Sfinge greca a Villa San Michele, Capri 1932 - © Herbert List Estate/Contrasto

Mediterranean. An Anthology by Images.
Photographs by Herbert List and Maurizio Galimberti.

A project by Denis Curti
Certosa di San Giacomo, Quarto del Priore, Capri
Period: From July 9th to September 4th, 2011 (extended until September 25th)

Opening: 18.00 Saturday, July 9th 2011
Free entrance Tuesday through Saturday 10.00-14.00 and 17.00-20.00

On July 9th, 2011 the Capri Photography Festival will be opening its third edition. Following the success of the exhibitions covering the work of Baron Von Gloeden (2009) and Mimmo Jodice (2011), Fondazione Capri will resume its cultural and artistic activity in this summer event, completely dedicated to language, contemporary art and photography. On this edition, Capri Photography 2011 will wear the brand new clothes of a photography review and will include some specific activities, from July 27th to the end of September.

The Festival will introduce the show: Mediterranean. An Anthology by Images. Photographs by Herbert List and Maurizio Galimberti, hosted in the picturesque venue of Certosa di San Giacomo, two theme workshops with Alessandra Mauro and Maurizio Galimberti and a portfolio review open to both amateurs and professionals. The exhibition is designed to draw a route through a trilogy dedicated to great classic photography and start a new research into contemporary photography. The selection from the German author (Hamburg, 1903 – Munchen, 1975) is made up of 50 prints from the prestigious Estate List of Hamburg.

The production of List is unparalleled, very dense and compact, however limited the number of subjects one looks at: the subject we will focus on the present exhibition is the Mediterranean. On the other hand, Herbert List set quite a big portion of his work in this geographical area, turning it into a real protagonist of his imagery and then bringing in the main themes of his research. In actual fact, Greece is the place where most of his pictures were taken between 1937 and 1939 after he moved to Italy following the dramatic war period between 1950 and1961. The centre and the south of Italy are the locations which he found the most inspiring: from Rome, the subject of his 1955 publication, to Naples, the subject of another theme work in 1962, to the rough beauty of Sicily and the radiating light of Capri.

Piccola Marina, Capri, Agosto 1932 - © Herbert List Estate/Contrasto

Mediterranean. An Anthology by Images on Flickr

The works of Maurizio Galimberti are a natural extension to List’s work. His master-of-elegance gaze goes back to familiar places and styles and finally turns into a route of experimentation and artistic research. The exhibition of Galimberti is the first of a number Fondazione Capri will be staging every year: starting 2011, a different author will be entrusted with the task of telling an original unheard of tale about Capri. The first series, from Christmas 2010, is composed of black and white Polaroid material. This section shows Galimberti’s tribute to Herbert List, evident in the same fascination for silent and elegant landscapes. All the images convey the idea of overriding exclusive beauty. The nature, the sea and unexpected scenarios make the favourite hint for an intimate secretive gaze.

The second series is based on the technique of mosaic which includes large pictures made up of to 200 Polaroid snapshots put together. The talent of Galimberti is evident here to replicate the rhythm and the fascination of the architecture and paramount views around the island. The third part is dedicated to big Polaroid format 50X60. Unique images, portraits, home interiors and breathtaking views, taken through the colours of instant photos.

Workshops and conferences

The two activities above will take place on July 16th and 17th, in the show areas of Grand Hotel Quisisana. On July 16th, Alessandra Mauro will hold a workshop-conference entitled Photographs for an Exhibition. When a Photography Project Becomes an Exhibition. The main contents of the workshop will include: Alfred Stieglitz would regard photography exhibitions as demonstrations of something: an idea, a particular vision, a specific mode to tell about the world or just a simple story. Bearing this teaching in mind, the workshop will try to look into each demonstration (laws, photography exhibition) by singling out the theories, the potential as well as the technical and logistical needs we should not forget about when photographs become three-dimensional objects on display in a museum or in a gallery.

The workshop will also highlight the relationship between a photography exhibition and a catalogue: how a project can turn into a travel in space (exhibition) and in time (book). A number of practical examples will complete the presentation. Alessandra Mauro has a degree in Humanities. She is a columnist and editor-in-chief of Contrasto, Roma and Art Director of Forma – Centro Internazionale di Fotografia di Milano. She taught Theory and History of Photography at Università Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples. The workshop will take into exam a number of case histories from different photography festivals around Europe as well as the best ways to set up an exhibition, the promotion of artistic work, in-depth analysis of today’s schools of thought in contemporary photography and the best ways to run a museum.

On July 17th the project coordinated by Maurizio Galimberti will deal with the themes of creativity and project in photography. The one-day workshop will focus on the practice, the shot, the composition and the final selection of images. After giving a short introduction, Galimberti will lead the participants to a number of locations to take some training shots around the island and then will move on to analyse and discuss the pictures. All participants must have their own photo camera.

