The Gesture in the
Cultural Heritage of Europe
project description
Colloquium
about
programme
production
gallery
Lectures
programme
International City Projects / The Gesture in the Cultural Heritage of Europe - Ljubljana / programme
Friday, 24 June
10 am - 3 pm
venue: ZRC SAZU, Pre¹ernova dvorana, Novi trg 4
1 THE GESTURE: STUDIES, MEETINGS, CONVENTIONS
The analysis co-ordinated by Fabbrica Europa, in collaboration with the University of Siena, Communications Science Department, reconstructed the history of the socio-cultural concepts of the gesture through various historical periods from late Roman times until the present day, in order to investigate the influences of gestural culture and how it becomes modified in contact with the visual arts. The theory stage took into consideration two main schools of thought: one holding that gesture language is natural and common to all nations and based on the almost universal presence of a number of facial expressions such as laughter, weeping, blushing or yawning; and the other holding that the gesture is not a universal language but such a product of social and cultural differences, that arguably actual gestural codes exist that are not comprehensible if one does not possess the key. Research will be carried out at two levels: the first synchronic, analysing the existence of a common gestural heritage of Europe; the other diachronic, analysing coincidence, contrasts and communication methodologies of non-verbal language within the context of the single countries taking part in the project. Contributions on these subjects contributed the following scholars: Adam Kendon (University of Philadelphia - USA), Giovanni Manetti (Communications Science, University of Siena), Patrizia Magli (IUAV - Design and Arts Faculty, Venice), Arturo Martone (Oriental University Institute of Naples), Carla Cristilli (Oriental University Institute of Naples), Giovanni Barblan (Artefactory).
2 GENEALOGY
10.30 am - 11 am
Documentation, video research: GENEALOGY IN THE GESTURE
Presented by:
Nicole Leghissa
Coordination: Artefactory 41.14, Procida- Naples, Italy
Directed by Maria Gloria Conti Bicocchi
Team: Nicole Leghissa, Trieste; Vanessa Lepre, Procida; Tommaso Arosio,
Bologna; Francesco Tancredi, Firenze
Project coordinator: Simona de Luca, Artefactory 41.14 Procida
Comparative research of the gesture in the cities of Naples,
Procida, Cardiff, Athens, Barcelona, Ljubljana
The recordings and photographs are edited and presented within anthropological,
sociological and semiotic perspectives but we also hope to show how the
various expressions recorded and studied can acquire an artistic or aesthetic
dimension, beyond its purely communicative function, yet essential as
a part of the cultural expression of beauty.
Excerpt from the Genealogy by Maria Gloria Conti Bicocchi
On 25th June, 6p.m. - 9.30p.m. video documetation research material will be presented in Stara Elektrarna/Old Power Station, a video-environment created by "Voyage notes- video-documentation on the genealogy of gesture in Europe", with a "Speechless variation - perspective on gesture in silence"
3 INTERFACE
11 am - 12 am
THE CREATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ON-LINE COLLABORATIVE PLATFORM
Presented by:
Paolo Atzori
Coordination: Fabbrica Europa Florence, Artefactory 41.14, Procida
Realised by the Open Lab of Florence
Directed by Paolo Atzori
This phase of The European project The Gesture in the cultural heritage of Europe is mainly concerned with the design and implementation of a Collaborative Platform (from now on "GCP").
GCP is conceived to favor interdisciplinary activity independently
by the location of the users, offering an extendable and flexible working
environment that enhances possibilities of use by providing a personalized
workspace. GCP is a software based information infrastructure within a
networked system; its design is based on object architecture that includes
different communication tools.
An intuitive interface that hides complexity while providing access to
sophisticated functionality enables the European Partners to build, deploy
and update an information environment on the Internet and improve the
process of browsing, searching, modeling, and publishing online.
Another important characteristic of GCP is integrating the user's individual
work flow as strategic component of its "internal knowledge": user's
activity
is monitored by a metainformation infrastructure and used as an indicator
for the evolution of the information system.
One of the key tasks of GCP is the development of concepts
and ideas based on edited and available information. Within this context
the term Matrix of Attributes is used as simulation for cognitive representation
and for semantic organization. It enables users to build, deploy and maintain
the desired environment for the modelling and representation of a specific
subject. Basically, GCP uses the matrix of attributes to establish connections
between items. These connections form a network. The type of connector
implicates a certain semantic relation between the connected items.
Excerpt from the text by Paolo Atzori, http://www.khm.de/~Paolo/
5 DANCE
1.30 pm - 3pm
Video presentation of the project: PASSION NO PATIENCE
Presented by:
Sioned Huws, Max Simbula
Coordination: Chapter Arts Center Cardiff
Directed by: James Tyson
In association with: Le Fresnoy Studio National des Arts Contemporaines
(France)
Choreographer: Sioned Huws
Video artist: Max Simbula
Movement, a sequence of gestures is the language in which
the body expresses itself.
