Advent Ball, December 24th

London bridge is fogging downfogging downfogging downLondon bridge is fogging downMy Fair Lady!

with love from C&J stuck at Heathrow, while trying to fly to Barcelona!!!

Christmas Concert!!

ArtSEEN Wishes you Merry Christmas!!!

Click on this for a soul-ful Christmas song. (Sound is required)
http://www.thecompassgroup.biz/merryxmas.swf

Advent Ball December 21th

When Jacinto was a kid, his family would always travel to the coast of a country in Southamerica, where his uncle had a little house on the beach, a place that could hardly be found on a map. His family used to organize a party inviting a few neighbours around the night of the 24th, while the adults were out dancing and drinking rum, Jacinto used to sit down infront of the ocean waiting to see Santa Claus flying in the sky, he would always promise himself to stay awake until midnight, but at the end he would always fall asleep in the Hamach and then his Mom would wake him up after midnight telling him that finally presents were under the tree!!!
He always felt sad for not being able to meet Santa Claus but it was a real miracle for him to find his presents under the tree in the morning!!!
It was always hot during Christmas, until he came to Europe and discovered snow: What a feeling!!!!
The first time Ciccio & Jacinto had Christmas together, Ciccio rented a house in the Valle d'Aosta, made a fire, and had a great dinner and good wine. Ciccio made sure that the present for Jacinto was hidden until midnight.... when it finally appeared under the tree...
It was that gesture that made Jacinto understand that Christmas is in any case a magic moment, if you share it with someone you care about, someone that remembers your history, and the best moments you had in childhood... Ciccio made him feel at home.

Advent Ball, December 20th

London Town

C & J in London, Life can be very tiring sometimes while shopping in this great city!

Advent Ball December 19th

Ciccio & Jacinto sent a fax apologizing for yesterday they were buying Christmas presents in London and were too tired after walking around shops to writte to us.
Today they are still buying gifts and will update us with more later tonight.

Advent Ball, December 18th

This insert will be OPENED between 15.00 and 18.00 hours FST (Florence Standard Time, i.e. GMT- more or less.)

Advent Ball, December 17th

The "smoking" fountain, Nuoro

Ciccio & Jacinto have just come back from a week’s tour of Sardinia, the island that graces the Mediterranean, its high peaks reaching the blue skies. They travelled in the central region of Sardinia: the Barbagia.
They met with friends there, shared conversation, and enjoyed the local food.
Cicco adored the Bottarga, especially enjoying it the day it was served on raw artichokes, sliced finely, with a drop of lemon, and, of course, the delicate olive oil! The Bottarga is a typical Sardinian delicatessen, made from fish eggs, dried and compressed together – either to grate over your spaghetti, sprinkle with parsley, don’t forget the olive oil, or use the powdered version. For fish lovers only!
Driving on the roads, they came across herds of sheep, and sometimes goats as well, and once, even found a few cows grazing peacefully along the motorway!
Perhaps technology lags behind, perhaps the locals feel left behind, wish for larger streets and faster cars. Perhaps too many holiday villages puncture the landscape, abandoned during the winter months. Time has not stopped in this island, yet it takes on a different quality – simply because it exists, it’s there, to live with, in, and use.

With a promise to return soon, they send us this picture, taken in Nuoro, while visiting the exhibition at MAN (Museo d’Arte della Provincia di Nuoro) – a smoking fountain!

They wish us to inform everyone that tomorrow they’ll be in London, to see the Christmas lights in Regent street. Faxes, from there, should be easier to send as well!

Advent Ball, December 16th

The Villa Maria is composed of some of the most intriguing accessories found in the world. In order to find such obscure objects, Ciccio and jacinto must spend vast amounts of time in South America with a certain Architect who collects 'old junk' that naturally is re-cycled in their house. Here are some pics of the environment from which they often find some of those rare items.

Advent Ball, December 15th

aerobics room

In the mid 1980s before Ciccio and Jacinto became what we know them as today, glam rock and aerobics dominated the planet. In those happy years before grunge stole the show and when people actually cured depression by watching David Lee Roth strut his stuff in a myriad of outrageous costums, Ciccio would often waltz around the streets of derelict towns in many places with his walkman blasting Whitesnake, Alice Cooper, Van Halen, Poison, Motley Crew, and Def Leopard.