Capri, Dicembre 2010 - Foto di maurizio Galimberti

Mediterranean. An Anthology by Images on Flickr

On July 9th, 17th-18th a Portfolio Reading will take place. This activity is aimed to all photography lovers who wish to check out with specialized and qualified professionals. This meeting will give you the opportunity to show your own pictures and discuss their real value. The participation is free of charge, but it is necessary to enrol at Fondazione Capri secretary at Grand Hotel Quisisana. Each portfolio reading will last 20 minutes. The experts we have selected are: Alessandra Mauro (Art Director of Forma and Editor-in-Chief of Contrasto), Mimmo Jodice (Photographer), Denis Curti (Director of the Milan branch of Contrasto), Roberta Valtorta (Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Cinisello Balsamo), Maurizio Galimberti (Photographer), Roberto Koch (President of Fondazione Forma e Contrasto).

Herbert List

The photography career of Herbert List, born in Hamburg in 1903, spreads over three decades, becoming more relevant between 1936, when he left Germany for political and personal reasons, and the mid 1960s. He worked at his father’s coffee import business from South America and was soon absorbed by the hobby of collecting Italian drawings from the XVII and the XVIII century. He started taking his first photographs using a medium-sized Hasselbad and then a more practical 35 mm – the resulting pictures are still among the most elegant and poetical in the whole history of photography.

To give an extreme synthesis of his biography as a photographer, List appears as an extremely versatile artist: he first worked for a number of fashion magazines including Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, he was a full-fledged artist and, from 1951 on, after meeting Robert Capa, he joined the Magnum photography group, the most prestigious photo-journalistic agency ever, set up just a few years before in Paris by Capa himself along with Henri Cratier-Bresson, David Chim Seymour and George Rodger. Yet, List’s versatility is unique, as it can adjust to a bunch of different destinations, while his production shows an uninterrupted path through his poetics and style.

Some of List’s main cultural references are to be found in Italian cultural movements, including De Chirico’s Metaphysical Art and Neorealism, which embodies Italy’s artistic rebirth following the dismay of the two wars and which prompted him to collaboration with Vittorio De Sica on the Neapolitan series. He seems to have drawn from Metaphysical Art his interest for antiquity and for unveiling the enigmatic side of reality. Neorealism finds its way into List’s work as his idyllic settings show, i.e. a special interest in the environment and the skill he has when conveying nature’s enchantment and roughness alike. Antiquity and landscape, culture and nature, these are the concepts which make up the opposite and yet complementary landmarks of this kind of Arcadia List discovers in Southern Italy. Another key element to the German photographer’s research is the human body, connecting the man and the environment. Some of his images are a glorious display of bodies, flesh and muscles lying in the sun, like a precious sculpture or a majestic marina.

Everything here finds its highest degree of perfection. The sea, the sand, the stone and the Mediterranean sun reach their purest expression. Among those works, some key 19th century icons really stand out, along with some unreleased and still unknown to the public and scholars. They are all the result of List’s extraordinary ability to combine an innermost instinct to a subject with a stringent rigour of representation. Threading this thin line, we can understand the uniqueness of List’s art – a really modern classic.

In the 1960s, the artist leads some anthropological research on a bunch of themes: from feasts to religious rituals in the south to healthcare and mental disease problems, from school to imprisonment, from work to social marginalization in the huge suburbs around Naples. His social photography doesn’t fall into traditional reportage categories.

Maurizio Galimberti

Maurizio Galimberti was born in Como in 1956. He studied as a land-surveyor and it is in building sites where he developed the stringent point of view he was to impress the world with. As a young man, he took part in a number of different photography competitions and won some of them by using fancy names such as his wife’s or his mother’s. He took his first photographs by ordinary analogical film opting for a rotating lens widelux B/W camera and in diapo/cibachrome mode before he discovered his real passion-obsession for Polaroid in 1983. He simply couldn’t wait for hours to see his photos developed and also suffered from a lifelong fear of dark rooms. Besides, he found that instant camera’s rendering of colours was simply magical and started a long research path up into the present day.

In the early 1990s he decided to leave the family building business and focus on photography only. In 1991 he started his collaboration and became official testimonial with Polaroid Italia, as resulted in the POLAROID PRO ART photobook, released in 1995, a real cult object for polaroid integral film lovers. 1997 sees Galimberti’s Polaroid mosaics step into the collecting world. His peculiar technique is deeply impacted by Boccioni’s Futurism and the frantic dynamism of Duchamp. Galimberti can visualise a complex image scanning, read the notes of its music in his mind in the blink of an eye and then turn it into a work of art both mathematical in its detail and harmony-like as a whole.

