English Programme Overview HERE

Fondazione Romaeuropa
presents:
ROMAEUROPA FESTIVAL ‘14
LIFE BLOOD
dance, theatre, contemporary circus, art, music and DIGITAL LIFE
29th EDITION 24.09 | 30.11
Accademia Di Francia – Villa Medici | Auditorium Conciliazione | Carrozzerie N.O.T. | Istituto Svizzero | La Pelanda |
Lanificio | MAXXI | Opificio Romaeuropa | Teatro Argentina | Teatro Brancaccio | Teatro della Pergola (Fi) |
Teatro Eliseo | Teatro Orologio | Teatro Piccolo Eliseo | Teatro Vascello
Rome, 28th May 2014. The 29th edition of Romaeuropa Festival will open on 24th September. 52
shows and events for a total of 118 performances from 19 different countries, with new sonorities
and new expressions of contemporary art, of which 20 Italian premières, 5 world premières and 10
sound installations on display at Digital Life - PLAY, now at its fifth edition at La Pelanda.
The dance of Akram Khan and Israel Galván, Hofesh Shechter, Frédérick Gravel, the theatre of Angélica
Liddell, ricci/forte, Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, Emma Dante, the contemporary circus by Acrobates, Dada
Masilo, the art, and above all the music with Digital Life, Alain Platel, Lucia Ronchetti, Letizia Renzini, Motus,
Tempo Reale, le Luci della Centrale Elettrica, the collaboration with Deezer, the section Afropolitan. Amongst
the many artists, these are some of the names who will cross the two months’ run in the 15 spaces of the
Festival, transforming Rome into a big space for contemporary art creation. “The city, the international
horizon, the value of contemporary artists’ work, the relationship with the audience have always been our
reference points, and we once again start from them for this new adventure” Fabrizio Grifasi explained. “Since
its origins,” President Veaute remarked, “the Foundation has believed in Europe, as its own name reveals, and
this year in which Italy will hold the Presidency of European Semester, we dedicate the Festival to this idea that
has come true, with all its merits and defects, an idea to be improved, even with the contribution of culture.”
Torobaka by Akram Khan and Israel Galván will open the festival: two extremely different choreographic
universes – that of khatak and that of flamenco- a confrontation on a new territory still to be invented.
Even Israeli born and Brighton based choreographer Hofesh Shechter reinterprets ancient traditions in a
contemporary form, with a possessed choreography, Sun, that illuminates the dark sides of power. The
Quebecois choreographer, dancer, musician Frédérick Gravel, arrives for the first time in Italy with a pièce
about seduction, Usually Beauty Fails.
A prominent figure of South African contemporary dance, Dada Masilo comes back to the Festival with an
extremely original Carmen in which contemporary and African dance, classical ballet and the charm of flamenco
mingle together.
A focus on emerging Italian and international dance is provided by the festival DNA organized by Anna Lea
Antolini, which this year interweaves the different languages of Jefta Van Dinther (Sweden) and Thiago
Granato (Brazil), Louise Vanneste (Belgium), Sharon Fridman (Spain), Claudia Catarzi, Arno
Schuitemaker (Netherlands), Itamar Serussi (Netherlands), Daniele Ninarello, Manfredi Perego, the
DNAppunti coreografici (DNA choreographic notes), the showcase Anticorpi XL. The repertory of contemporary
dance comes back to life with DNA_Memory in the historic pièce Fiordalisi by Raffella Giordano, in Noè
Soulier’s reflections on movement and in the choreographies Tacita Muta by Adriana Borriello, and Indigene
by Virgilio Sieni, both part of the project Vita Nova that Sieni devoted to young performers and talents.
The Florentine choreographer will also present his new work, Dolce Vita, five choreographic tableaux based on
the Gospel story of the Passion of Christ, in search of a renewed sense of the community.
The body, rituality and Monteverdi’s music are feature characteristics of one of the most awaited debuts on the
stage of Romaeuropa, Tandy, by the Spanish Angélica Liddell, an anarchic and elusive personality of European
theatre.
With the exception of Liddel, the sole foray beyond national borders, the drama section of the Festival is
devoted to the Italian scene. Andrea Baracco reworks the most complex amongst Shakespearean plays with
his Hamlet, with the complicity of Biancofango theatre company, Luca Brinchi and Roberta Zanardo of
the Santasangre collective.
