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Journal 27.
Where were we

Where were we | 27 May

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Dafoe Returns to the Old Tale for Amateur Spirit

Piero di Cosimo, Perseus Freeing Andromeda, c. 1510–1515. Oil on panel, Uffizi Galleries, Florence. A Renaissance myth staged like popular theater, with monster, crowd, and wonder folded into the kind of pre-modern storytelling Dafoe’s program brings back into view.

Dafoe’s Biennale program looks at theater’s origins.
Text by Pina Lomb
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Recent Note

A velvet curtain in watercolor painted around 1870 by Angelo Quaglio

via Art History.

The Spinning Room

Folkettara

Theater & Dance

Renewed Interest In La Banda del Marameo, the 1968 Paratheater Troupe

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, Milan, 1968. Performance of Il naso; photograph by Met Levi.

La Banda del Marameo was an unruly performance of collective play.
Text by Simona Alberi
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Literature

Manifesto of Primalism

Yellow relief by Ellsworth Kelly

Manifesto for a new artistic movement.
Text by Pina Lomb
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Art & Design

Classical Art: Raphael Presented In Toto at Met

Raphael: Sublime Poetry. Courtesy of The Met

A preview of the most comprehensive U.S. exhibition ever dedicated to Raphael, open at the Met 29 March to 28 June.
Text by Marguerite de Ponty
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Film

Anthology Film Archives To Expand

At the opening of Anthology Film Archives, November 30, 1970. Michael Chikiris, courtesy Anthology Film Archives.

A conversation with Kevin Bone, Architect, and John Mhiripiri, Executive Director, on preservation, popcorn, and the future.
Text by Clara MacMeekin
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Fashion

The Primordial Form of the Shoe

Collage by Aphra Natley

A conversation with fifth-generation Northampton shoemaker Chris Woodford on whole cuts, jazz shoes, and Japanese minimalism.
Text by John White
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Literature

The Big Man: A Snowy Story

Photo by Giuseppe De Santis

A YouTube expedition in search of an immortal Viking drifts from performance into paranoia.
Text by John White
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Art & Design

Interview: Stone Carver Massimiliano Pelletti On the Virtue of Imperfection

Silver cave, 2023, travertine silver. Edition 1/1. Photo by Nicola Gnesi.

An interview with Massimiliano Pelletti on geology, imperfection, and sculpture as dialogue.
Text by Madina Tulakova
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Literature

Lack

Photo via Abdullah Al Bakri

An exclusive excerpt from Cecilia Knapp’s forthcoming novel, exploring memory, inheritance, and family distance.
Text by Cecilia Knapp
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Fashion

Unseen Helmut Newton Photographs to Be Exhibited in Caraglio

Ferdinando Scianna, Marpessa, Caltagirone 1987 © Ferdinando Scianna

A preview of a major exhibition bringing together previously unseen works by Helmut Newton in northern Italy.
Text by Simona Alberi
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Fashion

Flats

Comme des Garçons Mary Jane ballet flats, Spring 1999

A quick look back at a small but unmistakable moment from Spring 1999.
Text by Cici Thompson
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Art & Design

Works on Paper: Renoirs at The Morgan

Auguste Renoir, Study for The Great Bathers (1884 to 1887). Photo: The Morgan Library & Museum.

An overview of a major exhibition examining Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s works on paper, opening at The Morgan this fall.
Text by Richard Aubern
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Literature

Essay: Should Artists Be Committed?

Christ's Descent into Hell by Hieronymus Bosch. Fig. 6. Detail of Sisyphus in 26.244. On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 613

An examination of artistic commitment, doubt, and the dangers of moral absolutism.
Text by Pina Lomb
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Film

Cherry Lane and the New Small Theaters

Illustration by Lynn Lieberman – AFineLyne

How A24’s renovation brings the Cherry Lane Theatre back into public use.
Text by Bob Loblaw
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Music

When the Pasta Queen Visited New York

Loredana Bertè. Photo by Achilleoliva.

A look at Loredana Bertè’s time in New York and the making of Made in Italy.
Text by Bob Loblaw
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Art & Design

Louise Giovanelli and the Afterlife of the Film Still With Metrograph and Grimm Gallery

Louise Giovanelli, Arena, 2020

An overview of a cross-institution collaboration between Grimm Gallery and Metrograph centered on Louise Giovanelli’s work.
Text by Bob Loblaw
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Film

Monica Vitti Honored at Lincoln Center

Monica Vitti. AFP. Colorized.