Unique gestures free from external conditioning, constantly hovering over
the fluctuating borderline between the real physical gesture and the choreographic
gesture; creating, inventing, denying and then reconstructing them, simply
observing them - that is the aim of this research on the interactions
between the dancing body and space, real and virtual, to identify a fil
rouge between the instinctiveness and naturalness of the human gesture
and the codes imposed by digital technologies.
"Passion No Patience" is a
large scale dance work directed by Sioned Huws, which integrates dance,
sound, video and
web technologies. This project is made with Massimiliano Simbula, new
media artist and five dancers. It is performed in a theatre space and
uses an interactive / responsive / environment to interact with the
audience.
The choreography is fragmented in five idyllic situations that concourse
in the construction of a whole environment.
"Passion no Patience" is a relationship of three words that have a strict
relation to the work. I like to dance, I am passionate about dancing
but
I have no patience when dance has to come in to words. Why a simple act
such as movement has to be related/restricted to one or two pages of
writing.
Does it make any sense? I have to be a writer first a choreographer after
and at the end I will be a dancer-maybe? Is that right? Should it not
be the inverse order?
7 DIVULGATION
Coordination: Muzeum, Ljubljana
In collaboration with Fabbrica Europa, Florence and with the participation
of all the co-organisers
We intend to organize a series of meetings and monitoring
throughout the project to ensure continuous collaboration among partners
and to guarantee the communication and divulgation of research results.
Saturday, 25th June
venue: ZRC SAZU, Pre¹ernova dvorana, Novi trg 4
4 VISUAL ARTS
4 pm - 5 pm
Exhibition: THE GESTURE. A VISUAL LIBRARY IN PROGRESS
Presented by:
Pietro Gagliano
Coordination: Fabbrica Europa
In Collaboration with Oxymoron, Athens
In association with Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (Thessaloniki)
and Quarter (Firenze)
Curators: Sergio Risaliti, Marina Fokidis, Daphne Vitali
asistent, kurator: Pietro Gagliano
Project coordinator: Marina Bistolfi, Fabbrica Europa
This stage of activity contains an exhibition project
under Sergio Risaliti / Fondazione Fabbrica Europa per le Arti Contemporanee
Florence, Marina Fokidis and Daphne Vitali / Oxymoron Athens. The stage
will be the realisation of a travelling show (Macedonian Museum of Contemporary
Art / Thessaloniki, Quarter / Florence) with the title of "The gesture.
A visual library in progress".
The exhibition will present the personal exploration of the three curators
on the theme of gesture in the visual arts, set up in different modalities,
as gesture of love, impossibility, transcendence, resistance, accompanied
by an illustrated catalogue. Combined in a nonlinear way the different
"documents" will be presented in the form of a visual library,
providing a site of exchange, pleasure and investigation; a play-off to
the conventional codes of the visual art history.
Milestone moments within the exploration of gestural expressions like
Diagramma Terremoto by Joseph Beuys, Leap into the Void by Yves Klein,
The Lovers (Walk on the great Wall of China) by Marina Abramovic and Ulay,
Shoot by Chris Burden, Stamping in the Studio by Bruce Nauman, and others
by Vito Acconci, Sophie Calle, Giuseppe Chiari, Ligia Pape will be presented
alongside works of younger generations like, Piotr Uklanski, Francis Alys,
Jeremy Deller, Douglas Gordon, Sislej Xhafa, Uri Tzaig, Lara Favaretto,
Paolo Canevari, Stalker group and others.
"The Gesture. A visual library in progress" is a critical presentation
intending to provoke a physical and mental displacement where the public
can find paradigms of gesture crossing geographical and cultural borders.
A space composed of enigmatic intersections referring to the physic and
social condition of the global culture and memory.
25th June
8 pm
venue: Old Power Station - Zavod Bunker, Slom¹kova 18
6 BETWEEN CINEMA AND THEATRE
Theatre workshop and performance: THE SEQUENTIAL EYE / ON THE ROAD
by
Andrés Morte Terés
With the coordination of Mercat de les Flors, Barcelona
In collaboration with Escuela de Cine de Catalunya; Fondazione Fabbrica
Europa; Comune di Procida; Artefactory 41.14, Procida; Nuovo Teatro Nuovo,
Naples
Project and production: Andrés Morte Terés
With: Tommaso Arosio, Beatrice Innocenti
THE SEQUENTIAL EYE / ON THE ROAD
The stage and the cinema must co-exist, stealing from one another, feeding off reciprocal experiences to provide a different dimension to the expression of a gesture, word, sensation, and to invent a space offering new creative realities. Clearly the value of theatre is in its immediacy and rigour, in what vanishes the moment it appears; quite the opposite of what happens in the cinema: the latter seizes, steals, copies, prints images to store and then to free when and where it wishes, perhaps through other means (television, Internet).
