Thomas Mann moved to Los Angeles via Princeton in 1941, having fled Nazi Germany. Before commissioning his new home in Santa Monica, Mann toured California modernist buildings in 1938 with Richard Neutra, ultimately selecting the Berlin-born, German-Jewish architect Julius Ralph Davidson to design his family’s home. Throughout the war, Mann would record his anti-Nazi messages from the home’s study, which were broadcast by the BBC to people in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and the occupied Netherlands and Czechoslovakia
Nicola L., took to the streets with students and factory workers in the May 68 demonstrations, making a series of Penetrable protest banners. These banners were punctuated with entries for five to ten heads, with slogans such as WE WANT TO TOUCH, WE WANT TO SEE, WE WANT TO FEEL, WE WANT TO LOVE,and WE WANT TO BE LOVED stenciled across them. On view at the Thomas Mann House is an example of one of these banners with nine head-Penetrables and the phrase NOUS VOULONS ENTENDRE, or, WE WANT TO HEAR, this work resounds with Mann’s broadcasts, each of which began with the words “Germans, Listen!”
To read the complete text for Nicola L. Nous Voulons Entendre at Thomas Mann House, click here
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Monday, February 13th, 10:00AM-1:45PM
Wednesday, February 15th, 10:00AM-1:45PM
Friday, February 17th, 10:00AM-1:45PM
Saturday, February 18th, 10:00AM-1:45PM