The Crossings Multiples 2024 festival returns this year with an even richer and more varied proposal, created by Margine Operativo under the artistic direction of Alessandra Ferraro and Pako Graziani. Created with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Lazio Region and Roma Capitale, the event will take place from 15 to 29 June in Rome, at the Torre del Fiscale Park, and on 5 and 6 July in Toffia, in the province of Rieti.
This year’s edition is characterized by a clear focus on environmental sustainability, applied not only to the practices of fruition but also to those of production of contemporary performing arts.
A dialogue between art, nature and community
Crossings Multiples 2024 is positioned as a reference event in the performing arts panorama, promoting concrete reflection on the possible relationships between the artistic act, urban spaces and communities. The idea of the festival is to “inhabit urban nature” through different performative practices, creating a powerful and generative interaction with spectators.
The Torre del Fiscale Park in Rome represents the ideal setting for this dialogue. Inserted in the context of the Appia Antica Archaeological Park, it offers a perfect combination of nature and archaeology. From 15 to 29 June, the space will become the theater of performances, site-specific shows, artistic residencies and workshops that will involve the public and the surrounding space in a dynamic and innovative way.
The choice of these spaces is not random but responds to a need to escape from the artificial accelerations of modern time, to claim a sustainable time of research and experimentation.
Fragility as a key to understanding reality
The concept of “fragility” is at the center of the artistic proposal of Crossroads Multiples 2024. Understood as a vital symptom and a key to understanding reality, fragility is seen as a starting point for building resilient and inclusive paths.
Alessandra Ferraro and Pako Graziani, with Margine Operativo, interpret fragility not as a sign of weakness, but as a decentralized posture from which to start to welcome pluralities. This approach is reflected in the performances and shows presented, creating an artistic ecosystem that embraces plants, animals, humans and cultures in a horizontal and plural relationship.
The festival will involve 25 artist companies, five of which are international, presenting 36 performances, shows and site-specifics, with six national premieres and five performance formats created exclusively for this edition.
An eco-sustainable and innovative festival
Crossings Multiples 2024 does not limit itself to presenting a series of artistic events, but also acts as a laboratory for experimentation and dialogue on eco-sustainable practices in the art world. The performances interact directly with urban nature, creating dialogues between natural and artistic elements that reveal new perspectives and unexplored trajectories.
The festival is accompanied, as in the tradition of the project, by the word “FRAGILE”, used as a symbolic slogan that reflects the delicacy and care necessary to treat the planet and the performing arts.
The second stage of the festival, scheduled for 5 and 6 July in the historic center of Toffia, is dedicated to the new generations of spectators. Two days that promise to involve the public in a fascinating urban context, creating a connection between younger spectators and the performance space.
Useful information
Multiple Crossings 2024 will be held from 15 to 29 June at the Torre del Fiscale Park in Rome, part of the Appia Antica Archaeological Park, and on 5 and 6 July in the historic center of Toffia (RI). The festival will present a varied program of performances, from national premieres to exclusive formats, involving national and international artists. To participate in the events, it is recommended to consult the detailed program of the festival.
Entry to events may vary, and free entry or ticket options are available depending on the performances. Opening and closing times vary depending on the day. For further information, contact the festival organizers directly.
