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The Bread Festival in the Streets of Piccianello

Exhibitions, residencies, artistic performances, cooking classes, workshops and shows – and one single undisputed protagonist: bread.

Breadway, the project co-produced by Murgiamadre, was a journey and an experience through the streets of the Piccianello district reviving the tradition of bread between 6 and 9 June along a route that included bakers, the former mill and other iconic locations of the Rione.

The 'bread festival' united the telling of the story of local traditions with contemporary artistic expression. Temporary citizens and cultural inhabitants were involved together in an immersive experience that brought them closer to a heritage of knowledge and flavours.

Two exhibitions reopened the doors of the former Mulino Alvino, the first mill to be built in Matera at the end of the 19th century. They marked the start of the festival with an exhibition of the work by the students of the IED in Barcelona and the projects that had answered the call launched by ADI to design new kinds of bread.

The students of the European Institute of Design worked on various aspects of breadmaking: from the beginning, starting with the ingredients that make it up, to stale leftovers. Bread that feeds our bodies, bread that becomes a design item and makes it possible for us to try things out and create a new object while also recycling what is left.

The call launched by the Associazione per il Design Industriale in February, on the other hand, invited participants to create and propose new types of bread using a formula that was not limited to the strictly food-related aspect, but looked beyond it, as the great chefs have accustomed us to seeing. Cooks and designers share an extremely free creative process – they are two very closely-related professions, the only difference being that in the former case, the results are ephemeral and usually disappear after a few bites.

Design projects and performances by five international artists and food performers selected by Indisciplinarte both started out from a long creative construction process revolving around the subject of bread.

Rares Augustin Craiut and Xavier Gorgol took us though the Panificio Perrone for a lesson in anatomy in which the body that was being cut up was the bread of Matera, a megaphone of memories of journeys and migrations through stories collected from a call to people who have left the city. 

Floriane Facchini & Cie pulled memories of all kinds out of the cupboard, interviewing the inhabitants of Piccianello, whose faces and stories enriched the facades of its houses. For the final Cucine(s) Matera performance, a lively parade led visitors to the various stages of this temporary installation, with bread as its common thread.

With a characteristic mobile bakery, Catalina Pollack Williamson listened to stories from the participants and blended their contents together, starting out from memories and traditions. In the bucolic location of the Chiesa Rupestre di Cristo La Gravinella, Gosie Vervloessem performed a mystic ritual that brought a magical creature to life. Finally, together with Harinera Panem et Circenses, the Chilean Andrea Paz and Colectivo Harinera Site Specific, we relived the ancient tradition of crapiata through a contemporary version.

As well as the performances, there were also numerous workshops, including the Cooking Class run by the Associazione Cuochi Materani Derado Vandemoortele and the Consorzio I.G.P. Pane di Matera, children's workshops run by Cozinha Nomade in the shade of the pine trees in the courtyard of the Scuola Marconi and the collections and archives of Paneuropa, a redesigned map of Europe based on the various types of bread found on the continent.

The warm summer evenings were enlivened by a concert by Musica da Cucina, where utensils become instruments, ska with indie and reggae influences by Skanderground, Route 96's cooking blues show and the swing, jive and Dixieland sounds of the Spaghetti Brothers.

With Breadway, Matera and bread became a symbol of sharing, religiousness, holiness and creativity to create a new informed community. Breadway was a rediscovery of conviviality and the pleasure of being together in the name of bread.

Public call to become a protagonist in ‘Inhabiting the Opera’

Would you like to become a protagonist in 'Inhabiting the Opera'? We are looking just for you for one of Matera 2019's most highly-anticipated projects, which will be produced in collaboration with one of the world's oldest theatres, the Teatro San Carlo of Naples!

Citizens will be directly involved in the staging of Pietro Mascagni's opera ‘La Cavalleria Rusticana’, which will be set in the Sassi di Matera, an open-air theatre like no other in the world.

The performance will be divided into two parts: the first, which is a travelling show called 'Prologo sui Sassi', or 'The Seven Capitalist Sins', will involve the participation of citizens, and consists of short scenes inspired by the seven deadly sins illustrating the excesses of contemporary neoliberalism, while the second is a production of Pietro Mascagni's opera ‘La Cavalleria Rusticana’, directed by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, which will be performed in the picturesque setting of Piazza San Pietro Caveoso and the Church of Santa Maria di Idris.

Citizens will be asked to take part in both the scenes of 'The Seven Capitalist Sins' and in some brief crowd scenes in Pietro Mascagni's opera that will require simple theatrical actions, choruses and choral dances. All those wishing to take part in creating the opera will be involved in the following activities: workshops from 17 to 22 June, performance rehearsals from 10 to 30 July, a pre-dress rehearsal on 31 July, a dress rehearsal on 1 August, a first performance on 2 August, and a second performance on 3 August.