But in all actuality he didn't really care all that much for the groups themselves (well except for those outfits with the colored tights!). It was rather that moment when the lead guitarist would break through the clutter and transform himself from a silly kid from the American (or British or European) suburbs into the Paganini of his times: thus it isn't surprising that his all time favorite guitar player is Steve Vai.

In any case, one way, in the contemporary present, he is able to relive those happy days (when music was second to total bravura and tights) is to attend the variety of aerobics classes on offer throughout bella sicilia - he likes to mix up his selection of venue, never the same place more than 3 times a year....

...Currently Ciccio is trying to get Jacinto to write a book based on the the trials of the Italian American guitar player (chest and arm hair included) and how those working class Rocky Balboas of the music world brought -via their electric guitars- a little bit of the ostentatious Casanovean virtuosity of the 17th, 18th, and 19th century mediterranean Sun Violin Gods into post industrial city/pre suburban internet sprawl of late 20th century America and indeed the world.

Advent Ball December 14th

Ciccio's suggestion for today is a glass of wine!!! and more specifically Nero D'Avola

Nero d’Avola is a bluish-purple grape with a delightfully ripe fruit flavor and earthy after-tones. Ciccio advises the Duca Enrico, he says : “It is a stunning example of the quality of wine that can come from this grape; it has a deep garnet colour with ruby highlights, and what’s more, all the grapes for this wine were hand picked! The 1997 vintage is superb!”

Cheers to all ArtSEEN fans, collaborators and friends!

Advent Ball, December 13th

C&J Collection-Sicily

Baily Smyth-Browne b.1928 – d.1959
An early informal painting 6.5ft x 4.9ft
Oil on Canvas
“Abstract 74”

Rebecca Höffenstein
b.1968
“Kairn”
Installation at the Villa Maria, Sicily
2x2x8 metres

Advent Ball, December 12th

Jacinto married young to his childhood sweetheart. Both the families of the couple knew each other well and the marriage was almost a "taken for granted". And So they married caring very much for each other, but more like brother and sister than two people who are head over heals in love. But life goes on and eventually they had two kids, a pleaseant marriage, and were friends; and as friends one day after a family dinner, they confessed to each other. She was brushing her long hair with sad eyes shining in the mirror, he looked at her while taking off his tie and asked her: are you happy? I mean are you happy with the life we have had? have your dreams come true?... she thought long and hard: I know what you mean and I believe I could ask you the same questions... we have had a pleasant life, but neither of us has done what we wanted to do, our hearts are still young and we can still make a choice....
They chose to divorce... with a lot of pain and nostalgia but both still think it was the best choice for their happiness, there is only one life and one may choose to live it to the fullest...

Advent Ball, December 11th

Interior, Villa Maria

It started with an abandoned warehouse but Jacinto thought that was too cliché and foresaw that within 6 years everyone would be using warehouses and throwing stuff in them and calling it art. Hey, it's in a warehouse man! It's art and contemporary too! So he decided to buy a villa instead. Actually it was a little shack but he pulled some 'strings' and turned the thing into a completely illegal massive kitsch villa on the side of a virgin mountain. (Virgin before Ciccio and Jacinto moved in). Now all one sees is glaring PINK otherwise known as VILLA MARIA or BIG PINK.

It was here where Jacinto and even Ciccio after getting tired of PC Barbie developed what can be considered the most cutting edge art collection of recent times. Names like Hoffenstein quite simply rang true in this environment. Space became like jelly and tomato paste. Easily moulded that is… like young American girls without a clue wondering the streets of Paris as Ciccio would later say. And other informal abstract matter painters like Smyth Browne. Where the wounds of existential angst hold out for longer and longer periods until what is left are quite simply...Paintings (Yes with a capital P!)

And that was the beginning of the art collection and the Villa Maria…

Advent Ball, December 10th

A collectors item - vintage Barbie

Ever since he was a little boy, Ciccio adored dolls. His fascination with dolls dates to his earliest memories, when he used to sneak into his sisters room to play with her dolls, and often had the house cleaner find him standing with his little feet on a chair, his nose stuck to the vitrine where his mother kept her “untouchable” collection: dolls in national costume, dolls with big puffy cheeks, porcelain dolls from the 1800’s… Cicco started his own collection. Little dolls at first, that Ciccio just thought 'divine'. Well, they weren't really dolls, but actually just a hell of a lot of California Barbie dolls that Ciccio couldn't get enough of (he was horrified in the mid 1990s when Barbie became politically correct. He's all about Blonde's even if it's true that after 32 it's all downhill and plastic surgery -something else he totally agrees with!!! After all he's Sicilian).

