Anna Mahler: Schools Project 2023
Liceo Artistico “Leoncillo Leonardi”, Spoleto
Accademia di Belle Arti “Pietro Vannucci”, Perugia
“There is a beautiful picture on an American fashion magazine which shows my mother sculpting in the background while a model, apparently Dennis Hopper’s wife, poses in the foreground. These are two very contrasting visions of what a woman is. My mother in the background is somehow a more striking figure than the model in the foreground because she anticipates what a woman will be: the strength of woman.”
Marina Mahler in Anna Mahler: Notes on Stone
During our 2023 Spring Session we worked with the Liceo Artistico di Spoleto “Leoncillo Leonardi” to deliver a sculpture module for forty 16–17 year olds, inspired by the work of Anna Mahler. The course was led by professors from the liceo (Alessandra Capponi, Irene Gemma and Giacomo Briguori) in collaboration with ceramic artist Annalisa Guerri, as well as Guy Robertson and Tommaso Faraci from the Mahler & LeWitt Studios. Having become familiar with the work of Anna Mahler and the ways she incorporates both figurative and abstract motifs, the students created their own work engaging with portraiture and landscape. Additionally, Guerri used the studios to lead the students in a ceramic workshop.
The students’ work was presented in an exhibition at the Sol LeWitt Studio during the Festival dei Due Mondi. The tiled, relief portraits on display are a collaborative work by the students referencing the largest sculpture Anna Mahler made, The Tower of Masks.
We also hosted students from the academy of fine arts in Perugia. As well as visiting the former studios of Anna Mahler and Sol Lewitt, they attended studio visits with our residents, including artist Cecilia Ceccherini and geographer Dr. Alberto Valz Gris who are working on a collaborative project investigating histories of water usage, titled UMRU: Fragments from the Hydrosocial Cycle of the Valle Umbra. A part of our Materia program, through case studies the project proposes “an embodied and effective exploration of water assemblages, asking how we might reinvent hydrosocial territories and shape them towards a more conscious and environmentally just future.” The work takes form as a series of texts and related textile pieces.
The schools projects included screenings of the films Anna Mahler: Notes on Stone and About Sol, directed by Gabriele Gianni and commissioned by the Carla Fendi Fondation.
