The Emilio Villa International Research Center serves as a means to coordinate a group of scholars from different disciplines and different institutions in both Italy and abroad. It is devoted, first and foremost, to the study of Emilio Villa’s works: Not only those that are literary in a traditional sense, but also those that reflect his numerous transgressions into other fields, from visual arts to ancient languages, from performing arts to music, from mathematics to philosophy, from anthropology to archeology.
Additionally, the center aims to introduce Villa, and his unique outlook on the arts, to as vast and as young an audience as possible. Thus, the center operates on two different levels, both equally crucial to its mission: i) the production of scholarship on Villa as well as artists who share a similar aesthetics; ii) the promotion of pedagogical and instructional activities rooted in an experiential teaching and learning style.
In practical terms, these are the goals the center seeks to achieve:
– publication of scholarship on Emilio Villa;
– digitization and conservation of archives;
– publication and translation of previously unpublished works;
– inter-university labs for reading, analyzing, and redefining the poetic text;
– series of lessons;
– conferences;
– book presentations;
– cultural events (sound performances, readings, concerts);
– exhibitions (created with the help and participation of students);
– multi-media materials (didactic, pedagogical) and opportunities to encourage experiential learning using Villa’s work as well as the center’s activities;
– collaborations with contemporary artists and poets, with commissions of original works inspired by Villa, involving also the students of fine art academies and studio art.