IN any case Jacinto at a certain point had enough of the Barbie fetish and decided to 'get serious' and started a contemporary art collection. At first it was all politically correct because as we have already stated everything coming out of the 90s was politically correct and therefore not even worth bothering with, but Jacinto using his instincts was able to wade through the BS and make some killer finds. Finds that no one in the mainstream could dream of because there so mainstream they make the mainstream look mainstream.

Advent Ball, December 9th

Blood Oranges for a salad

Ciccio, on the other hand, wishes us to post one of his favourite Sicilian recipes, so that his own talent doesn’t get outshined by Jacintos writing. Here’s one he recommends for those “piccanti” summer nights! he says it works in witner too, if you're in a warm place!

Sicilian Blood Orange Salad

1 small to medium organic red onion, sliced into thin rings
Ice
Water
3 to 4 blood oranges, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch thick rounds
2 navel oranges, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch thick rounds
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
About 1/4 cup juice from the oranges
About 12 black Kalamata or Italian olives
Fruity extra-virgin olive oil

Half fill a medium-size bowl with ice, add the onion slices, cover with more ice, and fill bowl with cold water. Refrigerate about 30 minutes or up to a couple of hours.
Shortly before serving, fan the different colored oranges on a large plate. Drain the onions, pat dry, and tuck the onion rings here and there among the orange slices. Lightly dust the salad with salt and pepper.
Drizzle the salad with the orange juice, scatter the olives over it, and sprinkle with about 2 tablespoons olive oil. Taste for seasoning.

Across the Mediterranean in North Africa, the salad is seasoned as above, along with a little orange flower water, sugar, cinnamon, and hot paprika. Add these to taste, starting with very small quantities of about 1/4 teaspoon each and working up from there.

Advent Ball, December 8th

Tan lines...

Extract from Jacinto's 1993 masterpiece... sweaty “Rio kNIGHTS” in two parts

Felipe: Hey Paco you said you'd never say you told Alex about the gun under the kitchen sink!

Paco: Well, Felipe if you hadn't spilled that ice cream all over the couch last night I would have gone to the police instead.

Felipe: What!

Paco: Yeah!!!!

Felipe: What !?

Paco: Look, all I want is some love and affection. A little P and H man..

Felipe: You mean a little TLC, tender lovin' care, you're such a moron. You should have kept your thing.

Paco: What do you mean my “thing.” I mean you know I'm a woman. A full fledged woman and that is why I went all the way and did it my way!

Felipe: Look, I like you because you still look like a man sweetie.

Paco: cries.... sob sob -

Felipe: Oh come here you sissy. Let's go get really tan!

Paco: Yeah, let's totally get tan. I want sexy tan lines Felipe.

Felipe: I totally LOVE your sexy tan lines Paco.

Paco: Me too!

Felipe: Me too...

ArtSEEN travels

ArtSEENs ready for posting

Although ArtSEEN is available in bookshops in Italy, in London, and now in New York, every new edition also gets sent to artists, galleries, museums all round the world!
Hundreds of ArtSEEN journals, accompanied by ArtSEEN PLUSES are (tomorrow) travelling to addresses in Italy, in the UK, in the USA, in China, in Iceland, in France, in Austria, in Mexico, and more! That’s a lot of envelopes that, thankfully, are self sealing, and a lot of stamps, that, thankfully, are self sticking!
You can always add your address to this list, see our official website!

For all of you enjoying the Immacolata Holiday, doing your Christmas shopping it the centre, enjoy!

Advent Ball, December 7th

Proposal photo for the publication poster for "Pink Feather Boas"

In the wake of his dear mother, Jacinto exercises the “art” of play-writing. He doesn’t have much success, although he tries to render scenes of everyday life more “vibrant.” He says: “Life is so often so banal, we need a bit of the shazam to make us laugh. Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles! Make the unthinkable come true!”
Jacinto has tried proposing his plays to a few of the eminent Latin American broadcasting houses, but without success, as he often treats a subject too close to heart to the Latin “manhood” mentality – "It’s too subversive," they say. "A brother who marries his sister by mistake, and divorces his mother by another mistake, discovering the priest is his long lost father who came back from the dead, we can cope with that. THIS, we can’t cope with.."
So, they said NO to “Pink Feather Boas,” to “Rio kNights” in two parts, to “Take it or leave me,” and many other of the Jacinto masterplans to make the world a better place to play in..

