Category: SPECIAL PROJECTS

We conceived a sole work, dispersing itself in time, with silent intervals. These intervals are the time of the neverending action and of the reflection to continue both inside and outside the scene: Alto Fragile.
A new theatre practice conceived not for a resulting play to put on stage but aiming to share the space and time of the research with the audience.
ALTO FRAGILE represents the very moment in which creativity takes its form.
Precisely at the time of its birth, at its highest and most fragile apex (‘ALTO’ – high, ‘FRAGILE’ – fragile), it demands being written and lived, through an experience, through a biography. And at the same time, it requires us, all of us, to contribute, to lift ourselves to this new height. The audience can follow performers’ process. The artists offer to the spectator’s eyes a unique and unrepeatable moment – the dilated instant when creation occurs, the peculiar creative process that will generate the future creation. The audience thus penetrates the place where the daily work of the performer takes place. The performer does not show a predetermined result of the work, but instead, he or she offer the pulsing instant of the thematic question: its mutation into an action, a sound, a movement, a word, a sign and the effort the body makes to translate the founding topics of the work, which step after step, throughout this shared journey will find its stage formalisation.

Spectators can leave a thought and/or a question (anonymously) on the creative process they have witnessed. These thoughts are included in the development of the work.
We turn to the audience’s critical eye, to stimulate a critical autonomy by including them in the creative process, thus introducing them to the stage device.
The spectator meets the body of the actor-author in the space of an empty stage, with normal light, with no “theatrical effects”. With Alto Fragile we decided to renounce to theatrical means, the actor is thus seen only for his or her presence on an empty stage. Alto Fragile is this naked, unarmed presence showing itself when no staging tricks can shelter from mistakes and flaws. Yet it is exactly through such extreme fragility, through such vast possibility to wander and roam, through such nerve to start searching together with the audience, that we will try to create a new shared space, a new way of inhabiting such space: a public staging.

avVento (2011/2015) is a multi-year project conceived as an “ideal space of foundation” gathering together several artists with the common assignment to contribute to the writing of a post-modern myth of foundation, from the origin to the sign, from the vision to its accomplishment.
The writing of this myth does not follow the thread of a story, but the tremors of a bodily refl ection. The project originates from the need to recognize ourselves in the urgency of a founding perspective for the contemporary existence, and therefore inaugurating a common question space on the mutations that change our historical-social-geographical-identity-making present, focusing on a complexity that overtakes us, being the place we inhabit at the same time. Therefore we assume the foundation as that inaugural, instituting action that raises from the private and individual signification to project itself in a plural dimension. We wanted to consider the question focusing mostly on the ethos, on the shape of the artistic practice needed to face it, rather than on its content. As the “foundation” act that was the object of our reflection would have been inscribed in an inter-subjective dimension rather than in an individual one, so the “creative” act asked to be re-conceived, re-configured, in a relational dimension, more than in a personal one.

Therefore we inaugurated avVento as a building itinerant site of scenic research, a dialogical and multidisciplinary creation device in which the presence of every single artist is not important for itself, creating an autonomous and self-suffi cient work. The presence of the artist acts and intends itself as a founding transition of a community dimension, in which different artists commit themselves in building a confrontation space conceiving their own creations as lines of a dialogue.

The project avVento is not a single scenic work, it activates a multilingual collective writing, considering several expression levels, whose signs will be readable in their totality at the end of the whole path (an online archive will be published in 2015). Meanwhile the different signs of the discourse are deeply rooted in a founding part of the question, being independent one from the others.
The structure of the whole project moves from the writing of the “10 chapters of foundation” by Loretta Mesiti (TeatrInGestAzione). They constitute the thematic framework to which the creative devices activating the creation of the parts of the discourse answer in a rhizomatic way, and not in a consequential one.
The parts of the discourse develop throughout different expressive languages and being in dialogue with different artists, who were asked to interact with the themes of the project in an autonomous and concerning manner. These transits remain in avVento’s path as an indelible sign of every new inaugurated dialogue. These passages create signs in which every artist who accepted our invitation can recognize his own passage. At the end of the path they will be collected under one single sight and they will reveal the movement of an entire community who contributed at the reflection on a new myth of foundation.

“DE RI VA_gruppo di studio a partire dalla Società dello spettacolo di Guy Debord” è un progetto a cura di TeatrInGestAzione in collaborazione con il DiARCH – Dipartimento di Architettura dell’Università Federico II di Napoli.

Un percorso che inauguriamo a febbraio 2016.