The workshop for citizens will be held between 17 and 22 June from 18.00 to 21.00 at the Casale in Via Madonna delle Virtù in Matera.

All citizens may take part in the workshop, based on their own availability.

Rehearsals for the show, which are scheduled to take place at the Teatro Quaroni in the La Martella district in July, will be held no more than three times a week during the afternoon or evening, so that everyone will be able to take part.

If you require further information, please send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., adding ‘ABITARE L’OPERA’ in the subject line.

You must have a Matera 2019 Passport if you wish to participate in this public call.

A cultural revolution in sport and street art

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Sport and urban art merge, energise and transform public spaces, so people can enjoy the city beyond the historic centre. This is the guiding spirit of Open Playful Space, a project produced with Uisp Basilicata, which culminated in the Festival that ended last week.

This urban regeneration operation uses games, sport and urban art in a new way, by discovering and regenerating spaces for people to experience as accessible cultural places.

From 29 May to 2 June, with a preview on the weekend of 25 and 26 May, a large number of residents were involved in generating a new vision of public spaces and returning them to the whole community by highlighting what is usually invisible.

The festival preview featured a variety of games and circus arts, attracting the attention of children and families. The preview concluded with a 5-a-side football tournament, bringing together young people from Matera, European volunteers and migrants in an atmosphere of friendship and solidarity. 

Since 29 May the Festival has taken over the streets, squares and parks of the city with taster workshops and advanced ones for a more experienced public. The two symbolic places of the project were Piazza Cesare Firrao and Piazza degli Olmi, where regeneration work had already been introduced through street art, with the collaboration of students from the Istituto Comprensivo Bramante and the residents’ association of Piazza degli Olmi.

During the Festival street art was relaunched through two art installations. On the steps of the skating rink at the Parco Papa Giovanni Paolo II a brand new work was designed and made specifically for this space by Giorgio Bartocci, a street artist who explores the complex relationship between people and the local area. Bartocci enhanced the urban architecture that resembles an upturned boat with signs and symbols in gold, silver and copper.

The second installation was by designer and muralist Skolp, who added a vertical work to the actions he performed in previous months in Piazza degli Olmi, continuing with regeneration work on a public space belonging to a community that has already been involved in Matera 2019 activities. This artist from Bari signed his work with the geometric shapes and composition principles characteristic of his art, while students from the Scuola Bramante ‘adopted’ the columns in the square, using paint and varnish.

All of the Festival workshops were coordinated by leaders of international standing. The Art Du Deplacement workshops (an arts/sport discipline that combines freedom of movement with free thought) were coordinated by Laurent Piemontesi, one of the founders of this discipline which was established in France in the 1980s, with Muvt ASD. Lots of enthusiasts and keen participants got to grips with ADD and learned to overcome obstacles, walking and running along urban routes with amazing acrobatics, jumps and climbs.

The workshops focusing on circus arts, juggling and capoeira also featured professional artists with many years of experience, like the young Anglo-French family The Sprockets, the Pachamama company and the Brazilian Mestre Aranha from the Sao Salomao centre.

On the evenings of 1 and 2 June, the final event of the Festival was a performance in the Parco Giovanni Paolo II and Parco del Castello Tramontano of the multi-disciplinary show TransformAction directed by Pino Di Buduo, founder of the Teatro Potlach, a renowned and long-established Italian contemporary theatre company. 

The concept of TransformAction derives from the local area where it is performed. Green spaces and open spaces become a natural stage for the performance, which follows a winding artistic path for half a kilometre. The spectators become travellers in search of performances located in various places in the two parks, which are completely transformed by lighting, sets and projections on the central keep and lateral towers of the Castello Tramontano.

Performances included juggling, acrobatic dancing, stilt walking and circus arts accompanied by percussion rhythms, live music and Brazilian songs. On previous days a peaceful colourful caravan went through the city’s streets, astonishing local people with this invasion of their space by music and acrobatics.

Through Open Playful Space, Uisp Basilicata and all the partners involved want to send a clear message: the residents themselves can be the real protagonists of change, starting with young people capable of regenerating urban spaces and relationships by means of sport and street art. This great social phenomenon starts from the local area and drives a cultural revolution that improves lifestyles and health, representing an opportunity to which everyone has a right.

The project was carried out in collaboration with the following partners: ISCA, Uisp, Teatro Potlach, ADD Umbria Academy, Muvt ASD, Momart Gallery, Lacaposciuc ASD, TeatroPAT, Associazione Giallo Sassi, Associazione Joven, Basilicata Board and ASD Sk8ong Team.