Anagoor is a work on the relationship between art, rhetoric and power through the pages of the
Aeneid in Virgilio brucia. Ricci/forte tackles our times head-on through a short-circuit ranging from theatre to
the reality-show to the rhythm of hard rock; Darling is a glimpse on the present filtered by Aeschylus’ Oresteia
and Edward Hopper’s distinctive contemporary melancholy.
The staging of Giorgio Barberio Corsetti revolves on a play never published or seen before in Italy,
Gospodin by the young playwright Philipp Löhle, the story of a tragicomic anti-hero who rebels against
capitalism: rebels are also the zombies of Elvira Frosini and Daniele Timpano, authors, directors and
performers of Zombitudine.
Sought-after by European theatres, acclaimed by the audience, Emma Dante comes back to the
Festival with Operetta burlesca, the story of a homosexual boy animated by a volcanic passion and resigned to
the oppressive immobility of the provinces in which he lives.
The remounted production of Ubu and the truth commission by William Kentridge and the
Handspring Puppet Company marks the beginning of the collaboration between Romaeuropa and Teatro
della Pergola in Florence; it is the first stage of a new artistic relationship that widens the borders of the
Festival.
Many and different are the music of Romaeuropa, and the Baroque repertoire surfaces in the creation of
radically different artists. Il lamento della Ninfa by Claudio Monteverdi, in the aforementioned Tandy by Angélica
Liddell and in the concert Ninfa in lamento by Letizia Renzini and Sabina Meyer, this last one presented at
Villa Medici as the other show of the two women artists invited to the Festival, Ballo delle ingrate, always on the
music of Monteverdi.
Alain Platel is far from being unfamiliar with the Baroque repertoire, and his Coup fatal is first of all a
concert where ancient music, reinterpreted by composer Fabrizio Cassol becomes tinged with Congolese
culture thanks to counter-tenor Serge Kakudji and the 14 musicians on stage.
A refined game of mirrors enhances the tensions between word and singing in King Arthur by Motus in
collaboration with Sezione Aurea, music by Henry Purcell and text by John Dryden, while Anatra al sal, a
strongly contemporary “theatre in concert” by author and playwright Ermanno Cavazzoni and composer
Lucia Ronchetti, with the musical direction of Gianluca Ruggeri, is inspired by the madrigals of the late
sixteenth Century Italian tradition. Together with the Ready Made Ensemble, the musician will moreover
play the music of Tandy and, with Ars Ludi, Feedback e risonanze, three works for feed-drum by
Michelangelo Lupone produced by “CRM-Centro ricerche musicali”, performed by a sublime artist such as
Alessandra Cristiani.
Furthermore, the space of contemporary music will open up to the Homage to Giacinto Scelsi with the
complete piano cycle and with the first-time performance of Suite Xlb, played by Fabrizio Ottaviucci, and to
the sound theatre performance Many more voices, an interaction between the voice of David Moss, who is
amongst the most innovative performers of contemporary music and the electro-acoustic universe of Tempo
Reale.
Two highly spectacular and Brit-connoted performances thanks to the return of Jamie McDermott,
who interprets the Cabaret Songs by Benjamin Britten and some new pieces composed for him by musician
Conor Mitchell and playwright Mark Ravenhill. He will also perform in a live concert with The
Irrepressibles in Nude: Viscera, the new show of the British band.
Music at Romaeuropa means also clubbing, singer-songwriters’ performances, new trends and ethnic
rhythms. Electronic music throbs in the notes of Ben Frost, while La Pelanda becomes a musical salon where
the contamination between electronic bits and the African tradition mingle to give life to the Afropolitan
Festival, presented in collaboration with Afrodisia, where musical videos by Addictive TV in collaboration with
Frank Sent Us will also be presented. Always at La Pelanda, a special event created ad hoc by Vasco Brondi aka
Le Luci Della Centrale Elettrica for Romaeuropa. A further novelty is represented by the new partnership
with Deezer, the first worldwide platform for music in streaming (available in more than 180 countries thanks
to a catalogue that includes over 30 million tracks).
A new language, suspended between dance and contemporary circus celebrates the body with the Acrobates by
Stéphane Ricordel and Olivier Meyrou; Hakanaï, by Adrien M and Claire B, a real choreographic solo
played in un cube created by laser lights and holograms; Plexus by Aurélien Bory is shaped on the movement
of the Japanese Kaori Ito.
