Reality is on the side
of poetry,
poetry is on the side
of reality.
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- C.Bobin -
Ex IT
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The research begun from two photos of Matteo Marchesi (performer) and Lucio Guarinoni (dramaturg) in their childhood: , where both the subjects play with makeup and costumes beyond the borders of common sense about gender, recalling the world of clown, close to their age.
This starting point, childish and dense, soon crossed the world of IT, the novel by Stephen King, as meaningful frame and incubator of the topics that the project aims to develop: the relationship in between childhood and crossing borders, the bond with the monster and the clown, rites of passages as artistic liminal acts, time- body- and space-wise.
The research has developed through this opportunity of interaction investigating game play and fears of childhood, rush and desire, essential matrix for stepping over boundaries and growth, that constantly transform our own image.
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This research process involved also a 2 years workshop in the rural context of Arcene (Bergamo-Italy) with kids from 7 to 10 y.o. supported by Qui e Ora Residenza Teatrale, and became the first incubator for the performance BOB, also processed across photographic experiences and practices with the photographer Gabriele Pandolfi and sound explorations guided by the digital musician Tommaso Esposito.
Since the beginning this process effected the further productions, developing a first visual and sensorial archive of twisted bodies and cultural-aesthetical elements of rural and urban communities that are involved in the way we manage our "being together".
karosta water tower
Settled in Liepaja (Latvia), Karosta is the old war port created first from the Tzar Alexander III (1904), that became a strategic core for the Soviet Navy, standing sealed and inaccesible for almost a century. In this isolated and russian/latvian context, a group of 9 artists, with the support of Totaldobze and The Great Amber Concert Hall, entered the huge structure of the old water tower, starting a 6 weeks residency to open again the doors of this iconic space to the latvians, with the intent of creating visual, acoustic and performative devices to renovate the perception of this historical core of our recent past, and deliver its value.
A second task not for importance, was the creation of an artistic exchange of tools and visions in between artists from Italy, Latvia, Scotland and Holland. The artistic team was composed by Edd Schouten (curator), Matteo Marchesi (performer), Inga Erdmane (photographer), Ernest Vilsons (composer), Debbie Young (painter), Liga Linderbauma (curator), Laura Prikule (visual artist), Eva Vevere (visual artist), Valdis Jansons (photographer).
This period of collaboration and cohabitation reached the goals through an opening event to start sharing the artistic devices, two site specific concerts, the pubblication of a journal composed by the entire artistic team (#CICERONE) and a handmade catalog in 30 copies, and a period of two weeks where the tower was open to any visitor.
gazes on plenitude
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By working on the performative experience of the project Swollen Bodies with different communities, this curated composition of visual works has been a necessity to undo the idea of the performing act as an art object to be evaluated by itself and separately from the context and the frame that partecipated to it. The experiences, the notes and the points of view on the poetic experience of human plenitude that emerged from Swollen Bodies journey has been composed in the form of video-dramaturgies and photographic exhibitions that can stay available to communities that hosted the work.
Those cross-disciplinary compasses would like to be a suggestion to keep alive and accessible that experience of being crossed by sensations and feelings, which are an alive and embodied part of human drives to motions and relationships.
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The images of the video-dramaturgy has been created opening the experiences to the photographers Elena Pilotto and Margherita Simionati and the visual artist Annalisa Zegna in Fondazione Pistoletto, and the words are transcriptions of the dialogues with the young partecipants. This has been shared during the core event Arte al Centro by Fondazione Pistoletto parallel to the open archive of the Fluviale project by Annalisa Zegna and Aaron Inker.
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The images of the exhibition preview (here available the low-definition version) hosted in the public Library of Rosà have been created by 10 amatorial photographers part of the associations RosaReflex and Gruppo Immagine Centrale. The texts are the transcriptions of the notes to the creative process written by the teenage performers of KerKompagnia, with the organization of Selenia Mocellin.
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The third button refers to the digital object created in the residency in Perugia, supported by Dance Gallery in collaboration with Scuola Media San Paolo and shared during the final event programmed at Umbria Danza Festival in Sala Cutu. The narrative that flows in it is defined by the artistic approach in the studio, supported by the careful poetic fellowship of Federica Tardito, and the courtyard shared with the school structure crossed by adolescents of 11/12/13 y.o.
DANCE AND NEUROSCIENCE
After round tables and many coffees, Andrea Orlandi, researcher in Cognitive Neurosciences at Università La Sapienza in Rome and with a background in dance, made a first step towards a collaborative format of dance practices, literature studies and neurosciences.
The desire of collaboration in between fields of experience and knowledge that rarely shares a common playground, has been condensed in two events supported by the Neuroscientific Studies of La Sapienza University and Marie Curie Actions by European Commission with a divulgative approach to be accessible to scientists, students, dance practitioners, teachers, and mixed audience committed to the topic.
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in September 2022 the conference "Neurosciences and Performing Arts", hosted at La Sapienza University in Rome with the participation as speakers of the neuroscientists Matteo Candidi, Andrea Orlandi, Marta Calbi, Laura Ferreri together with Matteo Marchesi as performing artist and Andrea Zardi, performer and doctoral student in Turin and Bologna.
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in April 2023 the conference "Interdance" hosted ad DAF - Dance Art Faculty in Rome hosting as speakers Andrea Orlandi, Andrea Zardi and Matteo Marchesi together with Letizia Gioia Monda, professor at Università La Sapienza for digital score and choreography, and Mattia Mantellato, ex-ballet dancer and researcher in literature at Univerity of Studies of Udine.
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This events has been a first approach to an effective co-operation of competences, intrigued and inspired mutually, to be explored and practiced as a possibility to develop new research directions and a public space of cross-disciplinary dialogue