella Brancacci . The jewels of the town are  open to their interests and passions,  a considerable homage to the gender. Other interesting proposals by the local Confcommercio are tours dedicated to some famous Florentine women who indirectly shared with their husbands the government of the town,  such as Eleonora  of Toledo, wife of Cosimo the 1st Medicis, or Bianca Cappello , lover and later wife to Francesco of the Medici dynasty.

Other debates about  women and fashion at Palazzo Pitti or  women and power at Piazza della Repubblica  or women and Middle ages at  Piazza della Signoria.

Libraries are, as well, centers of intellectual activities. In the Biblioteca Canova and at Villa Bandini there will be readings from Virginia Woolf,  Sibilla  Aleramo and Simone De Beauvoir,  woman writers who have paved the way to many of everyday conquests. The whole town and surroundings are blossoming with initiatives: meetings,  exhibitions,  poetry readings.

The   mimosa, up to now,  symbol of the International Women’s Day,  is no longer the only flower adorning  the female gender. To oppose any kind of violence against women Antonio Marchese,  famous rose hybridizer,  has created a three-coloured rose to be planted in the Giardino delle Rose at Villa Bardini.  The narcissus too, symbol of beauty  and  fertility in the Jewish tradition, has become another  gender flower. An ideal overcoming of religious and cultural barriers in order to focus on  the vital role women play in enhancing communities and countries, each according to their own skills and competences.

Pubblicato in Culture in Tuscany, Senza categoria | Lascia un commento

Evening Friday at the Fortezza Medicea in Siena

Pubblicato il 7 Marzo 2012 da Beppe

Beside the secret and hidden Tuscany there is  the  real Tuscany. Let us discover the countryside now  at early  spring when the bright green starts to spring out  across the countryside,  celebrating the rebirth of nature. This is the  best time of year to come  when the visitors are still few and restaurants are happily cheaper. After enjoying the charm of the Tuscan landscape of the cypress trees lining winding roads, let us head  for Siena and, abandoning for a while the artistic treasures, indulge in the everyday pleasures of life. An event not to miss is Enocene inside the Medicis’ Fortress. In a convivial atmosphere every Friday, up to late summer 2012,  winemakers  are going to offer their excellent wines to dishes made from  local produce. The first rendez-vous took place on March the 2nd 2012. The chef Alberto Degortes of the restaurant “Millevini”,  prepared for the guests a gorgeous meal. The appetizer consisted of  bream carpaccio with artichokes and lemon  flavoured  prawns,  accompanied by a white Sicilian wine “Quarter 2010-Firriato, then followed the tagliolini with squids and prawns flavored with sage and sea bass both combined with Contessa Entellina DOC “Chiarandà” 2007 – Donnafugata, and warm chocolate “hearts”, accompanied by Elba Aleatico Passito Doc 2005 –Acquabona ended gloriously the dinner.

A great match between seafood and the wines from Sicily and the Tuscan Elba Island, as the wine journalist Andrea Gabbrielli underlined  during the soireè.. A unique opportunity to understand the successful  combination between wine and food and to tune in with the philosophy and personalities of the wine producers,  in a friendly and charming background.

Considering the high standard the price, 35€, seems to be quite reasonable.

Pubblicato in Tuscan food and wine | Lascia un commento

Florence: The Teatro del Sale, a small jewel not to be missed

Pubblicato il 2 Marzo 2012 da Beppe

A new light on Florence in springtime. Why not  profit from the good season for a short holiday? Look at the apartment in Florence or the Tuscan villas offered by Tuscan Holiday Rent.  Savour the mild weather,  strolling along the Arno river or make your way up to Piazzale Michelangelo to get the best view of  the town spreading in front of you, under the sun setting or otherwise  visit the Romanesque San Miniato al Monte at the end of the day, when Benedictine monks sing Vespers.

But  remember to be before 19,30 in Via dei Macci 111rosso,  in a very amazing place called Teatro del Sale for an excellent, reasonably priced dinner: a gorgeous buffet of fresh pastas, grilled meats, sautéed vegetables and all kind of salads, all accompanied by generous Tuscan wine. You can help yourself with the tapas-style dishes set out on a large table after  the chef has announced what is being served, continuing to fill your plate until the evening show starts. In fact at about  9.30 p.m. the place magically turns into a stage for evening performances,  ranging from Gershwin to  Macbeth. That is the Teatro del Sale, a successful combination restaurant-theater, unique, quite a lot of fun. What you need is a membership, being it a club. Five euros per person to get a card valuable for a year,  which allows you to drop here at any time and  have breakfast, lunch or  dinner.  Everything works great.

The cunning minds of this place are the chef owner Fabio Picchi and the actress Maria Cassi, a couple in work and life. To each of them their respective domain. Mr Picchi, not easy to be defined,  is in turns entrepreneur and poet. He is surely  genial. He  inaugurated in 1978 the Cibreo, a cult restaurant,  drawing his name from a Renaissance dish.  A café and grocery store were added in 1989  and finally  in 2003 a cultural club” the Teatro del Sale” . It is an on-going lab of cooking and theatre, an original  mixture of something outside the beaten tracks. As a writer, Picchi proudly  interprets,  in one of his several books, the ten commandments  of cooking,  a sort of philosophy  meant to find out  the laws of  the authentic traditional dishes.