The same technique made him famous for his mosaic portraits. In 1999 he is Class magazine number one for Italian photo-portrait painters. The popularity and success of his unusual face portraits prompted him to take part in many editions of Venice Film Festival. In particular, on the 2003 Festival edition, his portrait of Johnny Depp would be selected as the cover for the British edition of the Time Magazine on September, 27th. His peculiar technique has called the interest of a number of top companies in different areas including: AC Football Milan (“Il Milan del centenario”), Fiat Auto (2006 calendar, “Viaggio in Italia… nuova Fiat 500” photobook), Kerakoll (“NewYorkmatericomovimentosa” photobook), Jaeger Lecoultre (“La grand maison” photobook), Illy Caffé (institutional campaign 2008), Nokia (“telefoninotempoemozione” photobook), Lancia Auto (portraits from the 66th edition of Venice Film Festival).

In 2005, the meeting with the Fumagallis, contemporary art lovers and collectors, allowed Galimberti to start a series of important photobooks featuring world top cities such as New York, Venice and Berlin. In 1997 Archivio NordEst was set up to collect, number and sort out his works as well as to exploit and preserve their authenticity. In October 2009, in the occasion of the reopening of Polaroid, he was invited as official testimonial to the Hong Kong Photography Festival for the launch of new products. Besides that, Galimberti is visiting professor at Domus Academy and the Istituto Italiano di Fotografia of Milan. He regularly holds creative photography workshops at top photography festivals. He is currently working on a prestigious publication on the city of Milan in sight of 2015 Expo.

The Curator

Denis Curti is the Director of Milan’s branch of Contrasto and Vicepresident of FONDAZIONE FORMA, Centro Internazionale di Fotografia. He is the Director of the Post-graduate Photography Course organised by NABA and Fondazione FORMA. He is the Director of the Photojournalism school of Contrasto. He is a consultant at the Fondazione di Venezia for photographical heritage. He was Director at Festival di Fotografia di Savignano sul Rubicone from 2000 to 2006. For over 15 years he was journalist and photography critic for the magazines Vivimilano and Corriere della Sera. He was Art Director at five editions of Biennale Internazionale di Fotografia of Turin.

He is an expert on the photography collecting market and back in the 2002-2003 he was curator of the first photo auctions at Sotheby’s House in Milan. In 2003 he was in the jury of the first edition of the International Photography Prize at the Photography Festival of Arles. From 1995 to 2002 he was Director of Fondazione Italiana per la Fotografia. In the 1990s he was Director of the Photography School at Istituto Europeo di Design of Turin. He is the author and the curator of several books on photography, his latest work is Collezionare fotografia, Contrasto catalogue, text by Denis Curti, released in 2010.

PDF press release Mediterranean. An Anthology by Images (1,4 Mb)

Mediterranean. An Anthology by Images on Flickr

Grand Hotel Quisisana, Capri
Period: Friday April 29, Saturday 30 and Sunday May 1, 2011
Free entrance

Capri, April 2011 – What is the future of consumption going to be like in the aftermath and in times of crisis? This is just one of the many questions a bunch of entrepreneurs, economists, intellectuals and trendforecasters will try to answer on the second edition of Capri Trendwatching Festival, organised by Fondazione Capri and with the art direction of Elena Marinoni. A place traditionally connected with a cultured learned reflection, a place for imagination and intellect, Capri will become the ideal meeting point for all those who want to discuss the present to sketch the outlines of the next future over a three days event.

The agenda of the event features a number of lectures given by some authoritative personalities from the international scene. Capri Trendwatching Festival 2011 is based on the latest edition of international observatory Tomorrow Now, informed by trendwatching researches. While the first edition in 2009 focused on emerging trends in lifestyles, the mission of the 2011 edition is about reflecting in a workshop mode upon a big question shared by individuals, companies and institutions: What is the future of consumption going to be like in the aftermath and in times of crisis? As we all know, no growth can take place unless consumption starts again. If it is true, as somebody says, that 2011 will see the situation picking up, how will society, consumption habits and business-doing change? And how will the imaginary of people change in the middle term? Are we really walking over the present paralysis of consumption and production or shall we just get used to a permanent crisis scenario?

The mission of the second edition of Capri Trendwatching Festival is to chart new phenomena which relevantly impact the relationship between consumers and production: in particular, consumption shows an increasing sobriety, willing or not, and widespread forms of advanced association grouping consumers together, triggered in the last decade by social networks. In particular, we will discuss:

• Consumption&Lifestyle. Focus on: The relationship between luxury and low cost in times of crisis; unions of consumers, crowdsourcing & crowdbuying.
• New Business& Marketing. Focus on: The crisis as an opportunity for new business, iEconomy, Solopreneuring, causebased entrepreneurship, future retail, co-production, iEconomy.
• Creativity & Project. Focus on: The aesthetic forms of the future.
• Social and cultural imagery. Focus on: The social scenarios looming up at a distance. The neologisms into our dictionary.

