New Artistic Horizons at Pergine Spettacolo Aperto
This year, Carla Esperanza Tommasini, since 2011 part of the festival staff and curator of the section “Open” dedicated to supporting new contemporary creations, will share with Cristina Pietrantonio the artistic direction of the festival. A year of transition which anticipates a change of artistic direction from the 2018 edition.
“In these ten years, Pergine Spettacolo Aperto has undergone a period of profound transformation, also responding to a context where cultural changes are accelerated often in surprising and unpredictable ways” says Cristina Pietrantonio. “The work with the festival was intense, full of challenges, we achieved different goals and results. A festival however by its nature must look ahead, it cannot stop and I feel that it is time for me to give space to new energies”
Cristina Pietrantonio’s ten-year collaboration with the festival will end in 2017; beginning with the 2018 edition and for the upcoming three years Carla Esperanza Tommasini will take up the role of artistic director.
Carla Esperanza Tommasini, after a Bachelor Degree in Theatre Studies at DAMS in Bologna, in 2007 received a Master in Contemporary Performance at Brunel University (UK) and in London she worked as an artist and producer for various festivals and cultural organizations including Pacitti Company and SPILL Festival of Performance. In 2009 she started collaborating with Reloading Images (Berlin), working on various projects, including publications, exhibitions, performances and an itinerant residency in Southern India. In 2011, she was selected for the EU FESTIVAL LAB project, a partnership of 8 European festivals for intensive training on performance and production in the field of performing arts combining theory and practice. In the same year she started collaborating with Pergine Spettacolo Aperto Festival, where in 2012 she created OPEN // CONTEMPORARY CREATION, a project for the support of contemporary regional and national creativity; since 2015 she coordinates the artistic selection, international relations and EU projects. After three years of experience as a lecturer at Yasar University (Izmir, Turkey), she now lives in Trentino.
“Pergine Spettacolo Aperto is increasingly projected on the international stage with intense cultural and artistic exchanges across Europe,” says Carla Esperanza Tommasini. “My most exciting challenge is to maintain a high-quality artistic selection and to intensify this international network, while at the same time implementing local resources and possibilities”.