RELATED EVENTS
OPENING LECTURE: PAPER CITIES
Saturday, March 16, 11 am
Allison Marino, the exhibition’s curator and the Clark’s curatorial assistant for works on paper, introduces the exhibition Paper Cities. Drawing from the rich content explored in the exhibition, Marino explores how cities evolved from objective subjects into creative expressions within artworks. The lecture focuses on well-known cities depicted in works on paper from the late fifteenth to the early twentieth centuries.
Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 549 0524.
SOCIAL INEQUALITY AND URBAN PLANNING
Sunday, April 7, 11 am
How does a built environment predict social inequity? Giuseppina Forte, professor of architecture and environmental studies at Williams College, discusses her new book project The Self-Built City: Material Politics and Ecologies of Difference in São Paulo. Her project chronicles the forces shaping urban ecologies, from self-built homes to infectious diseases, and examines how colonial structures solidify sites of difference. With a transnational perspective gained from living, researching, and practicing architecture on three continents, Forte brings cross-cultural competency to this talk.
Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 549 0524.
FIRST SUNDAY FREE: PAPER PLAY
Sunday, April 7, 1–4 pm
From the Paper Cities exhibition to the Clark’s collection of artists’ books, join us as we explore the limitless possibilities of paper! Get three-dimensional with a single sheet by making a pop-up book or take on woven paper activities and make a decorative object to take home. At 2 pm, Allison Marino, curatorial assistant for works on paper and curator of Paper Cities, leads a tour of the exhibition. Throughout the afternoon, multidisciplinary artist Sunny Allis welcomes visitors to co-create an immersive, large-scale paper city installation in the lower level of the Clark Center that is sure to delight participants and onlookers alike.
Free admission all day. Special activities in the Conforti Pavilion and Clark Center’s lower level from 1–4 pm.
Family programs are generously supported by Allen & Company.
PAPER CITIES FILM SERIES
April 11, May 2 & May 16, 6 pm
All films are free. Accessible seats available.
BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A GREAT CITY (1927)
April 11
An emblematic “city symphony” film structured to follow the life of Berlin and its inhabitants across the course of a single day. Directed by painter Walter Ruttman, the film still speaks volumes about how German Expressionism crossed into every artistic medium.
Run time: 1:05
MANHATTA (1921) AND RIEN QUE LES HEURES (1926)
May 2
A “city symphony” directed by painter Charles Sheeler and photographer Paul Strand, Manhatta is considered the first American avant-garde film. Inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem “Mannahatta,” the film portrays life in New York City in sixty-five shots from extreme camera angles that capture the dynamic new metropolis. Rien que les heures was Alberto Cavalcanti’s first film as a director. It documents the life of Paris from dawn until dusk, including the beautiful and the ragged, the rich and the poor.
Manhatta run time: 10 minutes
Rien que les heures run time: 45 minutes
À PROPOS DE NICE (1930); DOURO, FAINA FLUVIAL (1931); AND REGEN/RAIN (1931)
May 16
Jean Vigo’s À propos de Nice exposes the seedier side of life on the French Riviera, contrasting the labor of low-paid workers with idle tourists as the city prepares for Carnival. Manoel de Oliveira’s first film, Douro, Faina Fluvial, combines a poetic portrait of the Portuguese urban poor making a living on the Douro River with rigorously geometric shots of the built environment. Regen/Rain was shot during one rainstorm in Amsterdam. The precise rhythm of the editing echoes the beat of the falling rain as director Joris Ivens’ carefully composed images exploit the slick textures and reflections created by the water.
À propos de Nice run time: 25 minutes
Douro, Faina Fluvial run time: 21 minutes
Regen/Rain run time: 12 minutes