CTWF Edition 2011

As far as contents are concerned, the second edition of Capri Trendwatching Festival will follow two directories: a vertical one and a horizontal one. The vertical dimension refers to the interventions of the different speakers, each of them backing their point of view with evidence to the phenomena expected to be meaningful in their study field in the next future. Each of them will provide their specialist point of view and a hypothesis of prediction referring to the theme being discussed, with a particular focus on the conditions which could lead our way out of the crisis and the best path to follow.

The horizontal dimension highlights the trends crossing the different discussion areas and will find a graphical representation into an in-progress map charting the key concepts as they emerge from the speeches. This graphic device will allow us to pinpoint evidence of new phenomena popping up and to connect them as well as providing an output of the event. The event will take two afternoons and two mornings over three days: from April, 29 in the afternoon to May, 1 in the morning.

Capri Trendwatching Festival is based on the second edition of the international observatory “Tomorrow, Now”, which works on trendwatching, an ethnographic-based research methodology aimed at intercepting the evolution of taste and aesthetic trends influencing social imagery which will turn into future mass phenomena. The observatory is based on signals captured by an international net of “urbanwatchers” leading a ground research on 10 European key cities considered to be the birthplace for new social behaviours.

Elena Marinoni. Art curator of Capri Trendwatching Festival and the observatory “Tomorrow Now” the festival is based upon. She is Managing Director of GPF (Milano), an institute of research and strategic consultancy on social change, consumption and communication. Since 2001 she has been active in the study of the unevenness of taste and the expression trends emerging from today imagery through hyperquality etnographical-based research techniques. She has developed a significant competence in the areas of design (living lifestyles), youthful cultural goods and advanced retailing. She is lecturer of Sociology of Consumption & Trendwatching and Contemporary Design Trends.

PDF press release Capri TrendWatching Festival 2011 (508 kb)

With the support of

Technical sponsors

Mimmo Jodice, Il compagno di Ulisse, 1992

Mimmo Jodice. Figure del mare (Mimmo Jodice. Figures From The Sea)
A project by Roberta Valtorta
Certosa di San Giacomo, Stanze del Priore, Capri
Period: 10 July – 12 September 2010

Mimmo Jodice (born in Naples in 1934) is one of the masters of Italian contemporary photography and his work is well-recognised at international level. His works on display range from his early experiments on codes, techniques and concepts to the inquiry on social themes in Naples and the south of Italy.

His huge and intense production covers a lapse of more than four decades, all the way through a complex inquiry on the contemporary scenarios of cities around the world, exploring the themes of archaeology, ancient art and Mediterranean cultures and finally landing to the narration of the sea as a place absolu.

Mimmo Jodice, Alba Fucens Angizia, 2008

This show, composed of more than forty works and organized in collaboration with the Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo, gathers the latest and deepest reflections of the artist and entwines two key themes: the idea of the sea as a vacuum, a no-scape place, silence and lingering time to be conceived as a reaction to the chaos of contemporary life and the persistence of the past into the present, through the representation of fragments of sculptured bodies and faces as left-overs from the classical age in the Mediterranean civilization, which the sea itself has been in charge of preserving, reshaping and finally returning to us.

In Jodice’s vision, the Mediterranean, the womb and workshop of history and culture, is a lyrical and mental place which allowed his early restless research to develop into the coincidence of images and emotion.

The name of the show, Mimmo Jodice. Figure del mare (Mimmo Jodice. Figures From The Sea), not only refers to the plasticity of ancient faces and bodies returning from the water but also to the sea itself as a source for the artist’s inner thought and vision. An artist who has never intended photography as a descriptive and documentary instrument, Jodice is the promoter of a memory-loaded image, rich in the many art forms, pointing to a metaphysical concept of visible reality.

The photos of Mimmo Jodice on Flickr

The photos of the events on Flickr

Mimmo Jodice – Throughout the 1960s, the photographer turned to anthropological research: from feasts and religious rituals in the south folk culture to healthcare-related and mental issues, to school and imprisonment, to work conditions and social marginalization in the big suburbs around Naples. However, his social photography is not to be labelled as traditional reporting coverage. The intent of the artist is more focussed on the scenario, the masks and the gestures rather than the action and the events taking place. More than telling a story, Jodice’s work is aimed to organizing the visual field and studying the symbolic value of light and the space where his figures stand. A careful observer of art experiments and the language of photography ranges of expression, Jodice has been a groundbreaking photographer since the 1960s as well as an untiring protagonist of the cultural debate which has led to the growth and then to the affirmation of Italian photography worldwide.

Back in the 1970s photography turned into a key instrument for the artist’s social commitment: accusation and creativity have always been the landmarks of his work. In the 1980s the figures and stories of men left the stage with his photographs portraying abandoned cities as metaphysical containers and landscapes drifting into memory and dream. Around the 1990s the artist’s work turned to an elaborate research into the past’s footsteps to be found into the present and the remote roots of the Mediterranean culture. The present is conceived as layers of past things piling up on top of each other, with the landscape becoming a place of memory and the whole work taking on the meaning of a quest for origins.

