This June, Magazzino Italian Art premiered the 5th iteration of its annual film series, Cinema in Piazza, presented in partnership with the Cold Spring Film Society and Artecinema. With excitement, we welcomed guests back to the museum’s central courtyard to enjoy light refreshments, engaging panel discussions, and a selection of film screenings.
On the evening of Saturday, June 18, 2022, we screened Design is One: Lella & Massimo Vignelli. Italian-born Lella and Massimo Vignelli are among the world’s most influential designers. Their work covers such a broad spectrum that one could say they are known by everybody, even those who don’t know their names. Through the scope and integrity of their work, they have influenced the world of design for over 40 years. The film brings us into the work and everyday moments of the Vignellis’ world, capturing their intelligence and creativity, as well as their humanity, warmth, and humor.
Prior to the screening, director Kathy Brew was joined in conversation with designer Beatriz Cifuentes, who is featured in the film, and designer Yoshiki Waterhouse. Both were longtime associates of the Vignellis. They discussed what it was like to work with the Vignellis and how their design philosophy, discipline, and practice carried on into the couple's own design practice, Waterhouse Cifuentes Design, and as a design consultant for Magazzino Italian Art. To view the conversation, click here.
Doors opened at 7:00 p.m., with the program beginning at 7:30 p.m. Guests were required to provide proof of vaccination in order to attend.
About Artecinema
Artecinema is an international festival of films on contemporary art established in Naples in 1996, curated by Laura Trisorio which, for several years, has been awarded medals from the President of the Republic of Italy. Each year the festival presents a selection of some thirty documentaries from all over the world about the most important artists, architects and photographers of the last fifty years. Artecinema is one of the most anticipated events of the sector and provides an opportunity for a learning experience as well as social gathering and cultural exchange. www.artecinema.com
About Cold Spring Film Society
The Cold Spring Film Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit volunteer-run arts organization based in Cold Spring, NY dedicated to fostering goodwill, community fellowship and appreciation of the moving image arts by screening enjoyable films in local venues. Their annual outdoor Summer Film Series at Dockside Park provides an evening of free entertainment in the village’s unique outdoor spaces for people of all ages. In addition to their Summer Film Series, CSFS also programs an indoor Winter Film Series and partners with other local organizations like Boscobel House & Gardens, Hudson Valley Shakespeare, Butterfield Library and the Haldane schools to provide additional screenings and film enrichment programs throughout the year. For more information or if you’re interested in helping out at screenings, please visit coldspringfilm.org or check us out on facebook/coldspringfilm or twitter/coldspringfilm and instagram @coldspringfilm.
About Kathy Brew
Kathy Brew is an award-winning video maker whose work includes documentaries, experimental work, and public television productions. Design Is One: Lella & Massimo Vignelli – on the acclaimed designers – is currently in release and has been featured internationally at festivals and other venues. (www.designisonefilm.com) A much earlier experimental documentary work, Mixed Messages, examines gender stereotyping in popular culture and recently screened at the 2020 International Film Festival Rotterdam and the 2021 Lausanne Underground Film & Video Festival. The film is available on Kanopy and was recently picked up for distribution by the Centre Simone de Beauvoir in Paris.
Brew is also a curator and writer and recently served as Guest Curator for the Museum of Modern Art’s Documentary Fortnight (2016-2020). Other previous positions include: Curator for Lincoln Center’s NY Video Festival; Co-Director of the Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History; Director, Thundergulch/Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s new media arts initiative; Curatorial Consultant, WNET, Reel New York; Project Director, Capp Street Project, San Francisco.
Her writing has been published in Women, Art & Technology; Documentary Magazine; Civilization; World Art; Artcoast; Shift; and High Performance. She teaches in the MFA Art Practice Department at the School of Visual Arts and has also taught in the MFA Computer Art department at SVA; the Media Studies graduate department at the New School; NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program; and the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.
She was a Fulbright Scholar in 2018 and spent four months in Peru, where she worked on the editing of Following the Thread, a short film about indigenous weaving communities, along with a portfolio of photographs. The film has recently been finalized with Andean-sensitive music composed by Peruvian artist Pauchi Sasaki and is being distributed by Documentary Educational Resources.
About Beatriz Cifuentes-Caballero
Born in Granada, Spain, and educated in Fine Arts and Design at the University of Granada and the Politecnico di Milano, Beatriz Cifuentes-Caballero began work at Vignelli Associates in 1999, and in 2007 became Vice President of Design. Her work for a wide range of international clients includes corporate identity programs, transportation graphics, signage and wayfinding, book and publication design, product design, exhibition design and web design.
In 2008 she worked with Massimo Vignelli on the redesign of the New York City Subway Diagram, as well as its update in 2010 for the MTA Weekender website and mobile app, and a 2012 printed poster. She has been the creative lead behind numerous international corporate identities, such as Woolworths (South Africa), CorpGroup (Chile), and AbdiIbrahim Pharma (Turkey). Cifuentes is the recipient of a Chicago Atheneum Good Design Award. Her work is now part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
In 2014 she founded the design firm Waterhouse Cifuentes Design with Yoshiki Waterhouse (www.waterhousecifuentes.com). The two are the leading consultants behind Magazzino Italian Art’s identity and visual communication. They also founded SuperWarmRed Designs (www.superwarmred.com), an online platform that conceives and manufactures timeless products across multiple scales and disciplines.