Advent Ball, December 6th

Mrs. Jacinto Alfonso Segundo de Morales Ricci – Maria Jose

A Poem by Jacintos mother, Maria Jose...

Una nota en el silencio

He dejado sobre mi pasado las cènizas de un futuro cada vez màs cercano…
Temo que se dibujen en mi rostro las lineas de la tristeza y no los testigos de mis sonrisas,
temo los años que pesan sobre mi cadera,
temo la sombra que se encurva…
temo las palabras que empiezo a olvidar,
extraño el canto de mi madre
el silencio de mis cuarteles lejanos

y en este interminabile llanto,
la vida se me escurre entre los dedos,
un vestido que se desvancece y derrepente
mi fragilidad queda descubierta….


A note in silence

I’ve left in my past ashes of an ever impelling future…
I fret that lines of sadness Are drawn on my face
Instead of the witness to my smiles
I fear the years that pass my thighs
I fear the curving shadow
I fear the words I start to forget
I miss my mother's songs
The silence of the far away lands

And in this incessant lament
Life escapes me, slips through my fingers and suddenly
the costume disappears and my fragility remains nude..

This time, last year - this year

On the 5th December 2005, ArtSEEN journal Pilot, issue 0, was delivered into our hands – fresh from the printers.
On the 5th December 2006, ArtSEEN journal Winter ’07, issue 4, was delivered into our hands – fresh from the printers.
So, we celebrated (as if we need an excuse!)

1,2,3...

GO! - Sandra, G, and AJ trumpet “Happy Birthday to You” to ArtSEEN

S, G, and AJ blow out the candle for ArtSEEN

S leafing through ArtSEEN winter 07 – the Pink issue (by John Steam)

AJ leafing through ArtSEEN Pilot

G and Martin spot a printing error in the Pink issue

(the white heart is missing!!! A printing error ALWAYS occurs, it’s the norm)

Advent Ball, December 5th

'Gabriel Maria Jose Sanchez Ignacio Federico Montoya –Gazza’

Presenting Gabriel Maria Jose Sanchez Ignacio Federico Montoya - Gazza for short.

You might be asking your selves why the poodle has this name, well Gabriel because Ciccio & Jacinto found out that both their great grand fathers were named Gabriel, Maria Jose for Jacinto’s deceased mother, Sanchez Ignacio was Ciccio’s Peruvian best friend that was killed by the Camorra in Sicily when visiting him and Federico Montoya is just a really hot race car driver they met in Barcelona while Ciccio was participating at one of the most important congresses on Nouvelle Cuisine, where he was awarded with the “Best traditional Chef.”
Sanchez Ignacio was an importer of Italian wines to Peru and that's how he knew Ciccio. One of the few Indian Peruvians that was in a high position, Peru was (at that time) still controlled by the 5% of whites that are incredibly wealthy – Ciccio dedicated a special recipe to him….

Advent Ball, December 4th

Bugatti T59

From first night in Paris where they had dinner at "Le Pavillon de la Grande Cascade," they both knew it was the first day of a life together, they didn't say anything to each other but they allowed it to be and happen.... that first night in Jacinto's rented apartmenent, before falling sleep, Ciccio said: We can buy a villa in Sicily or try to get a Châteaux in the south of France.... Jacinto answered, Sicily definitely Sicily.
After a few more romantic days, they left Paris with the promise of going back ever year to celebrate their first day of their life together.

It was while celebrating their ninth anniversary, staying at the Rue de Passy in Paris in 1998, that they visited the Passy Cemetery. Big fans of the silent movie star, Pearl White, they were carrying a bunch of pearl white lilies to place on her tomb. At the same time, Ciccio adored Jean-Pierre Wimille whom he admired as a Grand Prix driver, and also for his contribution to the French Resistance during WWII. To remember him, they were carrying a small model of the Bugatti T59, in which Wimille won his 1934 Grand Prix of Algeria.