Jodice made his debut in Milan in 1970 with NUDI DENTRO CARTELLE ERMETICHE at ill Diaframma Gallery, with an introduction by Cesare Zavattini. In 1980 he published VEDUTE DI NAPOLI which marked a turning point in the artist’s language and provided a new expression in urban landscape and architecture. In 1981 he took part in the EXPRESSION OF HUMAN CONDITION, a show by Van Deren Coke at the San Francisco Museum of Art which featured Diana Arbus, Larry Clark, William Klein, Lisette Model. In 1985 he started a long and elaborate research into the myth of the Mediterranean which resulted in MEDITERRANEO, a book published by Aperture (New York City) and a show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia. He has been active part to the international artscape with a number of shows and publications and has been working side by side with cultural institutions and universities for stages and masters. In 2001 the Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea of Turin dedicated a big retrospective show to Jodice, whose catalogue was by Piergiovanni Castagnoli. In 2003 the Accademia dei Lincei awarded him with the prestigious ‘Antonio Feltrinelli’ prize – the first ever photography artist to get it. In the same year his name became an entry into the Treccani Encyclopaedia. In 2006 the Università degli Studi Federico II of Naples granted him a Honoris Causa Degree in Architecture.

Some of Jodice’s personal exhibitions have been hosted in the following museums: the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1995; the Dusseldorf Kunstmuseum, 1996; the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris 1998 and 2010; Palazzo Ducale of Mantua, 1998; the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples 1998; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland 1999; the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna, Rome 2000; Castello di Rivoli, Turin 2000; Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Turin 2000; MassArt, Boston 2001; Wakayama, Museum of Modern Art, Japan 2004, the Museum of Photography, Moscow 2004; MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo 2004; MART – Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto 2004; the Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna 2006; Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome 2010.

Roberta Valtorta (Milan, 1952) – A historian and critic of photography, is the scientific director in chief for the Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea of Cinisello Balsamo-Milan. She turned to photography in 1976. Since 1984, she has been teaching History and Theory of Photography at the CFP Riccardo Bauer of Milan-ex Umanitaria and has been holding lectures in Udine, Rome and Milan. Her studies imply an artistic research into photography, a key to contemporary landscape as cultural heritage. She has been the curator of many art shows and has published a bunch of theoretical and historical essays, the latest of which feature: 1987-1997 Archivio dello spazio (with A. Sacconi), 1997; Pagine di fotografia italiana, 1900-1998, 1998; La catalogazione della fotografia/La documentazione fotografica dei beni culturali (with G. Guerci and E. Minervini), 2003; E’ contemporanea la fotografia?, 2004; Racconti dal paesaggio. 1984-2004 A vent’anni da Viaggio in Italia, 2004; Volti della fotografia. Scritti sulle trasformazioni di un’arte contemporanea, 2005; Alterazioni. Le materie della fotografia tra analogico e digitale, 2006; Il pensiero dei fotografi. Un percorso nella storia della fotografia dalle origini a oggi, 2008; Fotografia e committenza pubblica. Esperienze storiche e contemporanee, Lupetti, Milan 2009.

The exhibition of Mimmo Jodice, Figure del mare, is organized by the Fondazione Capri in collaboration with Museo Fotografia Contemporanea, Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Città di Capri, Comune di Anacapri.

PDF press release Mimmo Jodice (1,2 Mb)

Video Mimmo Jodice in Capri (Youtube)

Capri, September 1st, 2009 – How are future lifestyles gong to be? How much of what is taking place today in the world of fashion, design, urban projects, technology will change our life and consumption behaviours? These are some of the answers a number of businessmen, architects, fashion designers, artists, intellectuals and trend forecasters will try to answer at the first edition of Capri Trendwatching Festival which will be held in Capri from October 15th to 17th 2009.

From the trend guru Li Edelkoort to the sci-fi author Bruce Sterling, from the avant-garde designer Walter Van Beirendonck to the ethical entrepreneur Marco Roveda, from the sustainably committed architect Mario Cucinella to the photographer and film director Francesco Jodice, to the streetstyle anthropologist Ted Polhemus: for three days, Capri – a place par excellence for a learned and erudite reflexion, a space for imagination and intellectual design – will be the ideal meeting point for anybody who will want to discuss the present to sketch the outlines of the future.

With the support of the Capri Foundation, this year’s edition of the Festival will be devoted to emergent trends in lifestyles and will be developing over a syllabus of round tables, meetings and lectures. Among the others, the festival will deal with the following issues: “Supergreen”, that is how the “green thought” and the sustainability concept are redefining behaviours and lifestyles; “Daily Aesthetics”- taste and aesthetics as everyday activities leading to a recursive hybridization between arts, fashion and goods, adjusting to a new definition of high and low cultures – and “Urban Signs”, an overview on signals and creative behaviours which are conveying a new meaning to urban areas as places for social expression.

