Internationally-renowned artist Antoni Muntadas will bring two Janiculum neighbors together on Tuesday 7 June 2011, when the American Academy in Rome and the Real Academia de España en Roma will unite to present two Muntadas events as well as a new project by Italian artist Giulio Squillacciotti.
At 6 PM, Muntadas will speak in the AAR Lecture Room about his new project About Academia, to be seen in its European premiere in the Cryptoporticus of the McKim, Mead & White building. By means of simultaneous projections (texts, interview subjects and architectural spaces) on three screens, About Academia examines the complex interrelationship between “the university” and “academia” in American higher education, both as concepts and as practical entities. This lecture and installation at the AAR are made possible through the generous support of Poste Italiane.
Following the 6 PM lecture and a 7 PM opening of the Cryptoporticus installation, guests will proceed down the Janiculum to the Real Academia de Espana, where Muntadas’ installation Cassetti Aperti will be on display in the Hall of Portraits, and where Squillacciotti’s film Casi la mitad de la historia will also be shown. At 9.30 PM, there will be a joint reception in the garden of the Spanish Academy. For a full description of the evening see here.
Carol Becker as featured in Antoni Muntadas, About Academia. Credit: Pelin Tan
Muntadas’ provocative installation About Academia considers the possible conflict between a faculty (and its values) and an administration (and its power), in any given American educational institution, extending even to the arena of international relations, with regard to Latin America in particular.
Differing ideas and opinions are explored through interviews conducted by Muntadas with scholars and thinkers including Carol Becker, John Coatsworth and Mark Wigley (Columbia), Ute Meta Bauer, Noam Chomsky and Diane E. Davis (MIT), Thomas Cummins, Brad Epps and Doris Summer (Harvard), Fernando Coronil (CUNY Graduate Center) and Howard Zinn (Boston University).
The show About Academia runs at the AAR through Tuesday 28 June 2011, and can be visited by appointment (06 5846470).
