LOS ANGELES, CA.- The new app turns the IIC publication and website ITALY ART LA into a geo-tagged system that will allow users, whether they are visitors or residents, to learn about Italian Art in Los Angeles through a customized and interactive map, as well as text, audio, images, and videos.

Additionally the system offers two media enriched tours crafted to create an engaging experience:

From Light to Materiality: This tour takes the user to the most prestigious Italian art in town, through visits to the Getty Villa, the Getty Center, UCLA, and the Italian Cultural Institute. This journey begins with Roman art and ends with some stunning pieces by contemporary Italian artists.

Users will learn about trends and techniques such as the fresco used by the ancient Romans and the use of layering in Titian’s oil portraiture. An in-depth description of techniques and a focus on the complexities of the relationship between light and materials allow the user to experience the works and learn about them in an engaging and yet sophisticated way.

Traces of Italy: This tour reveals hidden traces of the Italian presence and find out about less obvious elements of Italian art and craftsmanship in Downtown LA, focusing on works of art off the beaten path and materials that contribute to stunning architecture and sculpture of the city.

This itinerary is unique way of reading public art and discovering a hidden and surprising layer in the history of LA, a modern metropolis that speaks of and to a multitude of ideas and identities.

Strongly supported by the Embassy of Italy in the United States as well as the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles and also endorsed by the City of Los Angeles, this project was conceived in 2013, the Year of Italian Culture in the US, and is very much a collaborative effort carried out between Italy and the United States. The team of MEDIARS led by Alessandro Marianantoni, a critically acclaimed new media artist and producer for organizations like UCLA School of Theater Film and Television and Google, has worked with the IIC to write art guides and voice over, produce audio guides and shoot interviews and short documentaries on location both in Los Angeles, where for instance interviews have been filmed at the Getty Villa and in Italy, with videos shot at the Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro in Milan. Original music accompanying some of the videos was composed by Film Scoring Lab, a Los Angeles based company founded by Italian composers Fabrizio Mancinelli, Luigi Pulcini, and Saverio Rapezzi.

“The app ITALY ART LA gives the user the true excitement of a discovery” said Alberto Di Mauro, Director at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura. “You will find traces of Italian culture even in places where you’d never imagine there are. It is a contribution to understanding the cultural complexity of this big metropolis which is LA and it is also a ‘work in progress’ as it will continue to grow with additional tours and new features.”

The app was funded thanks to a generous donation by an Italian American nonprofit organization and a private benefactor and has also been made possible by an ongoing collaboration with the main LA museums and cultural institutions.