silvana tuccio phd

• Silvana Tuccio PhD, Doctor of Philosophy da una delle prime università australiane; i temi del critical discourse, postcolonialism e postmodernism sono stati alla base della sua ricerca; i suoi saggi sul cinema, la cittá e le politiche culturali sono pubblicati in libri e riviste scientifici internazionali; il libro da lei curato Sguardi australiani: idee, immaginari e cinema degli antipodi é nella National Library of Australia; la sua doctoral dissertation Who is behind the camera é sul Minerva Repository dell'Universitá di Melbourne; ha ideato Sguardi australiani (patrocinio dell'Ambasciata d'Australia a Roma, il Ministero degli affari esteri); ha creato Acqua, Luce, Ortigia; ha partecipato come relatrice a conferenze fra l'Europa e l'Australia; su invito della Prato Centre ha partecipato a Australians in Italy (2005); é stata artist in residence a Melbourne nel 2017; indaga sulle culture che arricchiscono l'identità e traccia il filo fra il se intellettuale e i luoghi dell'io presente. Ha fatto esperienza di discipline corporee a Melbourne e in Kerala, dove frequentó la scuola di arti marziali EPV Kalari di Vasudevan Gurrukal. É suo Sicily lemon grove in prossimitá di un sito archeaologico del IV secolo, una zona umida Ramsar d'importanza europea e la Sicilia barocca. 

 

SILVANA TUCCIO PhD, BA (Hons)  

Silvana Tuccio, writer, has a PhD from the University of Melbourne (2010), School of Culture and Communication, Cinema Studies, a BA Hons. with first class Honours in literary criticism from Deakin University (1995), she was part of the inaugural SEAP course at RMIT (1984), Faculty of Architecture. She has published articles in scientific journals internationally, contributed book chapters and edited the book Sguardi australiani: idee, immaginari e cinema dagli antipodi (Le Mani, Genova: 2005). Silvana conceived and directed Sguardi australiani (2002-2006) and Cultura sostenibile (2009-2013), which received patronage from the Australian Embassy in Rome, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regione Liguria; now the Sguardi australiani archive at the Prato Centre. She is the recipient of the Austen and Valerie Asche Award for an essay in Contemporary Australian Society and Culture, "Jack Davis' No Sugar", 1996. She has presented at the Barbican Centre Australian Film Symposium, London, 2008, at Australians in Italy, Prato, 2005 on invitation from Professor Bill Kent. She has been on the Jury of the ATOM Awards Melbourne and was Associate-Editor of the Spaces & Flows Journal of Urban and ExtraUrban Studies. She created the workshop Acqua, Luce, Ortigia to coincide with the UN World Water Day, 2014. She wrote a collection of short stories Spiazzamenti, 2015. Silvana was writer in residence at Chantilly Studio Inc, in Melbourne in 2017. She lives between Italy and Australia.

Silvana Tuccio ha una laurea in lettere (BA Hons) e un dottorato (PhD) in cinema dell’Universitá di Melbourne, Australia. Ha pubblicato saggi in riviste scientifiche internazionale e contribuito a volumi fra cui La sfida dell’arte indigena australiana (Jaca Book, 2007). Ha curato il libro Sguardi australiani. idee, immaginari e cinema degli antipodi (Le Mani, 2005). Ha ricevuto il premio Austin and Valerie Asche Essay Prize in Contemporary Australian Society and Culture (1996) per il saggio "Resistance and rhetoric in Jack Davis' No Sugar," Ha presentato al Australian film symposium per il London Australian Film Festival, Barbican Centre, Londra, 2008. Ha ideato e realizzato l'evento cinematografico Sguardi australiani che si e svolto fra il 2002 e 2006 (con il patrocinio di MAE, MIBAC, Ambasciata d’Australia a Roma, Regione Liguria, Genova Capitale Europea 2004), i cui materiali sono adesso custoditi al Monash University Prato Centre, Prato. É stata fra i partecipanti al laboratorio Australians in Italy nel 2005 su invito di Professor Bill Kent, fondatore del Monash University Prato Centre. Si e occupata della cittá resiliente organizzando incontri e laboratori, quali Immaginiamo la Sicilia (2013), Acqua Luce Ortigia (2014) in concomitanza con il UN Giornata mondiale dell'acqua 2014, Sguardi sul Clima in concomitanza con il UN Summit on Climate Copenhagen, 2009. Ë stata membro della giuria degli ATOM Awards ed é stata Associate Editor della rivista scientifica Spaces & Flows International Journal on Urban and ExtraUrban Studies. Ha scritto il libro di racconti Spiazzamenti, ilmiolibro, 2015. Silvana é stata Artist in residence al Chantilly Studio Inc, Melbourne nel 2017. 

 

Before I started my doctoral research on cinema and its cultural context, delving into the landscape of belonging of a body of film of an Italian-born Australian filmmaker*, I created cultural initiatives of international scope, such as Sguardi australiani and Cultura sostenibile. In my writing, both academic and creative  I have often paid attention to narratives of belonging. (*The dissertation is listed on the University of Melbourne Minerva Repository and it is mentioned in a talk given by Professor Sneja Gunew).

Writing

(Morsels) A Banquet in Sicily

In the brief moment I spent with my grandfather in Sicily when I was a teenager, I received a gift. It was the words: 'the land must be looked after.' The words came from his heart. And, the sound of them convinced me that the land is who I am, putting me on a course to delve further into the truth of it. I had the fortune, decades later when my grandfather was by then in the great dreaming, of finding a property  in Sicily a short distance from the Mediterranean Sea, that I could own. Since then I have been looking after a lemon grove, an almond grove, an olive grove and vineyard, availing myself of ecological principles and ancestrally coded know-how. 