The photos of the events on Flickr | Slideshow

The Capri Trendwatching Festival sets out from the results of the international observatory “Tomorrow Now”, carried out through trendwatching, an ethnographic-based research method aimed at intercepting the evolution of taste and aesthetic next trends influencing social imagery which tomorrow will turn into mass phenomena. The observatory is based on the signals captured by an international field of “urbanwatchers” who have led a ground research in 20 key-cities around the world: Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bangalore, Beijing, Beirut, Berlin, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, London, Johannesburg, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, Naples, New York, Paris, Santiago de Chile, Seoul, Shanghai, Stockholm, Tokyo.

At the Capri Trendwatching Festival the results of the observatory will be on a preview display for the visitors to see by a multimedia map desk with the most innovative life style and consumption habits breaking at international level. The main evidence resulting from the observatory, shown by ways of multimedia supports, is meant as the ideal train of thought linking the different stages of the event and the outset for the Festival keyplayers to introduce their idea of future lifestyles.

Participation is free of charge and can be registered on line at the following address:  info@fondazionecapri.org

Logistics and Accommodation: Capri Eventi

Fondazione Capri
The Capri Foundation, constituted in March 2009, sets itself as primary targets: the preservation and the promotion of the artistic, historic and landscape heritage of the island; the production and the circulation of culture across the Capri area and the education and the support of local excellence in different fields. In the will of its Founders, entrepreneurs, businessmen, hoteliers and professionals operating in Capri and Anacapri, chaired by Gianfranco Morgano and Antonio Cacace, with the patronage of Città di Capri and Comune di Anacapri and with the support of Regione Campania, the Capri Foundation’s particular mission is to involve the area and the local people as an active participant in the realization of these activities, with a view to increasing the national and international visibility of the area. What the Foundation intends to do is promote, enhance, and foster the growth of local intellectual and artistic excellence and support them by way of festivals, awards, study grants, foreign study, all standing beside local young people down their path. At the same time, the Foundation aims to promote Capri’s historic and environmental heritage towards a cultural tourism, responding to cultural offers aimed at a collaboration with both public and private, national and international bodies sharing the same objectives. The Island of Capri has been host to a number of personalities from the art, politics, economics and finance world, thus becoming a place for cultural exchange. The Capri Foundation was also born to reconfirm the Island’s vocation as an artistic and cultural workshop and a place for comparison based on the inseparable connection of tourism and culture.

Elena Marinoni
Art curator of the Capri Trendwatching Festival and of “Tomorrow Now”, the observatory the festival is based upon. As a researcher, in 2001 along with Patrizia Martello and Alessia Zampano, she founded Memi, an International Trendwatching Observatory aimed at detecting the unevenness of taste and the expression trends emerging from today imagery through hyperquality etnographical-based research techniques. As a Senior Research Consultant for GPF (Milan), a research institute and strategic consultant on social change, consumption and communication, she has developed a significant experience in the areas of design (home styles), luxury goods, teen cultural goods and advanced retailing. She collaborates in the radio show “Essere e Avere” (=”To be and to have”) on Radio 24. She is a lecturer in Sociology of Consumption and Trendwatching and in Contemporary Design.

The Web Site of Capri Trendwatching Festival

PDF press release Capri Trendwatching Festival (612 kb)

Un Air De Folies - Farandole Philippe

Capri, island of surprising landscapes, capable of captivating emotionally as well as esthetically, rich in natural settings that have always stimulated the imagination of architects and artists, will once again be a backdrop for Beauty. The Fondazione Capri, established in May of this year, opens its season with a grand homage to dance, a discipline that is very popular locally among the young inhabitants of the island.

Inhabiting Beauty plans to bring prominent artists to Capri and to present their performances in sites that are evocative and important in the island’s history and landscape. This first season features an homage to Carolyn Carlson: the great choreographer will perform Giotto and will present Blue Lady, one of her masterpieces, which she danced years ago and is now entrusted to a male dancer; she will also participate in a public discussion. The program concludes with Un Air de Folies, a true baroque festival, with musicians and dancers from the Fêtes Galantes company and the involvement of 10 students from the local dance school. The magnificent Certosa di San Giacomo will be the setting for these evenings. Finally, in response to intense interest on the island, public encounters, lectures and study trips will be organized, with the collaboration of dance critics and historians.