Monica Vitti’s career revisited through a 14-film retrospective at Film at Lincoln Center.
Text by Tasmin Blake
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Theater & Dance

Popes and Dancers With Francesco Messina

Francesco Messina

Sculpture, drawing, and continuity in the career of Francesco Messina.
Text by Marguerite de Ponty
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Art & Design

Art Focus: Elegance in a Post-Ironic Era

Slip House, the brand new gallery opened at the base of a 19th-century, three-story former carriage house at 246 East 5th Street.

On beauty, restraint, and a potential return to elegance after decades of irony.
Text by Cici Thompson
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Film

Lina Wertmuller’s Love and Anarchy Deserves Better

Love and Anarchy (Lina Wertmüller, 1973)

Why Lina Wertmüller’s Love and Anarchy deserves a central place in film history.
Text by Pina Lomb
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Fashion

The Sustainability of Bamboo With Gucci

Image courtesy of Gucci.

Tradition, adaptability, and contemporary design in Gucci’s Bamboo Encounters.
Text by Cici Thompson
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Film

The Uses of Heritage With ‘What We Ask of a Statue Is That It Doesn’t Move’

Still from What We Ask of a Statue Is That It Doesn’t Move

Greek auteur director's hybrid portrait of youth, music, and daily life in contemporary Athens.
Text by Dalia Morgan
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Literature

Pynchon Returns With a Big Band Mystery

Thomas Pynchon in 1955, before he disappeared from public view. Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

Pynchon's latest novel brings big band rhythms to paranoia, espionage, and disappearance.
Text by Richard Aubern
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Film

Grief in the Idea Economy With Invention

Still from Invention by Courtney Stephens

Courtney Stephens and Callie Hernández explore grief through capitalism, belief, and found footage.
Text by Dalia Morgan
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Theater & Dance

First Reading of The Wolf Is an Endangered Species

A recovered 1973 one-act returns through a downtown reading and a cross-disciplinary cast.
Text by Pina Lomb
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Theater & Dance

The Geometry of Motion and Zadie Smith

Photograph by Erich Höhne. Courtesy of Deutsche Fotothek.

Writing and dance as parallel systems of form, tension, and release.
Text by Marguerite de Ponty
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Art & Design

Interview: Kamel Mennour’s Art of Presence

Mennour Archives at 47 Rue Saint-André-des-Arts

Paris gallery founder Kamel Mennour on artists, archives, and the work of building a contemporary program across generations.
Text by Madina Tulakova
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Music

Now Open: The Spinning Room

The Spinning Room. Photo by Adam Stech.

The Spinning Room is always looking for sound advice.
Text by Richard Aubern
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Fashion

Fashion In the Post-Avant-Garde Era With Kostas Murkudis

Photo by Christian Colomer. Styled by Anais Codina. Shown at 90º

On turbo-capitalism, decadence, and fashion’s refusal to respond.
Text by John White
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Music

Against Auto Tune

The Mamas & the Papas on ABC's The Song Makers, 1967

An essay on pitch, technology, and the quiet erasure of the human voice.
Text by Pina Lomb
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Literature

The Hand in the Waves

Photo by Lena Be

On a night at sea, usefulness becomes fantasy, effort becomes ordeal, and salvation arrives misaligned.
Text by Rupert Taylor
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Music

Music EDIT RAdar 1

Music Edit RAdar 2

EDIT RAdar 1.
Text by Editors
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Film

The Joy of Magical Realism With La Chimera

16mm still from La Chimera.

Rohrwacher reaches for enchantment and originality, brushing up against melancholy and miscasting along the way.
Text by Dalia Morgan
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Art & Design

Bourdelle, Without the Museum Machine

Bourdelle's Studio. Musée Bourdelle, Paris Musées. Photos by Pierre Antoine

A conversation with Ophélie Ferlier Bouat on intimacy, monumental sculpture, and the lasting spirit of Bourdelle in Paris.
Text by Madina Tulakova
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Fashion

The Poetry of Materials

A gown by Charles James. Photographed by Cecil Beaton.

From silk and rationing to code and looms, textiles as a record of power, labor, and desire.
Text by Pina Lomb
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Art & Design

Interview: Franco Maria Ricci’s Elegant System of Beauty

Franco Maria Ricci in 1984, at the launch of FMR U.S.A. at the New York Public Library.

A final conversation about art, mortality, geometry, and memory.
Text by John White
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Literature

Identity, Capitalism and the Future of the Novel

Via The Photo Desk

Alexandra Kleeman on on identity, capitalism, ecology, and the future of the novel.
Text by Alexandra Kleeman
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Literature

To Live and Die In Dime Square

Photo by Ernst Haas

An essay about place as performance.
Text by Melissa Mesku
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Literature

The Thing About Not Being Heartbroken

Photo by James J. Williams III

On tour readings, Instagram confusion, and solo moviegoing.
Text by Chloe Caldwell
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