TEATRINGESTAZIONE
Teatringestazione is recognised by the Italian Ministry of Culture as a production company in theatrical research and artistic experimentation (ART. 13, C. 3 -D.M. 27th July 2017).
Our artistic action aims to subvert the everyday coordinates to inaugurate a space of crisis, of collective questioning, where together we can question convention and train ourselves to wonder. A poetic space is always a political space. Poiesis means “creating from nothing”, Praxis means an action that has meaning in itself, Crisis implies choice. From the synthesis of these three dimensions of human existence comes our artistic vision, which we have brought together under the motto DARE LUOGO (To give rise to), to generate knowledge, links, invention, sharing, awareness, sensitivity and attention.
We have been creating hybrid artistic devices beyond conventional performing art formats for more than fifteen years. We have been building the conditions to produce and develop projects based on permanence in places, on the sharing of processes, on the valorisation of every single phase of artistic creation, on the relationship with citizens, on interdisciplinarity and co-authorship, on the dialogue between different spheres of knowledge, on the hybridisation of formats, on the generativity of projects. Sharing the time and space of creation also means mutual learning, contamination of skills, an extension of the boundaries of vision, development of sensitivity.
Teatringestazione is a multidisciplinary performing art company based in Naples, founded in 2006 by Gesualdi | Trono; joined in 2007, in an ongoing collaboration, by Loretta Mesiti as dramaturg. The company involves various artists and performers who participate in the productions and cultural projects. It works in national and international contexts, both independent and institutional, creating works of art, participatory and multiform devices, training and education programmes, focusing on sharing processes. It also works with fragile subjects in socially disadvantaged contexts, including prisons, criminal asylum, immigrants, the elderly and people with disabilities. Many notable contexts have hosted Teatringestazione, such as: Welcome to Socotra Festival, Fondazione Feltrinelli – Milan; ConTempo, Kaunas (LTU); FIT Fosca In Tepidarium (FI); Matera-Basilicata 2019 ECoC; Valletta 2018 ECoC (MLT); International Culture Summit, Edinburgh (GB-SCT); DMZ Research Lab and Open Forum, Seoul (KOR); Dance Interfaces, Tenerife (ES); CAMP_iN, San Luis Potosi (MEX); Institut für Theater Film und Medienwissenschaft – Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main (DE); About a City, Fondazione Feltrinelli – Milan; La Soffitta – DAMS, Bologna; CRT – Triennale Teatro dell’Arte, Milan; Play K(ey) – Zona K, Milan; APACHE – Teatro Litta, Milan; Italian Performance Platform – Ipercorpo Festival, Forlì; Trasparenze Festival – Modena; Testimonianze Ricerca Azioni – Teatro Akropolis, Genoa; Napoli Teatro Festival – Naples; Finestre sul Giovane Teatro – Teatro Ridotto, Bologna; Rai Suite – Rai Radio 3; E'(C)CENTRICO – Officine Caos, Torino; Presente/Futuro – Teatro Libero, Palermo; Contrappunti – Tam Teatromusica, Padova; LuminAZIONE preview of Luminaria – Napoli; Soundmakers Festival – Lecce; ExPolis and European Experimental Season – Teatro della Contraddizione, Milano; Inventaria Festival – Teatro dell’Orologio, Roma; DoIt Festival – Teatro Due, Roma; Rossobastardo Live fringe Festival dei Due Mondi – Spoleto; TEATRIaperti – Firenze; K-now/il Centro del Discorso – Lecce; Benevento Città Spettacolo – Benevento; Il Carcere Possibile – Teatro Mercadante, Napoli; PAN – Palazzo delle Arti di Napoli; DiARC – Università Federico II di Napoli; Casa Morra – Archivio d’Arte Contemporanea – Napoli; MANN – Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli.
The artistic, pedagogical and curatorial experience of Teatringestazione and Gesualdi | Trono are the subject of several degree theses and publications; among them: Laura Budriesi (ed.), (2022), Animal Performance Studies, Accademia University Press, in press; Mariavaleria Mininni (ed.), (2021), Osservare Matera, Quodlibet Studio; Serena Gatti (ed.), (2021), Sentieri. Teatro in cammino verso luoghi da riscoprire, Rogas; Pippo Pirozzi (ed.), (2021), Palazzo Sanfelice – L’architettura e la scala urbana, FrancoAngeli; Diana Salzano, Igor Scognamiglio (eds.), (2020), Voci nel silenzio – La comunicazione al tempo del Coronavirus, FrancoAngeli; AA. VV. (2020), So far, so close. Pratiche di vicinanza infra-pandemiche, Open Design School Matera 2019; Valeria Screpis (ed.), (2018), I teatri degli anni Duemila tra rinnovamento estetico e nuove esigenze economico-organizzative. Babilonia Teatri, Fibre Parallele, Menoventi, TeatrInGestAzione, Mimesis Journal vol. 7, no. 2; Silvia Mei, Loretta Mesiti (eds.), (2018), Displace Altofest, Valletta 2018; Silvia Mei (ed.), (2015), Culture Teatrali 2015, La Casa Usher; AA. VV. (2014), Testimonianze Ricerca Azioni, Akropolis Libri; Piermario Vescovo (ed.), (2011), Il tempo a Napoli, Marsilio; Davide D’Urso (ed.), (2011), Incontri notevoli di un libraio militante, Valtrend; AA. VV. (2011), Annual YoungBlood – Yearbook of Italian talents who have received recognition in the field of art, creativity and research, FM; Vito Minoia e Enrico Pozzi (ed.), (2009), Recito, dunque so(g)no, Nuove Catarsi.
