Tbilisi – Georgia – sits quietly on a corner of the Caucasus, not Europe anymore, not Asia yet. The vast landscapes of solitude are beyond the barren mountains. Renaissance and Enlightenment are somehow on the other side of the Black Sea…. Read More ›
There was a time when Modernism‘s programmatic fracture with exhausted ways of building, dwelling, thinking was celebrated the world over. In architecture, official recognition started pouring in with the famous 1932 MOMA “International Style” exhibition (catalogue): honors followed on both sides… Read More ›
A stuffy atmosphere pervades Kingdom Hall, the suburban assembly point for the small community of Jehovah witnesses in the magnificent ‘Apostasy’ – the debut film by Dan Kokotajlo. With skew face closeups reminiscent of Dreyer’s Johan of Arc, and a masterful… Read More ›
The importance of a book like “The industries of the future”1 by Alec Ross can hardly be overstated. By his own admission, “This book explores the industries that will drive the next 20 years of change to our economies and societies”… Read More ›
Come si era potuti arrivare a tanto? pensavo mentre guardavo la ragazza. Sui trent’anni, rossa di capelli & ben piazzata, stava telefonando. Lei un controllore di biglietti su un treno regionale della tratta Roma-Firenze: telefonava ma nessuno rispondeva. Io in… Read More ›
In Madrid, at the Reina Sofia Museum of Contemporary Art, a special exhibition charts this year the artistic travail Picasso had to endure to realize Guernica for the World Exhibition held in Paris, 1937. Surely that was the most famous of… Read More ›
In 1862, Dostoevsky visited London for the World Exhibition. The Crystal Palace transfixed his mind. He penned the following perceptive remarks: “You sense that it would require great and everlasting spiritual denial and fortitude in order not to submit, not… Read More ›
Apparsa sul Il Reporter del 19 gennaio 1960, col titolo “La comicità di Sordi, gli stranieri non ridono”, questa interessante nota di Pier Paolo Pasolini sembra, al solito, capace di una penetrazione psicologica straordinaria. Riproduco qui sotto la nota per intero, a… Read More ›
Upon visiting the splendid mosaics in Villa Romana del Casale (Piazza Armerina), one is reminded very clearly of the intelligent remark made by Karl Marx according to which work had no social relevance in the ancient world. Because of oversupply due to slave… Read More ›
In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in the towering figure of Josif Stalin, whose footprint on the 20th century has been arguably the biggest of any world leader. ‘Young Stalin‘ of Simon Sebag Montefiore has rightly… Read More ›
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