Un “gruppo di studio” che si riunisce periodicamente sotto la guida di TeatrInGestAzione.
L’indagine non vuole necessariamente preventivare un esito scenico, ma dare corpo ad una domanda, generando incontri e interventi di varia natura, con gli spettatori in spazi formali e non (performance, installazioni, letture, scritti, interventi singoli e collettivi in formati non precostituiti che il nostro incontrarsi genererà), e produrre una documentazione dettagliata del processo, che accompagnerà poi gli incontri pubblici.

Semmai dovesse accadere, lo spettacolo sarà una celebrazione, da perpetrare.

Partiamo dalla condivisione di uno spazio neutrale, non teatrale, di un tempo fuori tempo, irregolare. Predisponiamo il luogo dell’osservazione del paesaggio in cui siamo immersi. Un presente fisico, spaziale, percepito, possibile. 
La ricerca di questa domanda che costituirà poi il nodo drammaturgico da cui scaturirà la forma come evento, che poi nella sua possibilità di ripetizione si farà atto celebrativo (peculiarità di un teatro che si rivolge all’origine delle cose), parte da alcune riflessioni sui linguaggi dell’arte che da troppo tempo sono parlati più che parlare.
Ci affidiamo, solo come spunto iniziale, all’analisi del filosofo francese Guy Debord e della sua “La Società dello Spettacolo”.
Come siamo soliti fare, apriamo il lavoro da subito a personalità complesse, che si occupano di teatro, ma che altresì fondano i propri studi e specializzazioni in altre discipline, con differenti competenze. Dunque per questo primo gruppo di lavoro abbiamo selezionato persone provenienti da diverse regioni italiane, che hanno competenze in architettura, filosofia, ingegneria, storia, lettere antiche, musica, danza. La cosa che li accomuna in ogni caso resta, soprattutto il teatro. Precisamente un certo modo di concepire il teatro. Linguaggio che si fa luogo, che accoglie e genera.

Il lavoro si apre anche alla partecipazione degli studenti del DiARCH (Dipartimento di Architettura dell’Università di Napoli Federico II) invitandoli a dare corpo ad una domanda sullo spazio teatrale contemporaneo. Ciascuno secondo le proprie competenze e specificità e interessi.

Dare vita ad un dialogo quotidiano interdisciplinare, e ristabilire la complessità necessaria per abitare il presente nel suo divenire costante, per questo inviteremo gli studenti ad abitare il processo creativo che metteremo in atto e a frequentare la nostra prassi teatrale, nel luogo della produzione del pensiero per eccellenza che crediamo ancora debba essere l’università
, dove si svolgeranno le prime fasi del progetto. E dunque ci sembra necessario innanzitutto sostare/osservare per fertilizzare la visione di coloro che forse saranno i costruttori degli spazi teatrali a venire. Per poter immaginare di nuovo uno spazio del teatro (visione) e non più dello spettacolo (consumo).

Si tratterà di “disfare lo spazio, non meno che la storia, l’intreccio, l’azione”
                                                                                                                              G. Deleuze

Con gli studenti approfondiremo una riflessione sullo spazio teatrale, che parte da uno dei maggiori architetti contemporanei:

“Bisogna creare visioni per sopravvivere”
D. Libeskind

In un’intervista dal titolo “La fine dello spazio” l’Architetto Daniel Libeskind, rispondendo alla domanda del suo intervistatore che gli chiedeva quale fosse la sua idea sulla posizione del teatro contemporaneo rispetto all’architettura, risponde così:

“E’ un argomento ampio e complesso, perché la sua domanda riguarda il concetto di spazio del teatro. Ritengo che molte persone che lavorano in teatro sia come attori che come registi si siano messi alla ricerca di uno spazio da trovare, non uno spazio teatrale, ma uno spazio da trovare […] credo che il teatro come ogni altra cosa, abbia perso l’illusione di quel “l’unico” spazio, “lo” spazio, lo spazio della lingua bella, lo spazio della memoria. Questo ha a che fare con una relazione totalmente nuova con il concetto di pluralità, e quindi certamente con quel fantasma dello spazio che aleggia sempre sul teatro, come la gravità sull’architettura. […] Come può esistere un’architettura del teatro? La nozione di scena intesa in maniera classica non è certamente calzante rispetto alla realtà contemporanea che viene ingoiata dallo spazio. […] È ciò che a lungo termine potrebbe rivelarsi una salvezza. Quando teatro ed architettura non sono dove ci si aspetta di trovarli. Quando all’improvviso si dislocano; quando sono in grado di spiazzare e ricollocare le istituzioni. Non è una trasformazione storica, è uno slittamento improvviso ed imprevedibile nel comportamento; uno slittamento nel modo di comprendere e di auto comprendersi, e al contempo un’improvvisa perdita di ciò che riteniamo di sapere, di aver compreso attraverso i concetti: una rimozione improvvisa di tutto ciò. Sono interessato allo spazio silenzioso che non esiste più in teatro.”

