ISCP Talk
March 12, 2019, 6:30–8pm

Micki Pellerano on the Occult in Chiara Fumai’s Work

In this discussion in conjunction with the exhibition Chiara Fumai: LESS LIGHT, Micki Pellerano will explain the meaning of various occult themes prevalent in Fumai’s work and will elaborate on the esoteric traditions from which she drew her inspiration and symbolism.

In 2015, Fumai was introduced to fellow artist and occultist Micki Pellerano during the Mycorial Theatre symposium in Rabka, Poland. The two established a relationship of collaboration and mutual esteem based on their shared interest in giving expression to the profundity of their esoteric studies in the fields of visual art and performance. A devoted interest in magic and the occult was a central focus of Fumai’s artistic practice. Her work consisted of performance of ritual magic as well as channeling—either by physical invocation of historical/mythological personages or automatic drawing.

Micki Pellerano is a Cuban-American artist based in New York City who works in draftsmanship, performance, film and video. His work is informed by his studies at New York University’s Experimental Theater Wing and his studies in Eastern and Western Esotericism. Pellerano’s work has been widely exhibited in institutions such as MoMA PS1, New York; Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London; ICA, Philadelphia; The Brooklyn Museum; Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach; and the Perth International Arts Festival.

LESS LIGHT is curated by Kari Conte, Director of Programs and Exhibitions, ISCP and Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, directors of the Chiara Fumai archive.

This program is supported, in part, by Greenwich Collection Ltd.; Hartfield Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF); The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; The Church of Chiara Fumai; and The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, Columbia University.

6:30–8pm

Participating Residents

ISCP Talk
February 26, 2019, 6:30–8pm

Dream Homes and Heartache Panel Discussion: Phantasmagorias of the Interior

As part of the exhibition Living Room: UIT (Use it together), resident curator Amanda Abi Khalil hosts Dream Homes and Heartache Panel Discussion: Phantasmagorias of the Interior in collaboration with the “On Being Human” Seminars at New York University.

This discussion will consider evolving relationships to domestic space vis-à-vis contemporary understandings of luxury, privacy, hospitality, commodification, aspirational culture, and the everyday. Walter Benjamin used the term “phantasmagorias of the interior” to refer to the spectacle of the nineteenth-century bourgeois dwelling, and the “imperious need to leave the imprint of…private individual experience on the rooms [one] inhabits.” What sorts of phantasmagorias spring from the interiors of today?

Participants

Samar Kanafani, social anthropologist based in Beirut, Lebanon
Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, visual artists based in New York
Vikram Divecha, visual artist based in Dubai and New York
Jon Wang, visual artist based in New York
Moderated by David Markus, New York University lecturer and art writer

This program is supported, in part, by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Greenwich Collection Ltd.; Hartfield Foundation; Jane Farver Memorial Fund; Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; New York University; and Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

6:30–8pm

Participating Residents

ISCP Talk
February 14, 2019, 6:30–8pm

Silvia Federici on Women and Witch-hunting

Silvia Federici will present a lecture in conjunction with the exhibition Chiara Fumai: LESS LIGHT. She will discuss the social and political significance of the 16th and 17th century witch-hunts in Europe and the Americas and particularly their relation to the developing capitalist organization of life, the colonization of the American populations, and the impact of witch-hunting on the social position of women in Europe and the “New World.”

The evening will begin with a brief viewing of the exhibition Chiara Fumai: LESS LIGHT by Kari Conte and Francesco Urbano Ragazzi.

Federici’s lecture will be live streamed on ISCP’s Facebook page through Facebook Live.

Silvia Federici is a feminist activist, teacher and writer. In the 1970s, she was one of the founders of the International Campaign for Wages for Housework. She was also one of the founders of the Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa and the Radical Philosophers’ Anti-Death Penalty Project. She is the author of books and essays on women’s history and feminist theory, political philosophy and education. Her published works include: Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation; Revolution at Point Zero; Witches, Witch-hunting and Women, and Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the politics of the Commons. Federici is Emerita Professor at Hofstra University.

This program is supported, in part, by Greenwich Collection Ltd.; Hartfield Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF); The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; The Church of Chiara Fumai; and The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, Columbia University.

6:30–8pm

Participating Residents