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CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
Ascona Time Capsule Fellowship 2025
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Funded residency for students and young researchers
The Ascona Time Capsule Fellowship invites students and young researchers to develop an original digital humanities project focused on the region of Ascona, the artistic and esoteric figure Luigi Pericle, and the broader cultural-historical ecosystem of Monte Verità, within the framework of the Time Machine Europe initiative.
Applicants are encouraged to explore connections with the following platforms and resources:
The project should aim to generate new archival, artistic or interpretative outputs, such as interactive timelines, digital maps, visualizations, AI-based reconstructions, or scholarly essays. Transdisciplinary and speculative approaches are welcome.
🔹 The Fellowship Includes
- Accommodation and full board in Ascona for a period to be defined, with the possibility of renewal based on project progress and institutional availability.
- Access to local archives and materials related to Luigi Pericle and the cultural heritage of the region.
- Guidance and feedback from an advisory committee
- The opportunity to contribute to future publications.
🔹 Eligibility
- Students or early-stage researchers in the fields of:
Art History, Digital Humanities, Philosophy, Media Arts, Cultural Studies, Archival Science, or related disciplines. - A strong interest in cultural memory, esotericism, and digital storytelling.
- Working knowledge of English. Additional knowledge of Italian, German or French is a plus.
🔹 How to Apply
Please submit the following documents in a single PDF file:
- A project proposal (max. 2 pages) clearly outlining your idea, methodology, and how it relates to the Time Machine framework and the sites/resources mentioned above.
- A short CV (max. 2 pages).
- A letter of motivation.
- (Optional) A digital portfolio or links to previous work.
Send your application to: info@luigipericle.org
Subject line: Ascona Time Capsule Fellowship 2025
Deadline: indefinitely
Shortlisted candidates will be invited for a brief online interview.
🔹 Contact & Further Information
For any questions or clarifications, please contact:
Andrea Biasca-Caroni
info@luigipericle.org
🏛️ Institutional Access: Explore the Hidden Archive of European Spiritual Modernity
The Ascona Time Capsule Fellowship offers access to a unique network of archives, museums, and foundations that together form one of the most vibrant hubs of 20th-century spiritual, artistic, and utopian experimentation in Europe. Each of the following institutions represents a crucial piece of this cultural constellation:
📁 Archivio Luigi Pericle (Host Institution)
The heart of the fellowship. The Archivio houses the artistic, esoteric, and literary legacy of Luigi Pericle (1916–2001)—painter, writer, astrologer, and hermit-philosopher. Rediscovered in 2016, the archive is a true time capsule, containing:
- Over 14,000 original documents, including sketchbooks, unpublished novels, poetry, philosophical writings, horoscopes, and scientific notes.
- A library of 1,500+ volumes in Italian, English, French, German, Greek, and Japanese on theosophy, Buddhism, astrology, Zen, anthroposophy, oriental medicine, ufology, alchemy, and more.
- Hundreds of personal letters and manuscripts recording exchanges with key figures in art, spirituality, and publishing.
The fellow will work in direct contact with this archive, opening new lines of inquiry into the intersections between art and esotericism in postwar Europe.
🏞 Monte Verità Foundation
Monte Verità (“Mountain of Truth”) is a historic site and research center documenting the early 20th-century utopian community that once flourished in Ascona. Founded by anarchists, theosophists, and spiritual seekers around 1900, Monte Verità attracted figures such as:
- Rudolf von Laban (free dance),
- Isadora Duncan,
- Carl Jung,
- Hermann Hesse.
The Foundation preserves this legacy through its Casa Anatta Museum, architectural remains, and the historic Elisarion Pavilion, dedicated to esoteric painter Elisàr von Kupffer. For researchers, Monte Verità is a case study in lived utopia, body politics, and spiritual counterculture.
🖼 Municipal Museum of Modern Art of Ascona
Born in the 1920s from donations by the artists of the Ascona avant-garde, this museum today houses major works by:
- Alexej von Jawlensky
- Paul Klee
- Marianne von Werefkin
- Marcel Janco
- Luigi Pericle (recently acquired)
The collection also includes works by Der Grosse Bär (The Big Bear Group), linked to mystical, spiritual and esoteric themes in art. A key site for understanding the spiritual aesthetics of early abstraction and Central European modernism.
🎭 San Materno Theatre
Built in 1928 by architect Carl Weidemeyer for dancer Charlotte Bara, this remarkable Gothic-Egyptian theatre grew out of the expressive dance traditions of Monte Verità. Designed as a “temple of artistic expression”, the theatre became a space for sacred performance, mime, eurythmics, and ritualistic dance.
For scholars of embodiment, mysticism, and gender in the arts, San Materno is an architectural and performative archive in itself.
📚 Eranos Foundation
Founded in 1933 by Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn, Eranos was one of the most influential spiritual-intellectual gatherings of the 20th century. Its “Tagungen” (annual conferences) brought together figures such as:
- Carl Gustav Jung
- Mircea Eliade
- Henry Corbin
- Gershom Scholem
- Herbert Read
Dedicated to the dialogue between East and West, myth and psyche, Eranos offered a unique interdisciplinary space where science, religion, and art converged. Its archive includes papers, lectures, correspondence, and materials that trace the intellectual history of modern esotericism and spirituality.
🌀 Swiss Theosophical Society Research Centre
Located at Hotel Ascona, this center is the spiritual descendant of 19th-century Theosophy, founded by H.P. Blavatsky and H.S. Olcott. The Research Centre:
- Houses a theosophical library open for consultation.
- Hosts the weekly Fraternitas study group.
- Offers an active calendar of seminars and lectures on esotericism, comparative religion, and consciousness studies.
An essential resource for understanding the foundational doctrines and local adaptations of esoteric religion in Switzerland.
🎨 Marguerite Arp Foundation
Located in Locarno-Solduno, this foundation preserves the artistic and philosophical legacy of Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Jean Arp—Dadaist, Surrealist, and mystic—frequented Monte Verità and was deeply influenced by Theosophy, Taoism, and alchemical symbolism.
The Foundation contains:
- Arp’s personal library, with rare modernist and mystical texts
- An archive of correspondence with avant-garde artists, gallerists, and thinkers
- A sculpture garden and permanent collection of Arp’s late works created in Ticino
A vital site for research on the spiritual undercurrents of 20th-century abstraction.
🛠 Remo Rossi Foundation
Dedicated to the sculptor Remo Rossi (1909–1982), this foundation in Locarno preserves his studios and atelier complex, which also hosted Jean Arp. Rossi played a central role in supporting emerging artists and connecting Swiss modernism to the broader European avant-garde.
The fellow may access:
- Rossi’s own works and diaries
- Documentation of his role in the Venice Biennale
- Archival material related to his collaborations with artists like Arp and his efforts to build an artistic community in Ticino
📖 Hermann Hesse Museum (Montagnola)
Located in the Torre Camuzzi, where Hermann Hesse lived for over 40 years, this museum offers a glimpse into the personal life, watercolors, letters, and writings of one of Europe’s most important spiritual authors.
Themes such as eastern philosophy, inner transformation, and spiritual exile, central to Hesse’s novels like Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game, resonate strongly with the intellectual fabric of Ascona and the Eranos circle.
LUIGI PERICLE 