On their way back from the Passy Cemetery, they stumbled on a small pet shop, with one little poodle pup on sale with a 50% discount. The shop was closing, as the owner was going into pension. Both of them loved the poodle at first sight, and decided to buy it, paying the full price – they will latter say they never regretted paying the 100% price for Gazza, that he was worth every penny, and they’d feel they would have let him down if they accepted to pay the discount.

Advent Ball, December 3rd

Knight of Malta - Caravaggio

Jacinto is Argentinean; he has two kids that live in Cordoba. Jacinto’s father was of Italian origin and he always had the dream to live in Italy, where he came for the first time in 1989 and met Ciccio.

Jacinto was an able young lad. He was reared on Zorro and sword fighting in the old Argentinean tradition. At the age of 9 he had mastered everything about European sword fighting from the heavy wielded swords of Arthurian Romance to the lighter 'just for show' swords used in the 19th century.

Bored, he turned his attention to literature. He first started out by reading classics like Dumas' 'The three musketeers'. He read the full unabridged version 'in French' in less than an hour and a half. His grandmother was duly impressed. (He grew up with his grandmother as his father and mother died tragically in a car accident when Jacinto was only 4).

But in later adolescence he began to look inward and discovered Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time'. It changed his life and although he has always maintained the look of a complete and total womanizer, he is actually just a real sweetie at heart.

He currently is writing a 'History of Lace in 17th century Madrid', while dividing his time with Ciccio on the Island of Malta, where he occasionally goes out, with Ciccio, on Sunday afternoons dressed in full 'knight of Malta regalia' with their pet poodle…

Advent Ball December 2nd

Before becoming a world renowned six star chef (and meeting Jacinto) Ciccio's life wasn't so fantastic. For starters he started going bald at 15: something that permanently scared his ever so weak psyche. Thus, due to his pre-mature balding, he spent loads of time in the kitchen with his mom - a lovely woman who had loads of affairs with 'the hired help' - learning all the most intricate foods and delicacies the world over.

But Ciccio soon realized that 'life with mom' wasn't going to work out and ran away from home at the tender age of 17. All he had with him was a book on cooking (which he stole from his mother and which was actually full of ancient Sicilian delights that his great grandmother had asked a scribe to write down for her), a new suit, and his tooth brush - naturally he didn't need a comb, something that just made the poor boy cringe with embarrassment!

In any case he made his way in the world for a few years (we won't say exactly what he did, but life isn't easy sometimes) before finally becoming the dish washer boy at a 5 star restaurant in Rio. One night Ciccio went from dishwasher to chef due to the principle chef's full blown case of scurvy he picked up from a sailor boy. Ciccio took over with his Sicilian dishes and was an instant hit with the elite of Rio. It wasn't long though before he met Jacinto in Venice; he was supposed to go to Sicily –via Malta- but ended up frolicking happily amongst the colourful old buildings and quaint canals of Venice instead, and it was here that he fell in love with Jacinto and the dream of eternal love came true in Paris – after he followed Jacinto there – via Sicily this time…

Advent Ball December 1st

La Bella Venezia

Ciccio&Jacinto first met in 1989, at the Venice Biennale of Cinema, both of them attracted by the special exhibition of Jean Cocteau’s work, in the Italian pavilion of the Giardini. Jacinto had just divorced, and was travelling in Italy from Argentina, as that was his dream: to visit Italy and its amazing beauty and art (his father was of Italian origin.) Ciccio on the other hand, was advised by a friend of his to go, so having decided to travel to Malta, he made a last minute change of plans, and opted for Venice instead. Ciccio remembers Jacinto was sitting a few rows in front of him at a film presentation (Et la lumière fut by Otar Iosseliani), at the end of it they both smiled to each other. Coincidentally Ciccio&Jacinto ran into each other later that day at a party. While Ciccio was intensely thinking of the wine served there, Jacinto was asking to the waiter what wine it was, so Ciccio answered him "Duca Enrico Nero d'Avola, 1984- their first vintage.." (this obviously became one of those wines that they always have at home). That was how the conversation started and by the end of the night Ciccio&Jacinto were having an early breakfast at a little place near the old Ghetto. They exchanged phone numbers and left Venice, Ciccio went back to Sicily and Jacinto decided to go to Paris. After a month that Jacinto was in Paris, Ciccio called him to tell him he'd like to visit him…