Questo spazio silenzioso per noi è il corpo dell’attore, un’architettura in movimento. Da questo corpo, crediamo si possa partire per pensare al futuro dello spazio teatrale. Tra il teatro e l’architettura c’è da sempre una reciprocità. In nome della forma come evento, accadimento sociale. Il teatro è prima di tutto lo spazio deputato all’incontro tra attore e spettatore convenuti alla meraviglia.

Ancora sul rapporto tra architettura e teatro, lo storico e critico del teatro Fabrizio Cruciani, in un intervento dal titolo “Il teatro che abbiamo in mente” scrive:

“… Oggi il teatro dell’immanenza possibile si fonda sulle esperienze forti del Novecento, il secolo ormai passato: produttivamente è il luogo in cui si realizza il lavoro degli attori, un lavoro che non è più la breve durata dello spettacolo e delle prove ma la lunga durata dell’esperienza, luogo che ha quindi una dimensione del quotidiano e la sua sacralità; culturalmente è il luogo in cui si realizzano le relazioni e le visioni di uomini concreti. Come insegna la ripetuta fuga dei teatri dal teatro e il rifugiarsi nei luoghi del vissuto, la diversità di cui consiste il teatro ha bisogno di uno spazio che esibisca la sua normalità non rispetto all’idea di teatro ma rispetto al sociale quotidiano. […] Ma ogni progetto di teatro resterà solo “monumento” o diventerà come quelle case disabitate di cui resta solo la facciata se non lo si darà come abitazione agli uomini di teatro.“

Quindi il nostro è un invito alla produzione di un nuovo pensiero nel rispetto della maturazione organica dell’opera, partendo dall’innesto della prassi teatrale nelle stanze dell’università, luogo simbolo della conoscenza che appartiene alla città.

Il gruppo, dopo una prima fase pluri-residenziale e periodica, a Napoli, aprirà la propria indagine ad altre persone attraverso dei laboratori intensivi e itineranti, che saranno fonte di confronto e approfondimento.

In questa prima fase ci preme cercare di riconoscere la capacità di stare più che di fare. E’ questo infatti il principio alla base della nostra prassi creativa, tesa a difendere e promuovere e sostenere autonomia di pensiero e di azione, lontano dalla dinamica produttiva richiesta dal mercato.
TeatrInGestAzione è un organismo indipendente ed autofinanziato, che genera un discorso artistico svincolato dai tempi della produzione ufficiale, sempre troppo prematuri rispetto alla maturità piena dell’opera. Per questo immaginiamo forme alternative di sostegno, per non cedere il bene più prezioso che abbiamo: il tempo della gestazione. Dalla nostra prassi nasce dunque la convinzione che i processi di creazione debbano avvenire in luoghi non teatrali, dove si parla un linguaggio altro, dove tutto intorno è paesaggio da esplorare, lingue nuove da apprendere, umanità da accogliere.

TO GIVE RISE TO a Human / Urban regeneration

Altofest is the space of the beginning, built by uncertain steps and persons waiting in front of the doors of the houses. Here, in Naples, where every moment is lived as the first time, the first sound, the first light. We care about falling in love.
Here, where this is possible because nothing is as it seems, here, where no “seems” is known. Here you happen. Walking around the streets, here it may happen to see women wearing nightgowns while standing outside their “basso” (typical Neapolitan ground level house). They dominate a tiny plot of public land, showing their identity, that waters down with the one of their neighbour. This space sets the two inhabitants in and out their houses, at the same time.
Naples moves the border of what is private or public not in front or behind. The border means inhabiting. A not physical border, but the result of inhabiting.
What we do with Altofest is creating a space for promiscuity in which everybody takes the risk of his own exposition to the other. What is private is not yours anymore, it becomes shared intimacy. Expropriation and displacement are usually felt as traumatic. During Altofest these feelings are like a storm where strangers are blocked under the same roof or in the same hall offering shelter from the rain.
We love saying that the festival is a trap you choose to fall into. It is a trap for the artist, chosing to leave the formal space. It is a trap for the space donor letting an artistic work live in his own intimacy. It is a trap for the audience that will recognize the private space as something different, as a space where his sight will write and read something new. The houses themselves become a white paper in the very moment the artists go beyond the doorstep. As inhabitants of the same place, both artists and citizens are totally and mutually exposed. No excuses for missing their encounter.
Altofest activates generative “dispositifs” of relations, thinking and knowledge, mixing public and intimacy. It creates a space of promiscuity in which artists and audience can go beyond their roles, participating in a total experience that generates  “original relationships”.
Altofest emancipates itself from the function of mere “programming” and/or “production” of shows and artworks, as festivals are usually considered, to prefigure itself as a space for an experimental sociality. In this way the city becomes the home for innovative and shared art practices, for artists who are “full of life” and brave citizens.
The festival was born in 2011 in Naples, and it is conceived and directed by TeatrInGestAzione (teatringestazione.com).
TeatrInGestAzione cares for the artistic direction of the festival. From many years the company deals with the creation of innovative artistic practices; directly involving international artists and territory, TeatrInGestAzione focuses on the involvement of citizens in the cultural processes, inserting the artistic action in the socio-urban and human architecture in which the company acts. They promote creative praxises that produce new thinking, fostering the growth of the community enhancing diversity, and not searching for consensus.
ALTOFEST was born to GIVE RISE to a community that generates a critical thinking, that is constantly on the alert regarding every attempt of imposing a depersonalized cultural proposal. A community that is able to recognize culture as a primary good, of which feeling a daily need. We try to insert a process athwart the several social elements of the urban fabric, putting them into dialogue. The connection is given by the foreign, external sight, that expresses itself in the plurality of artistic languages that are hosted in the festival. These semantic interferences give to the community the occasion of speaking to each other in a neutral language, meeting in a shared space for risking.

