Sophia Ponstingl, Naples/Italy, Summer 2022

This Summer, I had the amazing opportunity to do an Internship in Naples. It’s a wonderful City in the South of Italy and includes everything that is typical for the South: it’s hot, loud, chaotic and above all wonderful. Naples is a city with so much history and culture that I didn’t even have the chance to see everything.
Neapolis was built by the Greeks and over time Romans captured it. It is now still possible to see parts of the old town, because Naples, like we know it now, just got built on top of it. There are many underground entrances, and it is really fascinating to see streets, where ones the Romans used to walk through.
My Internship had a duration of five weeks and I worked at the Fondazione Morra, an Archive for Contemporary Art. On my first week I stayed at Casa Morra. Unfortunately, I had a little language barrier, because I couldn`t speak Italian at all and they had some problems with English, which made it a little bit hard for me to talk to them. But the founder, gallery owner and collector Guiseppe Morra had a few books about the Viennese Actionism, Günter Brus and Hermann Nitsch which he wanted me to read. That was very interesting, because I didn’t know much about them, and it’s an Austrian Art and Actionism Group! Actually, they were very scandalous, and Hermann Nitsch is especially known for his bloody and obscene Actions.
Through that knowledge I was able to work the following two weeks at the Museo Nitsch, which was opened in 2008 due to a long collaboration between Guiseppe Morra and Hermann Nitsch. He came there every second year and made an action for the museum, until 2020 (He passed away in 2022). My task was to give guided tours through the Museum in English, and sometimes even in German (for German visitors). It was nice to share my knowledge and it also helped me to understand the work of Hermann Nitsch even better.
For the last two weeks I stayed at Casa Morra. I read and researched a lot about all the other Artists like Joseph Beys, Nanni Balestrini or Mario Franco which are in the Archive of Guiseppe Morra. There wasn’t much else for me to do but I helped where I could. There was for example a special Project for Nanni Balestrini in the first week, and I was responsible for the movie station.

After work I always walked through the City, on my way home, and stopped at many of those wonderful coffees, street food markets or pizzerias. The food there is so good and special. In Naples you can eat the best pizza in the world, because there is this legend saying, that the pizza margherita was founded there. There are also many other specialities like fried pizza, Ragú, pastries like Babá and Sfogliatelle and so much more.
My apartment was very close to the sea, so I often went for a walk at the Lungomare. There you have a beautiful view over the gulf of Naples and can see one of the best sunsets.
On my weekends and my days off I went sightseeing to see as much from the town as possible. I went to Capodimonte, a beautiful Castle and Museum with a huge park to relax; Castel Sant Elmo, where you have the best view over the whole city of Naples and the sea; and many places in the Centro Storico. One Day I took the Ferry to Capri, a wonderful island. I also went to Pompeji, the roman city buried by the Vesuvius or took the Train to Sorrento.
In conclusion I can say that I had an amazing time here, I learned so much about a new culture, met many new people and visited wonderful places. There would have been so much more to explore, but that’s maybe for the next time.