Breath as a metaphor, an action that establishes a connection between inside and outside and unites all living beings: “A conversation with the landscape”, he explains Giulia Muronicurator of the festival Breath organized by Sardinia Theatre and has reached its fourth edition this year. The project aims to trigger a reflection on the way in which the performing arts are able not only to tell but also to transform reality, on a social, political and environmental level. A “nomadic” festival because it explores different spaces and places Cagliari – “stripping it of tourist rhetoric” -, and which opens up to new subjectivities with works that “look at the queer world, at people marginalized due to issues of gender, origin or disability”. Among the names of Respiro #4: Dom-, Motus, Industria Independent, Cristina Kristal Rizzo, Parini Secondo, Basel Zaraa, Lucia Di Pietro, Thjerza Balaj, Bono/Purattini, putacaso e hari, Alberto Marci & Laura Farneti, Donatella Martina Cabras, Andrea Melis, Violetta Cottini and Carlotta Sofia Grassi, Filippo Gonnella, Marco Tè, Sara Saccotelli for the Creative Campus.
The program – with appointments and initiatives from 19 to 29 June – was presented today during a press conference at Manufacturing which was also an opportunity to introduce some new features: first and foremost the announcement of the partnership with Sae and the honorary presidency of Sardegna Teatro a Luciano Tancredieditorial director of the group that publishes – among others – La Nuova Sardinia and Sardinia Post. “This in Sardinia seems like a moment in which we are turning the page, on a political, institutional and cultural level – said Tancredi after the speech of Basilio Scalas, historic president of Sardegna Teatro -. Our group deals with publishing, media and integrated communications. It shouldn’t seem strange that it also approaches the world of culture and theater: Sae is a group that looks at the territory and the social. And there are many development ideas to carry forward with the Teatro di Sardegna”.
Giulia Muroni and Luciano Tancredi
From China – where he is on tour with MacBettu – the general director of the cultural company also spoke, Massimo Manciniwhich announced the return of Alessandro Serra’s opera to Cagliari (al Lyric Theatre on 13 July) and underlined one of Sardegna Teatro’s vocations, which is to bring culture “to the center of society, without an elitist approach that keeps concepts isolated”. In this sense “we also believe in plural, differentiated curation, spaces of creative freedom and listening, not zones of power”.
The festival develops between Sa Manifattura, Cuore Market in Sant’Elia, Music Park, Botanical Garden with a final coda Campidarterural cultural space and creative agritourism in the countryside of Ussana. The attention to the international scene and the contemporary debate is manifested – among others – in the selection of Thjerza Balaj performer and choreographer from Kosovo who brings to the stage the violence of the male gaze on a female body; in the courageous proposal of the Palestinian artist Basel Zadar who will tell – in a moving 1 to 1 performance – the precariousness of his home in the Al Yarmpuk refugee camp in Damascus.
There is also great anticipation for the return of Mdlsx of the Motus, after it was hosted by Sardegna Teatro in 2016 with the first matinee in Italy for schools, and for the presentation of the work of Cristina Kristal Rizzo which transforms the deafness of the protagonist performer into an opportunity to build a new choreographic language. The proposal is enriched by works with hybrid formats, emerging creativity, but also attention paid to local talents. This search path is present in Breath #4 especially through the restitution of the final results of Creative Campus, project with which Sardinia Theatre chooses to look to the future of the performing arts and celebrate its 50 years, creating an academy dedicated to training and research, supported by the Ministry of Culture.
Andrea Tramonte
The complete program on the website dedicated to the festival.