Maria Cassi , a professional actress,  is  the artistic director of the pieces staged  at the Teatro del Sale. Last year she conquered the French with a sold-out show ”Crepapelle” (being in stitches) at  the Théatre du Rond Point in Paris. The piece moves from Fiesole, in the surroundings of Florence,  to Paris focusing on  hilarious stories,  brushstrokes depicting both Florentine folks and  unconventional Parisians.

Maria, continuously moving from Florence dialect to  her personal French, wears on the stage different masks, playing different characters, elderly homeless,  charming women,  mature men. The audience is steadily captured. According to the French newspaper Le Monde,  the actress recalls Charlie Chaplin, Jerry Lewis or Jacques Tati, thanks to her witty sense of humour,  always swinging  between laughter and emotion,  her playing on words and comic verve interspersed  with dramatic qualities. At the moment she is in the States in Broadway, New York, with an autobiographical musical about her Italian and Florentine Dolce Vita called “ My life with men and..other animals” produced by Peter Schneider, the guru of Disney successes like The king Lion, Roger Rabbit  and the Beauty and the Beast. Peter Schneider himself remembers the meeting with Maria  at the Cibreo when  in Florence for a language course. Four years ago, in winter time, he met the woman who embodied  the best of Tuscany: wine, food, sun, light and art , but above all, the freedom  to be simultaneously silly and wonderfully human.  In spite of his poor Italian he was charmed -as he says-  by the performances of  the unique  magical, mercurial,  fascinating Maria Cassi at the Teatro del Sale among wine,  food and  gestural conversation. That’s the genesis of the musical on show in Broadway on  March the 15th 2012.

Pubblicato in Tuscan food and wine | Lascia un commento

2011 Brunello di Montalcino awarded 4-stars

Pubblicato il 1 Marzo 2012 da Genni

The early harvest has rewarded the 2011 Brunello di Montalcino with 4-stars. So many, in fact, are the stars that the jury of experts and producers have attributed on February 25th during the “Welcome Brunello” meeting, when they publicly announced their verdict on the quality of the vintage. The decision to collect the grapes 15 days ahead of schedule has efficaciously balanced the effects of the heat wave that hit Tuscany last summer, consigning also to 2011 a high quality level vintage. Now we’ll all have to wait five years, as required by regulation, to taste Brunello 2011 and receive confirmation on the excellence of the wine; 6 years for the Reserve.

The meeting proceeded with the laying of the commemorative tile and the Leccio d’Oro –Golden Holm Oak- prize-giving. This year features a masterpiece of tile, which as by tradition is placed upon the outer wall of the Palazzo Pubblico –the town hall-  of Montalcino, being designed by the haute couture brand Salvatore Ferragamo. The tile is an original floral arrangement in which the leaves of the vine, the vine leaves and grapes are the backdrop for a glass and a bottle of wine, taking the form of delicate white flowers and pink.

The stunning medieval town of Montalcino sits upon a hill which was probably settled in Etruscan times. It takes its name from a variety of oak tree that once covered the territory; today the surroundings are dominated by the famous vines and by olive groves.  At the highest point of town is the 14th century pentagonal fortress. From the main gate of the fortress a narrow street leads to the 13th century Romanesque church of Sant’Agostino.

Next door the Musei Riuniti have taken over the rooms of an ancient convent and hold various works such as the 15th century wooden sculpture of an incredibly moving Madonna, which has become the symbol of town in various ads, a gorgeous wooden crucifix by an unknown artist of the Sienese school, a St Peter and St Paul by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, a Virgin and Child by Simone Martini and several terracotta sculptures apparently of the Della Robbia school. The Cathedral, instead, was originally built in the 14th century, but, owing to extensive renovation work, today has a neo-classical appearance. The above-mentioned town hall was built towards the end of 13th-beginning of 14th century and once was the Palazzo dei Priori, as the coat of arms adorning the palace proves.

The hilltop town of Montalcino is surrounded by farmland of great history and beauty. The gentle rolling hills of Val d’Orcia are occasionally broken by gullies and by picturesque towns such as Pienza, Radicofani and obviously Montalcino. Not for nothing since 2004 Val d’Orcia has been added to UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites list. Surrounded by this magnificent landscape is a beautiful villa with pool near Castiglione d’Orcia which can comfortably accommodate up to 21 people. Around only peace and quiet, and at just a few kilometres the famous spa towns of Bagno Vignoni and Bagni San Filippo. How to resist visiting this part of the world with its medieval villages to visit and its savoury dishes and excellent wines to taste?

Pubblicato in Culture and accommodations in Tuscany, Tuscan food and wine | Lascia un commento