The trajectories of the Festival
The festival’s collaboration with the net Ecorhythms // formed by Fondazione Roma Tre Teatro Palladium, Eticae-Stewardship in action and Margine Operativo // supported by the European Union – Next Generation EU to carry out two projects to promote and accelerate eco-innovative practices in the performing arts universe. And it is in this framework that the national call launched by Margine Operativo for three artistic residencies in natural urban landscapes is placed, through which three projects were chosen to be supported in their research path. These three projects are presented as part of Crossing Multiples in a performative form created exclusively for the festival and for the Torre del Fiscale Park, and are:
– Cosmorama Of Nicola Galli – artist who deals with body research and for years has been developing a choreographic investigation focused on the relationship between man and nature – which presents a dance that becomes a crossroads between the folds, reliefs and elements of the landscape (national premiere: 20 June at 7pm )
–Ruth Of Francesca Cola – multidisciplinary artist who intertwines movement, visual art and technology in a transmedia poetics – is a performance between dance and live soundscape, which is aimed at an audience of 6 years old by proposing a shape-shifting creature that asks the question “how can I live on a damaged planet ?”. Around this question, Francesca Cola also offers an eco dance workshop aimed at children
(Ruth in a site-specific dimension created for the festival will be presented on 27 June at 7.30 pm)
– Collect stones Of Enrico Malatesta – an artist active in experimental fields between music, performance and territorial investigation – who presents exclusively for the festival a sound action and a participatory journey dedicated to the urban-natural context of the Torre del Fiscale Park. (creation for the festival – 28 June at 7pm)
The festival’s attention to creations in dialogue with urban nature in one perspective eco-sustainable and site specific it also materializes through the collaboration with the dancer and choreographer Giselda Ranieri for the creation of “Glass”, performance that revolves around the concept of becoming a landscape, in an ecosystem context. A format created exclusively for the festival where dance intertwines with live music and the sound impulses generated by plants. (June 20th at 9.30pm)
Also within the trajectory of relations with the landscape lies the creation of “Birds” of the company clayhouse, a sound path created exclusively for the festival and scattered throughout the Torre del Fiscale Park. The narrative voices intertwine with the musical dramaturgy to convey the story taken fromto The Birds written by Daphne Du Maurier, which with the foresight typical of science fiction, speaks of ecophobia and a changed climate where animal nature is a force out of control
Also this year the festival offers a international window aimed at dance creations in urban landscapes and features the creations of two Spanish dancers and choreographers:
presents in the national premiere “8 km en Mule” Of Alvaro Murillo, a performance that straddles the border between contemporary dance and flamenco and which has been selected for 2024 by the A Cielo Abierto Network, made up of 22 Spanish festivals. (June 20th at 8.30pm)
Akira Yoshida in his unmistakable style that combines break dancing with acrobatics and contemporary dance presents “Oroimen” reformulated for the festival in a site-specific dimension, the use of a vast vocabulary of performance practices positions Akira Yoshida in the Spanish panorama as one of the most versatile dancers and choreographers of his generation. (15 June at 8pm)
The festival proposes a shift in points of view and perceptions, of particular performative formats that question the relationships between artistic action and spectators through the creations of four authors and performers:
Marta Olivieri presents “Trespass_Tales of the Unexpected” – winning project of the “Accessibility in live entertainment” tender of the Ministry of Culture – a durational performance that can be seen and heard, a choreography and a story that manifests itself in multiple forms (16 June 7.30 pm)
Claudia Catarzi proposes “14.610” a performance with a high poetic density interconnected to the space where it takes place and which modifies the viewer’s gaze: the performer dances three meters high on an inclined plane (16 June 9.30pm)
“Metis” Of Francesca Penzo and Mariagiulia Serantoni it is a choreographic, sound and participatory action. It investigates issues related to gender geography, and questions how women’s bodies live and relate to urban space. The bodies of the performers move influenced by a soundscape composed of a network of stories, readings and sounds (21 June 7.30pm)
Crossing Multiples also in this edition relaunches its multidisciplinary nature and presents shows and performance formats that create original and unexpected dialogues between different artistic languages in a relational dimension with landscapes:
–C&C Companya dance company active internationally and coordinated by the choreographer Carlo Massariproposes in the national premiere “Tancredi and Clorinda’s fight is an open-air drama” a bold union between the baroque of Claudio Monteverdi and the contemporary, which sees two dancers, a mezzo-soprano and a harpsichordist on stage. (28 June at 8pm)
-Cristian Ceresoli and Silvia Gallerano present “To climb”, a two-voice piece, original writing, with live lyrics and songs, where pop writing and theater intertwine (28 June at 9.30pm)
-Salvo Lombardo / Chiasma presents a new site-specific stage of the show Sport, The way that I love you is a choreographic insight into the very concept of “performativity” and various sporting “rituals” (June 29, 8pm)
-Theater of the Apparitions presents “Dancing Stories_external night”
