C o n t e n t s C o n t e n t s Shooting the Real: Meeting an Italian Artist Studio Art Competition by Hannah Gorton (Syracuse University) 4 by Kirsten Stromberg 24 A Day with George Saunders Meeting an SU Writer in Florence 6 SUF Portfolio by Ericka Kirk (Loyola University) 26 The Colors are Bright / The Experience is Generous : SUF Interns in the Pecci Museum of Contemporary Art in Prato 10 Faculty Watch by Calvin Main (Brown University) 29 Superheroes by Jenece C. Reyes (Syracuse University) 12 News from SU: 2010 Remembrance Week by Emily Allen (Syracuse University) and Duncan McNab (Lockerbie Scotland) 31 SEND-A-SMILE! (and Reach for the Stars!) Gets to Florence by Lauren Maldonado (University of Southern California) 13 SUF’s It’s All About You: Semester End Program 33 Tasting Culture: One Sip at a Time by Angela Laurello (Syracuse University) 15 Studying at the University of Florence by Option III Students 16 Florence & Syracuse University in Florence! I can’t imagine a more beautiful city or a better place to work. Over the past 27 years I have been director at SU Florence three times, and this program just keeps get - ting better. The theme of this issue of the Villa Rossa Voice is (re)drawing the future. Although we are Discovery Florence Program reminded daily of Florence’s Renaissance splendor, contemporary life in Florence is now sharing center stage. by Amy Kleine 18 And at SUF the new ideas emerging from our faculty and staff are impressive. Through revision of our cur - riculum as well as activities such as service learning, internships, workshops, an exciting lecture series, and co-sponsored events with the city and the University of Florence, our students will return to their home cam - In Famiglia! Staying with Italian Hosts: A Retrospective Look puses with a rich understanding not only of Italy’s past, but also of its present. At the beginning of the by Jim Kauffmann 20 semester I urged all students to take full advantage of what this program has to offer. I’m especially delighted Student Comments and encouraged by the response of our first-year students who are a relatively new (three years) addition to our program. You’ll find their work along with the other stakeholders of SU in Florence in this issue of the Villa Rossa Voice . Exchanging English for Italian (and viceversa) Enjoy! Tandem Exchange in Fall 2010 21 Michael J. Calo SUF Director A Visit to Pietrasanta: Traveling with a Pen and a Brush by Elizabeth Lewis (Syracuse University) 22 Professor Antonella Francini , who has edited this Fall 2010 edition of the Villa Rossa Voice , would like to thank the contributors and wish the SUF community Happy Holidays. To all students: here's to (re)drawing I Giullari di Syracuse Performance 23 your future! by Eric Nicholson cover photo by Leora Shuchter 3 On Tuesday November 16, art What unites the two forms of curator Dott.ssa Paola time is light – the recogniz - Giovanni Bortolotti introduced able sign of the passing of Ozzola Giovanni Ozzola, a young, time. It is sunlight, the physi - Florence-born artist, to stu - cal phenomenon that marks dents of SU Florence’s art out our days, but it is also department to talk about his artificial light, and a scenic work in photography and instrument that guides the Shooting the real video art installations. eye and defines objects. It is a Ozzola’s informal and radiation that illuminates the provocative talk was part of screen and exposes the film. an ongoing lecture series Light is a wave that enables ideated by Stefania Talini, us to perceive matter, but it is SUF professor of photogra - also a means for impressing Selfportait phy, to acquaint American an image and bringing it to college students with young, life. It is the threshold of rep - s contemporary Italian artists, resentation, and it marks the s a category in which Giovanni shift from consciousness to e Ozzola is an unquestionable perception, making the image e i leader. Born in 1982, he par - become reality. Light, its i ticipated in his first group occurrence and provenance, r r show at the age of 17 and his and the place of its arrival first solo exhibition at the age have always been a matter for e of 24. Since then his work has investigation by the artist, just e appeared in some of the most as the photographic medium important art shows and gal - – the photosensitive material S S leries in the world and today on which the time of vision is can be found in leading pub - impressed and becomes form lic and private collections. and substance – is the lan - e Ozzola’s most recent exhibi - guage that Ozzola has always e tion was a one-man show at preferred. With Superficiale - r the Elgiz Museum in Under My Skin, Ozzola takes r