Dear Research Diary,

Quite some things have happened since my last entry, it has been a wonderful day and a half.

First was my meeting with Yvonne Dohna. She was enthusiastic about my project, she seems to really admire Kounellis. She told she doesn’t want to get relegated to the type of second reader that simply reads it at the end, she wants to be equally involved as the first reader. I think this will be good because each one of my readers has a very specific perspective, so having two critiques and comments on each chapter will probably help balance them so that the work remains “mine” in a sense. She thought the idea of tracking Celant’s manifestoes seems like it has already been done, so I need to find some important point to make. She left me with the question “what novita was created with the movement.” This is good because I don’t see much of one, I see it more as a continuity.

Secondly, I read the article about the lecture series at MACBA and I wish I had attended this one. Celant apparently presented two of his important shows, one from 1967 and the other from the Venice Biennial 1976. This was part of a series about the history of exhibitions. The groundbreaking of these exhibitions was the non-materiality and the associations he drew between the artists represented. Actually I didn’t really get the point of it other than appreciating the informative part of it, there was no analysis and nothing that new.

Also, I spoke with Federica Capoferri who teaches Italian Cinema. I had asked to speak specifically with her about Pier Paolo Pasolini and his influence on the movement, since it was he who named the “social responsibility of art.” I think I’m going to write my paper for her class on his films of the 1960’s. The first thing she mentioned was Uccellacci e Uccellini DUH! MY FAVORITE FILM. THE FRANCISCANS! How could I be so stupid? OF COURSE. So that was groundbreaking, she also gave me some articles about Pasolini particularly speaking about Arte Povera so those will be helpful.

Today in class we went over the internet tools and I can’t wait to start using Zotero.