THE SEASONS OF PERGINE FESTIVAL SUMMER EDITION > 19 july – 2 august AUTUMN EDITION > 28 – 31 october
Pergine Festival doubles up and rediscover its relationship with nature
The oldest Festival in Trentino reacts to the Covid-19 emergency by reinventing itself in a double “seasonal” formula that deepens the relationship with nature by continuing the reflection on the sense of belonging. From July 19 to August 2, the festival offers the following outdoor activities: walks, performances, installations, music and screenings. From 26th to 31st October, the theatrical performances are back, to resume the path of experimentation and research.
After 45 editions, Pergine Festival is an event awaited and enjoyed by the audience in Trentino and beyond. Over the years, the festival has established itself as a point of reference in the province for live and experimental performing arts events and every summer, the streets, squares and buildings of the city are transformed into a open stage, lived by the citizens.
Despite the health emergency, also in 2020 Pergine Spettacolo Aperto association and the artistic director Carla Esperanza Tommasini have continued to work to build a program that is suitable for the situation, but in line with the artistic standards of the Festival. The result is a programme divided into two parts: a first summer part, from July 19th to August 2nd, and a second autumn part between October 28th and 31st. This double seasonal edition – summer and autumn – as well as meeting the needs of the period, fits perfectly into the reflection proposed by the 45th Pergine Festival, which continues the path started in 2018 on the sense of belonging, but shifting the focus on the relationship with nature and the environment. Never before has the power of nature seemed to overwhelm us, tiny creatures on a planet that has suddenly become inhospitable; never before has the power of nature overwhelmed us on a global level, teaching us that catastrophe can take on very variable dimensions. In a time that seems restless, the artistic director Carla Esperanza Tommasini chooses the words of the philosopher Donna Haraway to recount this period and translate the role that the Festival feels it has to play in the resumption of the social and cultural life of the citizens: “Our task is to unleash a powerful response in the face of devastating events, but also to calm the troubled waters and rebuild peaceful places. We start again from this desire to rebuild and regain possession of our places and our territory in order to return to live and share together”. And again: “We have adapted the Festival to the circumstances, transforming and resizing it into a series of events spread between summer and autumn, trying to transform necessity into virtue. We have taken the opportunity, especially in the summer edition, to go to areas close to the city of Pergine, in addition to the usual spaces of the historic center, pushing us in peripheral places to allow our audience an immersion in nature”.
In fact, the summer season will focus on outdoor events and shows or performances that experiment with different formats and artistic languages, intended for a smaller audience, to deliver a more intimate and immersive experience in the not often frequented places such as the Tegazzo Hill, the Tre Castagni Park and the small lakes near Pergine. The programme is divided into three sections – SCENA CONTEMPORANEA, WALKABOUTS and THIS IS (ALSO) A MUSIC FESTIVAL. In the autumn, the programme will be back to the theatre spaces, with some original site-specific performance projects for a few spectators at a time.
SUMMER EDITION: THE PROGRAMME
From July 19 to August 2, Pergine Festival is back to Valsugana, with a summer edition that enhances outdoor activities: walks to rediscover the relationship with nature, but also performances, installations, music concerts and screenings. All in safety and in compliance with current health regulations.
We start with WALKABOUTS _ at a slow pace in nature: inspired by the Walkabouts of the Australian Aboriginal people, long ritual journeys essential to activate contacts and exchanges, the Festival organizes a series of walks for an original exploration of the natural spaces around Pergine. The different walks will offer itinerant experiences created ad hoc for small groups of spectators, in an act of complete immersion in the narrative potential of nature. An innovative format to reconnect, through different artistic practices, to nature and our human role in relation to it.
On July 19th (and then again on the 26th), the group Azioni Fuori Posto proposes Oltrepassare, winner of Pergine Arte Giovane in 2019. Wednesday 22nd we present Montanamente, local outdoor professionals, with SoulTrek – The sense of the senses, which through the stories of the most ancient cosmogonies related to water, air, earth, fire will reveal the close connection between the human microcosm and the natural macrocosm. We continue on Thursday 23rd and Saturday 25th with Martina Badiluzzi (winner of the Biennale College Teatro 2019) and her Forastica, a guided tour in the woods inspired by Miriam Engel’s story “Bear”‘, in which the protagonist will accompany the audience on a journey of identity transformation and recovery of body possession and relationship with nature. Finally, on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd August, the Pleiadi collective will make its debut in the region with Alberi Maestri, an itinerant and experiential performance on headphones, discovering the world of trees and plants.