• Saturday, 11 July at the Certosa di San Giacomo: Blue Lady. Choreography by Carolyn Carlson. Performed by Jacky Berger

• Sunday, 12 July at the Certosa: Giotto. Performance created and danced by Carolyn Carlson. Conversation with Carolyn Carlson, organized by Francesca Pedroni (Accademia Teatro alla Scala, critic, Il Manifesto)

• Saturday, 18 July at the Certosa: Un air de Folies. Choreography by Béatrice Massin, music by Marin Marais (Les Folies d’Espagne)

• Wednesday, 29 July: Conversation with Marinella Guatterini (specialist on the esthetics of dance, critic, Il sole 24Ore), with participants in the dance course organized by L’isola Danza

• Thursday, 30 July in collaboration with La Conchiglia bookstore: The ABCs of dance: a century of masterpieces – public discussion with Marinella Guatterini for the presentation of the book L’ABC della danza (Mondadori 2008)

Gigi Cristoforetti
Graduate in History, has devoted himself to live performance, creating projects tied to dance, theater and the contemporary circus. From ’95 to ’98 he created and directed Echi del Mediterraneo (Echoes of the Mediterranean), an interdisciplinary festival devoted to dance, theater, music and the material culture of the countries that border the Mediterranean (different countries each year). From ’98 to 2000 he created and directed the Festival Internazionale Gardadanza. With the Festa internazionale del Circo Contemporaneo in Brescia (2000-2008), he brought this new discipline – a hybrid between dance and circus, quite widespread in Europe – to Italy for the first time. Since 2003 he has directed Torinodanza, with the goal of having the festival be included on international programming circuits.
For these various activities he has received the Premio Hystrio, the Premio dell’Associazione Critici di Teatro and the Premio Danza & Danza. He has written critical texts on dance for various publications, including some for radio and television, and he has collaborated with resident theater companies and Italian festivals.

PDF press release Abitare la Bellezza (404 kb)

The photos of the events on Flickr

Presentation of Capri Foundation

Capri’s Teatro Quisisana – May 23rd 2009, date chosen for the official presentation of the newly inaugurated Fondazione Capri. The principal aims of the foundation are: the promotion of the island’s historical, artistic and environmental heritage; the production and diffusion of culture on the territory of Capri, and the creation and financial support of local sources of excellence in various disciplines.

The founders, hoteliers, professionals, and members of the local business community of Capri and Anacapri, headed by Gianfranco Morgano and Antonio Cacace, with the participation of the town councils of Capri and Anacapri and the contribution of the Campania Region, aim to involve the territory and the local population in the realization of the Foundation’s projects, with the objective of achieving visibility on both a national and international scale. A great number of the foundation’s initiatives will focus on the younger generation of islanders; stimulating, encouraging and developing intellectual and artistic growth by way of a series of festivals, awards, grants, and opportunities to study abroad.

In this context, the foundation intends to promote the island of Capri’s historic and environmental heritage, by encouraging a form of tourism open to cultural initiatives, and the participation of public, private, national and international projects which share similar aims. For centuries, the Island of Capri has represented a place of cultural exchange, offering hospitality to members of the world of art, politics, economics and science. The Fondazione Capri has been created to further affirm the island’s position as a center of artistic exchange, based on the inseparable relationship between tourism and culture.

Contributions by

• Gianfranco Morgano, President Fondazione Capri;
• Antonio Cacace, Vice President Fondazione Capri;

Institutional Greetings

• Claudio Velardi, Assessore al Turismo e ai Beni Culturali della Regione Campania
• Ciro Lembo, Mayor of Capri
• Mario Staiano, Mayor of Anacapri
• Gigi Cristoforetti, curator of Abitare la Bellezza;
• Elena Marinoni, curator of Capri Trendwatching Festival;
• Paola De Polo and Rossella Orlandi, Photography Archives Fratelli Alinari/ Sole 24 ore;
• Arianna Rosica and Massimiliano Scuderi, curators of Travelogue.
• Meeting coordinated by: Paola Saluzzi, journalist Sky Tg24.

The photos of the event on Flickr

This first season’s activities include:

Abitare la bellezza

A contemporary dance project supervised by Gigi Cristoforetti

Period: 11-30 July 2009

Dance is a cosmopolitan and contemporary language, which captures and reflects the interest of the local population, creating a special attraction for international tourism. Abitare la bellezza aims to bring artists of international renown to Capri, hosting performances in sites of great historical and environmental importance on the island. This first production includes a celebration of the career of Carolyn Carlson. The great choreographer will present ‘Giotto’, a brief, recently created, piece, and ‘Blue Lady’, a masterpiece which she danced many years ago, and which is now entrusted to a male interpretor. Carlson will participate in a meeting with the public.

The principal venue for these evenings will be the magnificent natural terrace of Damecuta. The program is completed with Un Air de Folies, a celebration in baroque style, held at the Charter house, with the participation of musicians and dancers from the Fêtes Galantes company. Finally, in response to one of the island’s greatest passions, public meetings, lessons and study journeys will be organized, with the collaboration of dance critics and historians.

