The Italian Cultural Institute and The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies - Columbia University present: Margherita Moscardini - Andrea Nacciarriti, New York Prize 2014-15 Winners. Final Projects

Monday, March 30, 6 - 8 PM. Italian Cultural Institute - 686 Park Avenue - New York, New York 10065. TO RSVP PLEASE CLICK HERE

Margherita Moscardini - Metropolitan Voids Agency

A huge rock is wedged between two buildings, 17-19 Bennett Avenue, Hudson Heights. It is the highest point of Manhattan, 81 meters over the sea level.
The granite boulder is a superficial part of the island's bed-rock and is a void first of all. Because it avoided the grid, it detracts to Manhattan a portion of building area: it undercuts its congenital will of saturation, the city's vocation to gain as much profit as possible, inside the island's borders.

The boulder in Hudson Heights is subversive like a hill of bodies that occupy the public space in order to defend it; it is one of the permanent, temporary, underground or superficial urban voids, that the Metropolitan Voids Agency project will seek to collect and to unfold the potentialities.

Margherita Moscardini (Italy, 1981) studied Cultural Anthropology in Bologna, Italy and she attended the Advanced Course in Visual Arts of Antonio Ratti Foundation, Como, Italy, with Yona Friedman. Her work has been recently exhibited at MMCA Changdong, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea, Italian Institute of Culture of Istanbul, Turkey, MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Italy, ArtToday CCA, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, SongEun Art Space, Seoul, South Korea, Schauwerk Foundation, Stuttgart, Germany, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy, Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, Firenze, Italy. She is currently based in New York, as a resident of the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) and as a fellow of the Italian Academy of Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University, supported by the Italian Cultural Institute of New York (New York Prize 2014-2015).

Andrea Nacciarriti - Polyporaceae

Extract about the Dialog between John Cage and Mike Bongiorno during the final episode of "Lascia o raddoppia" (Milan, Thursday, February 26 1959)

M.B.: Well done Mr. Cage. Very well Mr. Cage, good job! Mr. Cage proved us that he's a real mushroom expert because the questions we asked him tonight were very tough. He hasn't just been an odd character performing strange music on the stage, he's a prepared scholar indeed. I knew it because I remember him saying he had been living by the woods near New York and that everyday he used to go walking searching for mushrooms. That's where he improved his skills.
J.C.: I'd like to thank the mushrooms, RAI and all the people of Italy.
M.B.: All the people of Italy!
[applauses]
M.B.: Goodbye Mr. Cage. Have a nice trip; do you go back to United States or you stay here? [as Bongiorno literally puts it]
M.B.: Ah, you're coming back.
J.C.: My music is staying.
M.B.: Ah, so you're leaving and you're music is staying. But we'd wish you to stay here and your music to go away instead!
[laughs and applauses]
M.B.: Goodbye Mr. Cage. See you soon and good luck to everyone with Lascia o Raddoppia!

Andrea Nacciarriti's (born 1976, Ostra Vetere, Italy) work is included in both the Foundation Antoine de Galbert, Paris and La Gaia Collection, Italy. Recent solo exhibitions include Pescheria Foundation Visual Arts Center, Pesaro, Italy; Centre d'Art Bastille, Grenoble, France; and Franco Soffiantino Gallery, Torino. Nacciarriti has been included in group exhibitions at MACRO, Rome; La Maison Rouge, Paris; and Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, France. He is currently based in New York, as a resident of the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) and as a fellow of the Italian Academy of Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University, supported by the Italian Cultural Institute of New York (New York Prize 2014-2015).

Source: IIC New York