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What is Contemporary Sicily?
Contemporary Sicily is a research and
event project of visual arts, music, and culture aimed to
introduce the New York audience to the multi-faceted culture
and history of Sicily and to provide reference material for
visitors and scholars.
Subjects range from visual arts and jazz
to publishing, photography, North African and Albanian
influences and Jewish-Sicilian traditions. The works and
performances presented under the umbrella of Contemporary
Sicily focus on artists who operate within the contemporary
Sicilian art scene. They maintain deep links to traditional and
local forms of expression while demonstrating an attentive
sensibility for international tendencies to which they refer
both stylistically and in their choice of themes.
Programming and collaborations
Past programming has includes lectures,
panel discussions and other educational events, held in
collaboration with Sicilian and New York partners, including
the Italian Cultural Institute, The Cultural Council of the
City of Palermo, Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, The The New
School University, The Italian American Writers Association,
Barnes & Noble, the Centro Culturale Primo Levi in North
America, The Next Stage, Brooklyn College, the Brooklyn Center
for Performing Arts, and the Angel Orensanz Foundation, The
Vera List Center for Art and Politics, Tulane University, and
University of Wisconsin.
Selected past events
Presented by an essay of Robert Viscusi
Sciacca master of portraiture Franco
Accursio Gulino has worked for three decades to define his
post-expressionist approach to the representation of the human
soul and psychological characters. His imagery combines an
extraordinary knowledge of Renaissance and medieval techniques
with a grotesque sarcasm, drawn from the Sicilian popular
iconography and deeply linked to the painting tradition of the
20th century.
Toyland is the continuation of a previous
work by Sicilian multi-media artist Andrea Cusumano called The Installation of the Dead (Los Angeles, 1996). It is conceived as an
imaginary representation of the Sicilian epics of “pupi"
(or puppets) in the tradition of Pirandello, Vittorini,
Sciascia, Guttuso, Tomasi and Bufalino, that makes Sicily a
theater of the world and the human experience.
Mr. Gebbia, 40, has received extensive
international attention. In a New York Times review of
his appearance at the Victoriaville Festival in Canada, Ben
Ratliff described him as “a
nimble, melodic, player, and his set was equivalent to the
thrill of seeing excellent draftsmanship in a post-modern
painting.” Mr. Gebbia's
collaborations include work with Pina Bausch and the Japanese
butoh dancers Tadashi Endo and Masaki Iwana.
An Oration upon the Most Recent Death of
Christopher Columbus
Words and music written and performed by
Robert Viscusi
Epic poets sing of peoples, wars, and
gods. In An Oration upon the Most
Recent Death of Christopher Columbus, Viscusi sings of the Italian immigrants who marched
behind Columbus, as well as the struggles of indigenous peoples
and Africans who were swept into the vortex of New World
imperial development. In this poem, Columbus the god leaves
eternity and enters history.
Jazz: Palermo-New Orleans, New
Orleans-Palermo
A research project curated by Guido
Festinese
Since the twenties, American jazz has
enchanted the island of Sicily, and Sicilian musicians have
traveled to New Orleans and other U.S. cities to become part of
the scene. Musicians Pete Rugolo, Nick La Rocca, Lennie
Tristano, Tony Scott and George Wallington, have invigorated a
new generation of musicians back home in the Mediterranean
island. In this exciting evening of free-form jazz,
acclaimed saxophonist Gianni Gebbia and pianist Salvatore
Bonafede, show how far the Sicilian tradition has moved from
its beginnings in New Orleans Dixieland.
Sicilian Jazz: What language are they
speaking?
A forum follows organized with The Next
Stage, New York.
Panelists: Bruce Boyd Raeburn, curator of
the Hogan Jazz Archive, Mike Longo, former pianist and music
director for Dizzy Gillespie, and Gianni Gebbia, saxophonist
and coordinator of the music program Palermo di Scena.
The Photographer and the publisher
Looking at the history of publishing as an
important record and indicator of cultural, intellectual, and
political trends, Contemporary Sicily dedicated a special
presentation to the extraordinary book collection on Sicily and
Sicilian authors published by Elvira and Enzo Sellerio. Topics
of the collection include popular literature, minor writings of
major writers, women's history, popular religion, archeology,
politics, and social issues.
A special feature of the program is the
art-book series created by Enzo Sellerio through years spent
collecting and photographing Sicilian treasures and shuffling
through Palermo's old markets, historic archives, libraries,
and evanescent homes.
For a History of Sicilian Jews
Reading and slide show by Antonio di Gesù
in collaboration with the Centro
Culturale Primo Levi in North America
The first known Jewish settlement in
Sicily is said to have arrived direclty from Israel during the
period of the Second Temple. Under the pressure of the
Inquisition and in spite of great resistance on the part of
local authorities and people, Sicilian Jews were expelled in
1493 and the ones who decided to remain in the island were
forced into conversion.
The legend goes that some went to Turkey,
some to North Africa and some headed to the New World. Today,
Jews number approximately 30, and they are scattered throughout
the island. Despite their low numbers they manage to come
together for the High Holidays and other community events. This
slide presentation offers a virtual journey through the Jewish
sites of Sicily.