THE DRAMATURGY OF A FEST 

Altofest is an international project, generative and horizontal that is inserted in the innermost social-urban fabric by which it is hosted, in order “to give rise to”, a human and urban requalification.
As artists and citizens we started from these questions:
What makes us strangers to each other? Where is the origin of the distance? Why is culture absent from people values and in the daily needs?
We found in “proximity” and “gift” the keys to conceive the structure of ALTOFEST, relating the presence of the artist to the community his spectator belongs to, rather than the spectator as an individual.
In its past editions Alto Fest has created the space of proximity. Artists enter the donors’ houses; citizens welcome artworks in their everyday life, in their most intimate space, mutually re-writing their presence and urgency, giving rise to multiplied authentic relationships, creating a new possible community, a space for the plurality of action and thinking.
Since the first edition To Give Rise To is the principle of the Festival. To Give Rise To evokes the principle of gift, that is the basis of the festival, but also the conscious action, the choice that is the premise of this gift. To Give Rise To means also the aesthetic direction of the works and interventions that Alto Fest generates and welcomes. Interventions arising from a singular dialogue between the work and the space they are hosted by, that will let the other space emerge, the possible inner space, in the wrinkles of the inhabited spaces, giving new sense to shapes, objects, actions, practiced already, prepared already to relations and actions they host in everyday life.
Altofest questions about the need to create new values, to radically reshape the relationship with the places, subverting the use of space and assignment of fixed roles, daring never tempted incursions (of discipline, responsibility, action).
Altofest is conceived as a live artwork, extended and shared. Its creators take care of the its building according to their own poetics and creative methods.
According to the urgency to release the performing act from the exhibition context, re-defining the concept of scene as the space of an experimental sociality. The artistic intervention is inserted in the urban and social architecture, preparing a space for sharing in which artists and authors from several disciplines have the possibility to question their processes and works, publicaly and collectively.

How The Festival works

Altofest – International Contemporary Live Arts Festival – from 2011 gathers together a growing community of international artists, citizens of Naples and creators of thinking. From the fifht edition, we added experts working in the field of culture (curators, producers), welcomed this year thanks to the support of the International Aerport of Naples and to the dialogue with Creactivitas.

The Festival is built with the citizens of Naples who host the works of international artists in their houses and/or private spaces (apartments, terraces, basements, courtyards, whole buildings, artisan shops…). The process is built by experimenting with innovative poetics and aiming to the involvement of places, and with them the system of relationships that are hosted by the places themselves.
The program of the festival welcomes all the expressions of contemporary art, hosting interdisciplinary projects, originated by the dialogue among artists experimenting with original synergies and hybrid praxis. Today their presence makes ALTO FEST a crossroads of diversified languages and experimental aesthetics.
Works in program are observed and analyzed by a Critique Panel: a permanent space of reflection and interdisciplinary research, organic with Alto Fest, in which a miscellaneous group of researchers and artists is called to exercise a collective and multi-perspective look on the Festival.
The Panel is directed by Silvia Mei (http://bit.ly/silviamei) in dialogue with TeatrInGestAzione. The names of the members that will form the 2016 Panel will be available on the website of Alto Fest.
ALTOFEST is then a Permanent Observatory focused on the “aesthetic experience”, inviting the artists in program to a reflection, relating their own project to the principle that generated the festival: To Give Rise To.
The Festival Direction encourages artists to see the programmed works, to dialogue with the Critique Panel, to participate in the several moments of debate and shared reflection with the International Cultural Operators, giving a written trace of their own presence/experience.