During the “Abitare” residency, the two artists will be hosted from 1 to 15 July in unique spaces to give shape to their artistic vision with the language of site-specific contemporary dance, the former Macello Comunale and the “Giuseppe Ceci” Municipal Library in Andria and will be transformed into living laboratories of artistic expression and poetry. Mehdi Farajpour’s project is called “Blank”: «My entire work is about Life and this strange illusion of feeling alive in an absolutely illusory world, where the boundary between real and unreal is almost non-existent», explains the performer. Elisabetta Lauro’s project “Logos” instead investigates the female universe: «Starting from the concept of “disobedience”, understood as a necessary element for real knowledge of the self, LOGOS reflects on the coordinates on which we have chosen to base our existence and asks whether these express our total human potential». “Inhabiting public spaces through artistic residency experiences, especially with dance – comments the Councilor for Beauty of the Municipality of Andria, Daniela Di Bari – helps to live places well with the harmony of art, restoring the civic commitment to qualify them as squares of knowledge”.
The results of the residencies will be presented on July 15th in Andria in the two locations of the Residencies; in the 2024 edition of the Castel dei Mondi International Festival between September 5th and 12th; in the 24/25 season of ResExtensa | Porta d’Oriente – National Dance Production Center.
Below, the specific projects.
Mehdi Farajpour
Resident: Paris (France)
Project Name: BLANK
Place of residence: Former Municipal Slaughterhouse
Synopsis
My whole work is about Life and this strange illusion of feeling alive in a world that is absolutely illusory, where the border between real and unreal is almost non-existent. Indian culture calls it MAYA; a screen that is placed right in front of our eyes on which our own images are projected, making us feel alive. My job is to reanimate that screen. You could call it Dance, Theater, Performance, or whatever you like. The main concept of BLANK is the use of the body in a white atmosphere with fragments of the body printed on multiple canvases or sheets with a very minimalistic approach. The whole performance will appear as a living exhibition between moving images and static images. Each canvas will have a different size to allow the dancer to create illusory images using his own body and mixing it with the real image of the body itself on the canvas. On some of the canvases is printed a still life image (tree …) which will replace a certain part of the body to create images like “tree-man” … This would create a magical image as if a part of the body was erased or moved in a different sphere than the one in which the dancer dances.
Biography
Mehdi FARAJPOUR is the founder, choreographer and artistic director of the ORIANTHEATRE Dance Company based in Paris. Farajpour started out as a theatre and dance artist but is now considered a conceptual performance artist. Mehdi Farajpour’s artistic career spans various fields from dance, theatre and performance art to video, sound and installation art. He divides his time between creating shows for the company and teaching his movement method: EMPTY BODY.
Elisabetta Lauro/KRASS Cultural Association
With Cosimo Di Palma, musician
Resident: Berlin/Barletta
Project Name: First study on LOGOS
Place of residence: Ceci Municipal Library
Synopsis
LOGOS is part of a large research on the feminine entitled OBEY. The focus of the creation, which develops in the form of a solo, focuses on the dispute between LOGOS and PATHOS, the two forces of the human soul that according to Greek thought live in opposition. LOGOS translated as “word, reason” is the regulating principle of everything and also takes on the meaning of divine wisdom, PATHOS coincides with our most emotional and irrational part, and distances us from the divine making us… more human? Starting from the concept of “disobedience”, understood as a necessary element for a real knowledge of the self, LOGOS reflects on the coordinates on which we have chosen to base our existence and asks whether these express our total human potential, which is in fact made of opposites; reason and feeling, objective and subjective, male and female. The suspicion is that human beings have overdone it by relying more on one side than the other, leaving aside the less decipherable parts of themselves.
Biography
Graduated from the Folkwang University of Arts, Elisabetta Lauro worked for several years for the Teatro Stabile in Kassel in Germany. She has been a freelancer since 2011, when she created the Cuenca/Lauro project. With her works she has won the Jury and Audience Awards at Masdanza, the Equilibrio Roma Award and a research grant. Programmed internationally, she has been selected in Italy for Anticorpi XL, Residance XL, and for the NID. She is an associated artist of Sosta Palmizi and co-founder of the collective KRASS.