Poltrona, 2003 Istanbul, Turkey. up video, with the image u In a world that relies more and more on technology, it can be hard to Giovanni Ozzola’s extraordi - moving in a space-time u t nary, “larger than life” dimension. He abandons the t distinguish reality from what has been altered. I had the fortunate opportunity photographs can be seen in infinite time of contempla - to attend a Studio Arts lecture at SU Florence with the world-renowned, young, his monographic work tion for the pre-set time of View of camera rossa, 2003 c up-and-coming artist Giovanni Ozzola. Ozzola takes on one of art’s greatest Skip_Intro ’09, while his par - experience. While photo - c challenges and does his best to expose reality in his work. In Florence I am ticular style and artistic vision graphic time is an interval, e constantly being pushed into a world of the past. While this is great for my edu - are perhaps best described by that of the moving image is Light has a body…. It shows and e cation (not to mention very interesting), it is a refreshing breath of air to see a critic/curator Elisa Del Prete continuity. While the fixity of reveals, but it also changes reality L on Ozzola’s website: the shot presupposes some L contemporary artist in action. While Ozzola works with various media, includ - and makes it disappear. ing video and installations, as a beginning photography student I was mostly http://www.giovanniozzola.c imaginary before and after, interested in his shooting. I have learned just how important light is in photog - om/ . the moving image confines t raphy and this is exactly what Giovanni touched upon. “Light has a body…. It “Giovanni Ozzola is a young, experience to the projection. t r but renowned, Italian artist So the choice is not dictated r shows and reveals, but it also changes reality and makes it disappear.“ said who works in the media of by narrative needs, but rather Ozzola. He discussed the challenge of obtaining ‘true’ colors, those that he photography and video. by the need to represent a A really sees, and making them appear real in his prints (and we as a class have Ozzola compresses space and continuous and repeatable A learned firsthand just how hard that can be). time in his search for a par - unfolding of action. The My personal favorite of the photographs shown was a floral chair with light tial, alienating shot and a artist invites the observer to streaming in the window. “The real presence is the absence,” explained precise time span. He uses embark on a cognitive experi - o Ozzola. His work is especially impressive when seen in exhibition, for Ozzola editing to break down his ence that he has had himself, o i i works in full-scale dimensions. See the photograph of the chair: it appears experience of reality and and he does so by recon - directly on the floor as if sharing your space. He does this with many of his recompose it in an image that structing a new level of time. d works to best show the reality of what he sees, so that onlookers may share has a duration and form of its The focus is thus not on an d own. The experience of time observation of time, but the space and begin a relationship with his work. It was very inspiring to hear thus passes first through the rather on representing its u u about his thought process while shooting such incredible photos and to see artist’s experience and later movement by means of the t the results right in front of me. through that of composition. image.” t by Hannah Gorton (Syracuse University) S Omnia munda mundis, 2008 S 4 5 a day with... George Meeting George Saunders by Ericka Kirk (Loyola University, Maryland) – ETS - Literary Travels Saunders Before coming abroad to Florence, I had the mindset that I would be experiencing an entirely new culture and lifestyle from what I was used to in the United States. I anticipat - ed a new language, new food, and a different form of academic curriculum. A lot of people say that the academic aspect of studying abroad is often very different from how we are taught in the States, because while abroad there is greater emphasis on independent explo - ration, an immersion into the culture, and more hands-on experiences. Through my Literary Travels class here at SUF, I have realized that the combination of all of these elements is what has educated me the most. Interestingly enough, one of the greatest influences that class and my edu - cational experience overall at SUF have had on me so far has not stemmed from anything relat - ing to the Italian culture, but rather from the i l l e Saunders talking with SUF students after his lecture bestselling American writer and creative writing z z a s s u professor at the G Syracuse home campus, George Saunders.