We also point out the documentary “Caini d’Aversa” by Palamara&Nicois on the experience of working in the OPG of Aversa; Giuseppe Valentino’s docu-film “On the dust island”, on Altofest Malta 2018 ECoC.
Among the most important awards and recognitions: in 2011, we won the DE.MO./ Movin’UP to support the circulation of emerging Italian talents in the world (Italian Ministry of Culture); in 2016, the Funder35 dedicated to young Italian cultural enterprises; in 2017, the SIAE – Sillumina, for young people for culture; in 2017, the EFFE Award; in 2019 the Allianz Kulturstiftung.
LA COMPANY
Anna Gesualdi and Giovanni Trono
Anna Gesualdi and Giovanni Trono are artists, researchers and independent curators working in the field of Performing Art.
In 2006 they founded Teatringestazione, a research-action theatre and performance company based in Naples. They deal with production, training, design and curatorship, both in the artistic field and in socially disadvantaged contexts, focusing on shared processes. They create works and devices with a hybrid character, crossing different disciplines and areas of research to which a theoretical component is always linked. They pursue an aesthetic based on the rigour of presence, the sobriety of elements, and space’s essential use. Their work stems from the need to detach the act of performance from the show business context and to qualify the stage as the seat of experimental sociality. They work in national and international, independent and institutional contexts.
They are authors, directors and performers of the works: Chorea Vacui (2021); NA Creature – Long Play Track (2021); Lo Spazio a Dismisura d’Uomo (2020); In mezzo mar siede un paese guasto (2019); Misantropie (2019); Footloose (2017); Beckett On Air (2015); Bestiale Copernicana (2014); MISS la natura dell’educazione (2014); Absolute Beginners (2013); Canto Trasfigurato – Ovvero di Moby Dick canto, e d’altri mostri che ho amato (2012); Che ne sarà dei fiori (2012); MORSE . . . – – – . . . (2012); 3 TO 1 (2011); Fratello mio, Caino (2011); Petru (2010); L’Attesa (2010); Assenti (2010); Mamma! Sontantofelice (2010); La Giostra (2009); Alfredo On Air (2008); Noi aspettiamo (2007).
They are curators of the special projects: Bar-abbâ (2021-2022) – in collaboration with Poggioreale-Naples Prison, with the support of the Chiesa Valdese; In Linea d’Aria Festival (2021), commissioned and produced by Fondazione Matera 2019; Radio Leib (from 2021 – ongoing), in collaboration with Goethe Institut of Naples; Atlante degli Immaginari (2020 – 2021) promoted by Fondazione Feltrinelli, with the support of Fondazione Cariplo; Stream ～ Meditations (2020 – ongoing); Startconf (2019 – 2021), in collaboration with Mecenate 90; Fondazione Feltrinelli, Fondazione Foqus, Ecomuseo Casilino, 999 foundation; Altofest Matera-Basilicata – ECoC edition (2019), produced by Fondazione Matera 2019; Altofest Malta – ECoC edition (2018), produced by Fondazione Valletta 2018; De Ri Va – research project (2016 – ongoing), in collaboration with DiARC – University Federico II of Naples; Altofest – International Contemporary Live Arts Fest (2011 – ongoing), with the collaboration of several international cultural institutions, awarded with the EFFE AWARD 2017 – 18, among the six best festivals in Europe; Altofragile – Rassegna (2011 – 2013), in collaboration with PAN – Palazzo delle Arti di Napoli; Avvento – Identità e Geografie a venire (2010 – 2014), with the support and collaboration of MOVIN’UP curated by Mibac and GAI, Insitut für Theater, Film und Medienwissenschaf der Goethe Universität; HessischTheaterakademie; Tanz der Künste; Frankfurt LAB (Frankfurt am Main).
They lead workshops and projects in national and international contexts and institutions in the social and pedagogical field in collaboration with universities and schools. From 2006 to 2014, they conducted the theatrical activity in the Criminal Asylum of Aversa. Since 2015 they have been working on theatre activities at the Poggioreale prison in Naples. In 2010 they were among the founding members of the National Coordination of Theatre in Prison. From 2015 to 2017, they are among the guiding directors of the theatre-education project Arrevuoto – Teatro Nazionale di Napoli.
In 2008 they were teachers of the advanced course for theatre operators in disadvantaged areas and places of detention, within the project FormArt Lavoro Scuola di Arti performative, curated by Ruggero Cappuccio, promoted by the European Union, the Italian Ministry of Labour and the municipality of Salerno.
Loretta Mesiti
Loretta Mesiti, writer and dramaturg, curates collaborative writing processes and discussion devices that accompany interdisciplinary research processes that dialogue with the fruition of visual and performing works, investigating issues related to the reformulation of spatial and identity categories from a philosophical-political and aesthetic-poetic point of view. In addition to the projects she has been working on with Teatringestazione since 2007, she is responsible for the dramaturgy of Blickackte. Betrachtungen aus der Ferne directed by Daniel Schauf, which in 2012 won the jury prize in the competition “Was heißt hier fremd” (Drachengasse Theatre, Vienna). Among her texts, La Sindrome di Elettra won the Oltreparola prize in 2008 as best author under 30, while the jury of the Lorenzo Montano poetry and literature prize awarded her a Special Mention in 2017 for the poetry collection Geologhemi.