El Graner, a center for the creation of dance and live arts, will participate from October 13 to 15, 2024, as a guest at the launch of SHIFT within the framework of the Fabbrica Europa festival in Florence, alongside Lorenzo Pappagallo, SHIFT coordinator, and Maurizia Settembri, director of Fabbrica Europa.
Among the activities presenting SHIFT, there are project presentations, walks to explore and map the Festival’s environment and the city’s creative territory, dialogues, and other relational contexts. On this occasion, Shift has invited artists Benjamin Khan, Damiano Ottavio Bigi, Hamdi Dridi, and La Chachi to participate in the sessions, creating a working group composed of cultural agents, managers, academics, programmers, and artists around artistic practice and public space, where attempts have been made to distill conflicting and common ideas about space in relation to the performing arts.
With the organization’s guidance, we visited the San Lorenzo and Sant’Orsola districts and some spaces repurposed for cultural uses, such as the Manifattura Tabacchi and the former thermal power plant Ciminiera di Novoli, in collaboration with Giuseppe Cocchi and Andrea Nanni from Tempo Nomade. Additionally, we attended a conference by Omar Rajeh (choreographer), Cristina Caprioli (choreographer and academic), and Carlo Carbone (architect), a workshop session with the invited artists based on the question “how to curate an event in a space?” and a conversation with Peggy Olislaegers, a dramaturg in the field of dance.
SHIFT, which stands for ‘Shaping Harmony, Innovating Forms and Thought,’ aims to transform the way dance is experienced and presented. The project seeks to explore new formats of artistic expression, community participation, and audience interaction, involving artists, experts, and citizens from various EU countries and the Mediterranean region. The SHIFT project places great importance on how the public perceives and interacts with creative experiences, offering the opportunity to accompany artists in a process of rethinking the relationship between space and performance.
SHIFT is led by Cie Omar Rajeh & Maqamat (France), Fabbrica Europa (Italy), and Albania Dance Meeting (Albania). In association with France Travail Scènes et Images- Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (France), Beit El Raqs (Lebanon), and Teatri Kombetar Eksperimental Kujtim Spahivogli (Albania).
Fabbrica Europa hosts the launch of SHIFT, which is funded by the Culture strand of the Creative Europe program of the European Commission. In this first meeting of all project partners and the advisory board of artists and curators, broad participation and reflective decision-making are ensured.
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