Photography at Villa Lysis Dioniso: photos by Wilhelm von Gloedon

Care of Alinari/Sole 24ore Photography Archives

Period: 19 August – October 4th 2009

Part of the exhibition Capri I Luoghi della Parola – Le parole degli dei, in collaboration with the Capri’s La Conchiglia Cultural Association. The exhibition, comprised of 150 photographs, is entirely dedicated to the German photographer Von Gloedon, the creator of world famous images exploring the relationship between man, nature and history. The exhibition is located in Villa Lysis, an early 20th century residence which belonged to the baron and poet, Jacques Fersen, an eccentric aristocrat who frequently offered hospitality to artists and intellectuals visiting or living on the island and whose villa was at the heart of great artistic, political and cultural ferment.

Travelogue

Care of Arianna Rosica and Massimiliano Scuderi

Period: September – October 2009

Travelogue, work in progress, and contemporary art in Capri. For this first phase of the project, which aims to introduce contemporary art to the younger generations, Fondazione Capri will be supporting with the Travelogue Project ‘The Journey’. In this first year the project will be made available to some 200 students, with the co-participation of the Istituto Comprensivo Vincenzo Gemito of Anacapri.

The project plans that young artists from various parts of the world will come to the island and host sculpture, painting, photography and video workshops for both students and teachers. Sandro Chia, who opened the Venice Biennale in June this year, and who is one of the principal interpretors of the international Transavanguarde, will be among the artists participating. The students will learn about the various techniques, but above all will be encouraged to express their creativity, and recount their way of seeing the world by way of their own personal journey. The project will commence in September and conclude in October with an exhibition of the work produced.

Capri Trend-watching Festival

Preview of emerging lifestyle trends – The first observatory of international trend-watching

Period: 15,16,17 October 2009

A preview of emerging trends of expression realized through a series of meetings, lectures and workshops. A two-day event which proposes a multimedia mapping of the innovative lifestyle and consumer trends emerging in 20 key cities in the world, each of which is considered an authentic trend incubator. The various stages of the event will be linked by the results of international research using trend-watching, a form of ethnographic matrix, capable of intercepting aesthetic trends in contemporary society and the discontinuity of taste.

PDF press release Nasce la Fondazione Capri (400 kb)

Capri Foundation

Vision

The Capri Foundation was created as the result of the founding members’ shared desire to preserve and promote the historic, artistic and cultural heritage of Capri and, at the same time, to encourage and foster sources of artistic excellence on the island. The foundation is directly connected with Capri’s long-established history as an international center of artistic exchange, itself a product of the inseparable relationship between culture and tourism, and which is the island’s most powerful motor of economic and social development. The foundation is a private body, composed of businessmen, hoteliers, and retailers who operate in Capri and Anacapri. It enjoys an open dialogue with both private and public, national and international institutions, with which a permanent collaboration is anticipated.

Mission

The Foundation, constituted on February 9th 2009, is a non profit making organization, the primary goal of which is to encourage cultural development on the island of Capri, by way of multidisciplinary educational projects (involving the visual arts, literature, dance, music, and cinema), organized in collaboration with the island’s schools, cultural associations and public administrations. In addition, the Foundation aims to promote the island of Capri and its historic and environmental heritage on both a national and international scale, supporting all those activities which encourage cultural tourism, even in those periods of the year when the island is, traditionally, scarcely populated.

Values

Artistic Freedom. In order to complete its mission, and to ensure the quality of the cultural programs offered, the Capri Foundation supports freedom of artistic expression, regardless of marketplace dynamics.

Respect of the Territory. The Capri Foundation does not consider the territory simply as the context in which the organization’s activities take place, but, above all, as an active participant in, the realization of these activities.

Promotion = Preservation. For the Capri Foundation, the promotion of the historical, architectural and environmental heritage of the island can not be separated from the need to ensure its preservation.

Transparency and collaboration. The Capri Foundation will communicate with transparency it’s aims and welcome every form of collaboration from public and private bodies which share the Foundation’s objectives.

Goals

• To provide educational services, available to the population of Capri and Anacapri with the aim of encouraging cultural awareness and creative expression.

• To encourage and foster the growth of professional, intellectual and artistic excellence on the island by way of awards, study grants, foreign study, and exchanges with international artists.

• To increase cultural tourism to Capri, inserting the island in the dedicated Circuits.

• To involve the local population, encouraging interest in indigenous, national and international culture.

• To increase the visibility, awareness and profile, of the Island.

• To involve national and international cultural partners in joint projects, with the aim of increasing the island’s visibility and of reducing costs.

• To promote the cultural and environmental heritage of the Island, and in particular the lesser known aspects of this heritage.

Strategies

The Capri Foundation intends to meet its objectives and realize its mission by way of a series of multidisciplinary activities, capable of both attracting tourist interest and, at the same time, actively involving the local population. These include:

• Photographic and contemporary art exhibitions,

• Literary reviews,

• Activities which complement and enrich the scholastic educational Curriculum.

• Awards and study grants,

• Dance and theatrical performances complete with workshops open to the Public.

All these events and activities will be arranged with an awareness of both national and international sources of excellence.

PDF press release Mission Statement (380 kb)