On February 26th, a crowd of over a hundred assembled at Columbia University’s Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America for a roundtable discussion entitled “Futurism at the Guggenheim.” This event was organized and moderated by Dr. Ernest Ialongo, an assistant professor in the Behavioral and Social Sciences Department at Eugenio María de Hostos Community College of CUNY. Ialongo is Hostos’ resident expert on Italian history.
Members of the advisory committee for the exhibit and authors of the catalog also attended this event.
The roundtable discussion followed the opening of the Guggenheim's landmark show, “Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe.” Dr. Ialongo collaborated with the staff of the Columbia University Seminars Office and the Italian Academy to develop the roundtable as a means of exploring the exhibit and Futurism more broadly.
For Dr. Ialongo, Futurism continues to be of interest, not only because of its wide-ranging contributions to modern culture, which the Guggenheim exhibit highlights in its multidisciplinary chronicle of the movement, but also because of its social and political views. Ialongo is the author of “Filippo Tommaso Marinetti: The Futurist as Fascist, 1929-1937,” Journal of Modern Italian Studies (2013).
The panel included the following:
Moderator: Dr. Ernest Ialongo, Chair, Columbia University Seminar in Modern Italian Studies
Giovanna Ginex, Independent Art Historian
Romy Golan, Professor of Art History, CUNY Graduate Center; Fellow at the Italian Academy
Vivien Greene, Senior Curator of 19th and Early 20th Century Art at the Guggenheim Museum, and Chief Curator for “Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe”
Marianne Lamonaca, Associate Gallery Director and Chief Curator, Bard Graduate Center
Adrian Lyttelton, Professor of European Studies, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University
Christine Poggi, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Criticism, University of Pennsylvania
Lucia Re, Professor of Italian, University of California, Los Angeles
This event was co-sponsored by the Columbia Seminar in Modern Italian Studies and the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, Columbia University.
The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America is located at 1161 Amsterdam Avenue (between 116th & 118th Streets) New York, NY 10027