The section dedicated to the SCENA CONTEMPORANEA will begin on Thursday 23rd: Trickster-p, a Swiss artistic research project that works by contaminating different languages – winner of the prestigious Swiss Theatre Prize (2017) – will present from 23rd to 25th July, Book is a Book is a Book, an audio-story that uses the book object as a tool to guide the audience and create connections between time, space, dream and memory. In SCENA CONTEMPORANEA also the winners of SUPERNOVA, the Pergine Festival call dedicated to emerging artists, which this year received more than 260 proposals. Friday, July 24th, at the Ex Rimessa Carrozze we present Sul vedere by Claudia Caldarano, visual artist who investigates the distortion of perception and the anomaly of presence, while the next day (Saturday, July 25th), at the Ex Rimessa Carrozze, we present Umani sognano lioni elettrici? di by S.EE./Serena Dibiase, a performance that mixes poetry, sound and video. In the same days – July 24th and 25th – also the winning project of the call OPEN CREAZIONE [URBANA] CONTEMPORANEA that will be back to the public space of the city with Radio Olimpia – Bomba libera tutt! by Collettivo MMM, a new production, jointly supported by the partners of the OPEN network (Zona K, Milan; Contaminazioni digitali, Gorizia; Giardino delle Esperidi, Campsirago; Periferico, Modena; Indisciplinarte/ Centro umbro residenze artistiche C.U.R.A, Terni).
Radio Olimpia – Bomba libera tutt! is a participative performance that uses gaming as a tool for reflection on leisure free from consumption and will be staged in Sala Maier. The reflection on the relationship with nature and environment, extends in the Summer Edition of Pergine Festival on Sunday, July 26th in Piazza Fruet also at the cinema, with the Naturae program, a selection of short documentary films curated by Roberto Cavallini: an invitation to reflect on our relationship with natural landscapes and those we shape, on their various representations and exploitation. The program includes: Auspicio by Elena Goatelli & Angel Esteban (ITA / 2019 / 14’28”); La Buona Novella by Sebastiano Luca Insinga (ITA / 2019 / 15′); Hoa by Marco Zuin (ITA / 2018 / 20’06”); Nature: All Rights Reserved by Sebastian Mulder (NL / 2016 / 21’52”); Machini by Frank Mukunday Tétshim (Congo, BE / 2019 / 9′); RIAFN by Hannes Lang (DE / 2019 / 30′); All inclusive by Corina Schwingruber Ilic (CH / 2018 / 10′); Wishing well by Sylvia Schedelbauer (DE / 2018 / 13′). On the same day and always in Piazza Fruet, a space will also be dedicated to the digital experiments created during the quarantine with Elettrostatica by Martina Badiluzzi and 40″ Klang Room, by Azione Improvvisa Ensemble that invited ten contemporary composers (Daniela Fantechi, Andrea Valle, Maurizio Pisati, Maurizio Azzan, Roberto Vertano, Claudio Panariello, Anna Sowa, Alberto Carretero, Giovanni Bertelli, Zeno Baldi) for the writing of a piece of 40 seconds each, re-proposed on video in four versions thanks to the collaboration with KOTTOM Films.
From 31st July to 2nd August, THIS IS (ALSO) A MUSIC FESTIVAL will take place for a three days of music at the Parco Tre Castagni organized with the collaboration of UploadSounds. On the stage of the Festival Nic Gong and Hyppoc & Mondo Frowno will perform on Friday 31st July, for an evening between indie pop and grunge. Saturday, August 2nd will be the turn of The Bastard Sons of Dioniso and Felix Lalù. To open the evening L’Opera di Amanda. On Sunday evening, instead, the music moves on sounds between tango and jazz thanks to the atmosphere of Mirko Pedrotti Quintet and Miseria Deluxe. Within THIS IS (ALSO) A MUSIC FESTIVAL will also present again the selection of Naturae short films.
There will also be two installations that can be visited during the entire weekend: Quatto quatto, a project curated by the H2o+ association, will be a multisensory journey through our need to relate with nature and public space, born during the suspended time of quarantine and dedicated to children; and The Museum of Empathy, curated by Diana Anselmo, a project halfway between artistic installation and research, winner of Strike! 2019, will propose to the public to “play the role of the other” to experience new relationships and demystify the idea of normality.
NO LIMITS
Pergine Festival believes in the value of culture as a common good for all. That’s why since 2012 we propose NO LIMITS , a project that guarantees access and inclusion to people with physical and sensory disabilities.
The Festival – which, from this year, avails itself of the collaboration of the association Fedora, specialized in accessibility management – offers many services, such as dedicated transport, space mapping, subtitling, translations into LIS – Italian Sign Language, audio-introductions and live audio-descriptions, as well as the training of volunteers directly involved in the activities of the project.
For this summer edition, there are two projects made fully accessible to audience with disabilities: the Empathy Museum, which can be visited from 31 July to 2 August at the Tre Castagni Park, and the itinerant performance Alberi Maestri, scheduled on 1 and 2 August in the same location.