Kontext Wechsel

Thanks to the experiences, collected during the residence in Theater Expedition Metropolis, Berlin, we could develop our work further to the expedition in Abruzzo, Italy. Using the performative narratives, improvisations, musical and artistic pieces, we were able to transfer our project to a more specific situation, community and environmental urgency. Therefore in July 2021, we have organized ON URGENCY*NESTING to two specific places in Abruzzo (Città Sant’Angelo and Pineto).

• 

• 

ON URGENCY*NESTING was conceived by Daniela Marcozzi to respond with theatrical mediums to the urgent and drastic deterioration of the marine environment in her home region Abruzzo, along the Adriatic coast.

One day I started to collect garbage, like many other people do. This action was held by an organic balance between active and passive, happiness and despair, between contraction and elongation, decision and laziness, control and release, nature and culture, artist and person. Beyond moralizing, beyond the politicization of ecological practices, beyond guilt and the uncertainty of the future, beyond the colours of recycling, my deep self is still there, picking up trash, like Sisyphus happily pushing the boulder up the mountain.

D. Marcozzi, „The 6-levels of the ACTION“

With the aim to work in direct contact with water pollution and with the local community in some municipalities of the region, we developed a new set of surveys to explore the relation between human and environment and its urgency (the urgency of the relation, and/or the urgency of the person, and/or the place itself).

FIRST PHASE OF THE EXPEDITION (May 2021)

We have contacted local communities, schools, associations and distributed the surveys to the community. This phase allowed us to establish a first contact with the community, the geography and history of the places as well as to rise the interest and curiosity in the project.

SECOND PHASE OF THE EXPEDITION (July 2021)

We have organized an international and immersive residency in which the components of Marcozzi Contemporary Theater worked with local artists and in collaboration with several associations (Arotron Theater School, Cirque Brutal, theater company CuntaTerra) and with the support of the municipalities of Città Sant’Angelo (PE), Pineto (TE) and Pianella (PE).

Inspired by the places, their history and by the survey’s replies, we have created site-specific performances and concerts on the beach and in the street of the historical centre of Città Sant’Angelo. We have welcomed local people (who also replied to the surveys) to participate in some phases of the artistic process, as well as some young student-artists interested in the process.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The projects includes the Berlin-based artistic residency and the Expedition in Abruzzo (IT). Both have explored the relation between human and environment.

The project ON URGENCY*NESTING is the direct follow-up of the research project and workshop „The Urge of Being“ a training method for performing artists, developed by Daniela Marcozzi in years 2017-2018, during the Master of Arts in Artistic research at Academia Teatro Dimitri (CH).

„The Urge of Being“ is inspired by recent scientific theories of emotions and embodiment and it aims to access the biological core of energy and emotions, channelling and expressing it by movement, voice, text and songs. This artistic practice leads the artists to work in a state of physical, emotional and mental off-balance that has been defined by the author Artistic Survival Mode.

How our urges can push us to act, to react, to adapt ourselves through establishing an adaptive dialogue with what surrounds us?

That was the main reasearch question of the project ON URGENCY*NESTING, which was conducted during the artistic residency at Theater Expedition Metropolis in 2021.

After a focus group with a team of psychologist, we developed a an anonymous survey that we translated in 5 languages.

We asked: „1) What is the place where you connect deeply with yourself? 2) Can you describe it? 3) Why there? 4) Imagine being this place. How do you feel? 5) What is the urgency of this place? 6) Where do you feel this urgency (where in your body, which emotions, which sensations, etc? 7) Can you use an image or a metaphor to describe what you wrote before? 8)What do you feel ready for, now? 9) If you want… here is some free space.“

Rehearsal at Theater Expedtition Metropolis, Berlin. Video credits: Alekos Grammaticos

During the residency we „translated“ the replies into a performance, improvisation scores, music compositions and drawings.