Asia-Europe Cultural Festival: 2021 | Museum of Elsewhere

An interdisciplinary act merging dance, visual arts, music and performing arts

Dance and Visual arts
22 - 26 November 2021
Online

Museum of Elsewhere is an interdisciplinary contemporary dance project that involves an ensemble of emerging Italian and Asian artists and aims to research the ideas of identity and cultural background in an international domain. The project intertwines the work of dancers, musicians and video makers to create an ambitious production that was born thank to the meeting between Italian and Asian artists in the frame of Crisol - Creative Processes project funded within the Boarding Pass 2019 project by MiBACT (Italian Ministry of Culture). Conceived and directed by the Italian artists Francesca Foscarini and Cosimo Lopalco, the project is enriched by the artistic contribution of ErGao (Chinese Artist) and Noel Pong (Hong Kong Artist), and it is a co-production between Association LIS LAB Performing Arts | CROSS Festival (Italy) and City Contemporary Dance Company (Hong Kong), in collaboration with Cultural Association VAN (Italy).

Museum of Elsewhere focuses on the themes of the contemporary museum and the relationship between the architectural space and the body. The artistic goal is to scenically represent the contemporary museum in relation to the body. It is therefore conceived as a method where performative acts populate architectural and/or urban spaces in a museum sense. It stems from the conviction that the contemporary museum, in its continuous search for that Other and Elsewhere that has founded and guided it since the times of the Greek mouseíon (the sacred elsewhere of the Muses), can now itself be considered the work on display: a total and organic work, culturally and politically relevant, which takes on the task of affirming and disseminating its own aesthetic-political languages and codes, and as such deserves to be artistically represented and staged.

The artists will create a museum space inhabited by durational performances, bodies, which will be treated as proper "works" of art. The "spectators/visitors" will be able to go through the exhibition independently, deciding the path, the time and the attention to be dedicated to the individual "pieces” which will be performative actions, objects, sounds, visions, bodies in motion or motionless. The show is therefore a truly multimedia immersive installation that will see the participation of artists from different sectors of art: visual art, performance art and music. The artists will create several rooms that will contain artistic pieces. The “art pieces” will be both live installations (with live performers) and video/sound installations. The collection of works exhibited is connected to the ideas of national identity and cultural backgrounds in relation to the specific space where the project takes place.

Therefore, the catalogue of works is each time enriched with new pieces that are developed by the artists according to the country where the project is presented. This process enables the project to always evolve and to fulfil its aim of being tool of intercultural exchange and artistic co-creation.

Credits:

Francesca Foscarini (Italy) (concept, direction, choreography, performer)

Cosimo Lopalco (Italy) (concept, direction, dramaturgy)

ErGao (China) (choreography, performer)

Noel Pong (Hong Kong) (choreography, performer)

Giovanfrancesco Giannini (Italy) (performer)

Giulio Olivero (Italy) (scenography and installation)

Guido Tattoni (Italy) (sound design)

Anna Mantoan (Italy) (costumes consultant)

The event is part of Asia-Europe Cultural Festival 2022, CLICK HERE for the full programme.