In the autumn of 2017, in the southern hemisphere, I was granted a three month residency at the Chantilly Studio Inc. Melbourne Australia. In this time, with a view over Flinders Street Station, and far from Sicily and the land, I started writing about my Sicilian experience, investing it with precious recollections, including rediscovering food as a celebration of belonging.

Otium©

Luce Iragaray writes about her being an intellectual, which is a quality of awareness that gives her a place in the world. Inspired by the Six Memos for the Next Millennium by Italo Calvino, I created Otium© the time of the latins to tap the analytical awareness that is part of our human legacy.

Latin-made-life

Professor Sneja Gunew first made me aware that the Australian story is multifaceted, there is much more than transpires in our everyday. The collection of stories Gunew collected in the book Displacements, otherwise deemed outside the literary canon, testify to the cultural life of people living in Australia, especially in the 50's, 60's and 70's, whose origins are from around the globe. I created Latin-made-life so that the Australian story might continue to emerge. 

Highlights and accomplishments

I founded the cultural organisation Lacunae in 2002 in Italy together with Lorenzo Perrona. Lacunae projects include Sguardi australiani (2002-2006), and Cultura sostenibile (2009-2014).

I conceived and created Sguardi australiani in the early 2000s. Sguardi australiani highlighted contemporaneity, cultural diversity and the city in Australian cinema (Genoa 2002-2006). For the first edition, I selected thirteen short films and thirteen filmmakers for screening. In subsequent editions, I selected numerous Australian films, a handful of classics and put together three retrospectives. Sguardi australiani received patronage from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Australian Embassy in Rome, the City of Genoa, the Regione Liguria and the Prato Centre amongst others. Sguardi australiani was part of Genoa European Capital of Culture 2004.

I invited Australian scholars of film and industry professionals to contribute to a book entitled Sguardi australiani: idee, immaginari e cinema degli antipodi, which I edited, and which was published by Le Mani Editore in 2005. Italian film critic Stefano della Casa wrote the preface and renaissance scholar and founder of the Prato Centre, Professor Bill Kent, launched it on a sunny day on the terrazza of the Prato Centre. The book Sguardi australiani: idee, immaginari e cinema degli antipodi is in the collection of the National Library of Australia.

As part of Sguardi australiani, I presented a retrospective of the Tracey Moffatt films at Palazzo Ducale Genoa in 2005. I also presented a retrospective of the films and photographs of Giorgio Mangiamele in his natal city Catania, Sicily, in 2005 with the patronage of the Italian Institute of Culture, Melbourne, and the City of Catania. I presented a retrospective of David Vadiveloo's films at Palazzo Ducale Genoa in 2006 with patronage from Amnesty International. I organised concerts with Hugo Race and Marta Collica.

I took part in the workshop "Australians in Italy", on invitation from Professor Bill Kent at the Monash University Prato Centre. I was honoured to have been amongst Australians gathered for the occasion in the Sala veneziana, including Australian poet Peter Porter. I subsequently contributed a chapter to the book launched at Readings, Carlton, in 2008, Australians in Italy: Contemporary Lives and Impressions.

I was the first to speak at the inaugural Symposium on Australian film as part of the London Australian Film Festival at the Barbican Centre in 2008.

With the UN Summit on Climate in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009, I organised a talk with Professor Christopher John Ryan, in Sicily, and launched the project Cultura sostenibile. The project saw a series of events that aimed to delineate the cultural resilience of the sustainable city. The series included talks by Han Brezet, Christopher John Ryan, Lorenzo Aiello, Tareq Emtairah, Jane Boyd.

I conceived and created the workshop Acqua, Luce Ortigia: the culture of water environments which highlighted the nature of water as a resource and mediator of cultural life. The workshop saw the creative engagement of young people. It was supported by the City of Syracuse and presented during the United Nations World Water Day 2014.

Writing about film, but also about the city and cultural diversity, I contributed book chapters, articles in academic journals and magazines. I contributed to the book La Sfida dell'arte Indigena australiana, edited by Franca Tamisari and Francesca di Blasi from the University of Venice Ca Foscari, where I discuss four short films by Australian filmmakers of indigenous background. I edited the volume Sguardi australiani: idee, immaginari e cinema degli antipodi which collects articles by Australian scholars on film translated into Italian, and I have been associate editor of the Spaces and Flows Journal of Urban and Extra-Urban Studies.

Affiliations

I have been associated with the Monash University Prato Centre since its opening in 2001. The Sguardi australiani Archive is housed at the Monash University Prato Centre in Prato.

Previous affiliations: 

Judge, ATOM AWARDS, Melbourne, Australia

International Research Fellow, Research Unit in Public Cultures, University of Melbourne, Australia;
International Research Fellow, Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab, University of Melbourne, Australia;
Collaborator, International Institute for Industrial and Environmental Economics, Lund University, Sweden;
Guest Curator, Waterwheel, Australia;

Associate-Editor, Spaces & Flows Journal of Urban and Extra-Urban Studies, Common Ground, USA.

Interests

I studied Martial Arts at the school of Vasudevan Gurrukal* in Kerala, India, in 1993.(*Master of Kalaripayat who was featured in the BBC Documentary The Way of the Warrior (1983)). 

I am the owner of Sicily lemon grove located near a pristine wetlands reserve of European importance.

Past

I have been a teacher of English as a foreign language;
I have been a translator from Italian to English;

I have been a teacher of creative movement for children at the former Mangala Studios, Carlton. (I was part of a study on the Mangala Studios approach to movement education);

I was a volunteer in the office of PND (People for nuclear disarmament);   

I was a volunteer in the office of the National Children's Book Council of Australia;

I established the high school magazine The Gambit, Melbourne. 

 

Silvana Tuccio, April 2023

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