Outpost: Villa Aurora | Pacific Palisades

Abstract

vO LD X z 'LLJ a. O LU CL ' s 0 u ee x. u 3: $ $ 1 X a. RmyiOSe Villa Aurora I Pacific Palisades '« Nestled mountains Palisades high overlooking of in Pacific the mountains of Pacific Palisades overlooking the ocean, Villa Aurora is the former homeof exiledGermanJewish writer lion Feuchtwanger and his wife,Marta,who were forced tofleetheNazi regime and foundrefugein Los Angelesin 1943.Soontheir residence became a magnet, attracting thecr&me de la crfeme of European 6migr6s, artists, and intellectuals. Regular guestsincludedThomas Mann, BertoltBrecht,Arnold Schoenberg ,TheodorAdorno,Ludwig Marcuse,Aldous Huxley,Alma Mahler-Werfel, CharlieChaplin, Charles Laughton,Billy Wilder , and, morerecently, Edward Said, WimWenders, and Volker Schlondorff. Today, Villa Aurora is an international meetingplace and artists' residency. Its purposeas a European-American Foundation is to foster mutualexchangein thefields ofliterature, music, art, andfilm as wellas inpolitical and social thought, each yearbringingup tosixteen artists forthreemonthstaysto theVilla.Recent fellows include Oscar-winner Jochen Freydank aswellaswriters Susanne Kippenberger andHelene Hegemann. Moreover, every year theVilla offers the Feuchtwanger Fellowship ,whichprovides residency to a writer who is beingpersecuted or forcedto live in exile. This program wascreated incollaborationwithHuman RightsWatch, inmemory oftheEuropean exiles whofoundsanctuary intheUnited States, and to remind us that theexpulsionof culturalfigures and intellectual repression is still occurring intheworldtoday. As an institution devotedto transatlantic relations, the Villa offers a wide rangeofprograms onAmerican andEuropean issues in collaboration withartists, academic institutions, and partner organizations inLos Angelesand beyond. - Imogen vonTannenberg lmog«nvonTinn«iibcrg isthe director of Villa Aurora. 80 1 World Literature Today ...