This year, there are ten pathways of INformazione: along them, Romaeuropa involves the most varied
audiences in practical and theoretical workshops, talks and meetings with the artists. The protagonists will be
Universities and Academies students, (IRIdico, L’altra Danza, DNA Memory_LAB, DNA Visioni), would be
photographers (DNA pictures) but also children (DNA Juniors), dancers (DNA movement#1), dance lovers (DNA
movement#2) and the audience at large (Choreographers Today, DNA words).
Produced by Fondazione Romaeuropa, Romaeuropa Festival 2014 is made possible by a precious Italian
and European, both public and private network of supporting partners. Part of this network are: the Ministry
for Cultural Resources and Activities and Tourism, the Departments for Cultural Policy of Lazio
Region and the Municipality of Rome, the Rome Chamber of Commerce, the Fondazione Roma
Mediterraneo, Gioco del Lotto with the contribution of Invitalia; the Cultural Institutes, such as the
Accademia di Francia, the Institut Français Italia, the Istituto Svizzero, the Québec Delegation, the Istituto
Cervantes, the Goethe Institut; the Embassies of France, Netherlands and Spain; Roman institutions such as
Teatro di Roma, Teatro Eliseo, Teatro Vascello, Teatro Brancaccio, Auditorium Conciliazione, Teatro
Orologio, Teatro della Pergola in Florence; the exhibitions spaces, La Pelanda and MAXXI; the artistic
production centre Le Fresnoy-Studio national des arts contemporains; the Lanificio; Fondazione Nuovi
Mecenati; Biennale Danza di Venezia; the European cultural networks Theatron, Réseau Varèse, and Temps
d’Image.
Gioco del Lotto is partner of the Romaeuropa Festival 2014 Edition, thus renewing its longstanding
support to culture and the arts. During the Festival, Gioco del Lotto will give a group of young people aged
under 30 the chance to attend, free of charge, the dress rehearsals of two shows selected amongst the most
representatives Italian and international companies. At the same time, Gioco del Lotto supports Appena
Fatto!, a cycle of 16 post-show talks organized by Fondazione Romaeuropa with Rai Radio 3, to encourage
a direct exchange between the audience and the artists with some protagonists of the Festival.
DIGITAL LIFE 2014 at LA PELANDA:
PLAY
5th EDITION 09.10 | 30.11
As the technological fulcrum of the Festival, Digital Life dedicates its fifth edition to music and to artist’s musical
instrument with its title: PLAY.
10 sound installations, many of them interactive, that the spectators will enjoy playing in the spaces of La
Pelanda from 9th October to 30th November: the installation for rhythmic sequences by Alexander
Burton, the kinetic sound sculpture by Andrè & Michel Decosterd, the sound seesaw of Veaceslav
Druta, the orchestra for water drops and percussions by Arno Fabre, the concerts for Tibetan bells by
Leonore Mercier, and the ones for speaker and amplifiers by Zahra Poonawala, the musical box
controlled by a database by Heewon Lee, the harp of light by Pietro Pirelli, the hyper-contemporary Babele
Tower by Douglas Henderson, the sound and molecular structures by Donato Piccolo.
Besides the exhibition, for this edition Digital Life also proposes, in the spaces of La Pelanda, a rich
programme of concerts, performances and meetings.
Digital Life is produced by Fondazione Romaeuropa in collaboration with Le Fresnoy - Studio
national des arts contemporains, created at the behest of Lazio Region, and produced in collaboration
with La Pelanda/Macro.
The Committee of Experts consists of Monique Veaute, President of Fondazione Romaeuropa,
Fabrizio Grifasi, Director of Fondazione Romaeuropa, Alain Fleischer, film-maker and photographer,
Director of Le Fresnoy, Pascale Pronnier, head of artistic programming for Le Fresnoy, Daniele Spanò,
artist and artistic consultant of Fondazione Romaeuropa, Francesca Manica, Artistic Coordinator of
Fondazione Romaeuropa.
REF 2014 IN FIGRES
52 Artistic projects
118 Days of performances
20 Italian premières
5 World premières
16 Post-show talks for the cycle Appena fatto!
10 Information Projects
10 Works on display at Digital Life - Play
for 46 days
Information for the audience, reservations and ticket sale
Fondazione Romaeuropa - tel. +39 06 45 55 30 50 | [email protected]
Press Office Romaeuropa Festival
Francesca Venuto, Matteo Antonaci - tel. +39 06 45 55 30 14 | [email protected]

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