The workshops develop a working line around the idea of
conflict and struggle. The research also focuses on the use of new technologies:
the different video cameras (spy or micro camera, prosumer and professional
video cameras) mean it will be possible to render the differing degrees
of detail in each scene filmed live as it is played either by the actors
themselves, or by an actor appointed to do the filming who becomes an
integral part of the stage scenery. The presence of four monitors inside
the stage multiplies both the viewing levels of the show and the fragmentation
of the unity of theatrical action.
The workshops analyse and identify the sets of gestures and movements
arriving in the cinema from the theatre, and will show how their revelation
is made possible according to the means of communication used.
Starting from the theatrical gesture, beyond its physical and stage substance,
we investigate whether and how much the eye of the camera can modify
the
timing and features of a live representation. Cinema language (close
up, half figure, American shot) mixes with typically theatrical gesturing
in order to amplify different observation points: focusing directly on
the actor, the virtual image reproduced in real time on video, both
interpreted
by the spectator's personal view.
Andrés Morte Terés
took studies in Hispanics at the University of Barcelona and in Ethnolinguistics
at the University of Zuerich, Switzerland. He participated at several
courses, e.g. "Governance of Artistic and Cultural Institutions",
at ESADE in Barcelona, "Film Commision Fundamentals" in Los Angeles,
"Cineposium-97"
at Newport, California, "International Film Financing" in San
Francisco, California, and "Arts and Cultural Management" in
Brisbane, Australia.
From 1984-1987 he collaborated with La Fura del Baus group in Barcelona (Accions, Suz o Suz - a performance as well as a long-feature "Ulele" co-written and co-directed with Marcel.li Antúnez). From 1987 to 1991 he led the municipal theatre institution Mercat de les Flors in Barcelona. In 1991 he wrote and directed a stage work El Artificio that was premiered at Fribourg and Barcelona (Award of Critics for the best stage set). In 1993 he returned from a one year stay in the USA where he studied artistic movements and theatre organisation system and established an Institute for Research of Contemporary Performing Arts and Multimedia Arts in Barcelona. In 1994 he directed some stage productions in Italia and moved to Florence to co-operate with Fabbrica Europa. In November 1994 he presented his new theatre text Cotidianas at the Kannon Halle in Copenhagen, directed by a choreographer Juan Aparicio. In March 1995 he organised "Barcelona in Rome", a cultural week programme. In 1996 he published Uso Diario, a book of poetry with photography by Manel Esclusa, and wrote Las amantes de Gretel, a new theatre text. In May 1996 he started to work as a Director of Cultural Industries at the Cultural Institute of the City Council of Barcelona. In 1997-1999 he worked primarily in the field of film - he established Cinema Office in Barcelona, he was a President of the Cinema Festival "Curtsficcions" at Cines Yelmo-Cineplex, and a president of the Fundación Contenidos de Creación, he founded the first screenplay development studio in collaboration with the Sundance Institute in Los Angeles. Later he organised the 1st international festival of film schools in Barcelona. In 1997 he conceived in collaboration with Paolo Atzori an audiovisual project Orfeo based on Jean Cocteau's work. In June 2001 he designed and presented audiovisual project for the Forum Universal de las culturas 2004. In February 2002 he wrote - together with Guillermo Escalona - the screenplay "El Alma Rusa", a thriller taking place in Havana. In March 2002 he was appointed a director of Mercat de las Flors. In 2003 he led a studio workshop on Genet and J.P. Sartre organised by a Mobilittá dell'arte in the town of Noto, and presented his novel Tierra Caliente.In October 2004 he presented Leservedijeangenete...Genet Show at Mercat de les Flors. During 2004 he conceived The Sequential Eye I, II and III, a series of theatre and film workshops that take place at Volterra, Naples and Procida, in February 2005 he presented The Sequential Eye IV, an installation related to interviews between David Silvestre and Francis Bacon, at Teatro Mercat de les Flors in Barcelona. In May 2005 the premiere of the "Fighting Dogs" takes place at Teatro Stabile di Trieste - a free adaptation of the The Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov.
Stage directing:
Accions - La Fura del Baus, Barcelona, 1984
Suz/ o /Suz - La Fura dels Baus, Madrid, 1987
El Artificio - Mercat de les Flors, Barcelona, 1992/95
Maricarmen - Barcelona/ Montalcino/Settimo Torinese, 1995/1996
Cotidianas - Kannon Halle in Copenhague, 1996,
Viaje a Selene - Bulevard Rosa, Barcelona 1997
Orfeo - adaptation of the work by Jean Cocteau, Fabbrica Europa, 1998
Leservedijeangenet... Genet Show - Teatro Ateneo di Roma, Fabbrica Europa,
Mercat de Les Flors, other European theatres, 2004
Fighting Dogs - Cuore vs Sangue - Teatro Stabile di Trieste and Festival
Internacional de Taormina (Sicilia), 2005