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The countdown begins for the 'Open Future, Together!' celebrations

The year of Matera European Capital of Culture is coming to an end, but the special events are not over yet.

19 days, 19 hours and 19 minutes of theatrical entertainment, musical and digital dance performances, workshops organised by Samsung, exhibitions and a festival dedicated entirely to the crossover of culture and the digital world, one of the central themes of the candidacy dossier that looks to the future as a legacy of this extraordinary journey.

The Open Culture Festival includes a series of initiatives dedicated to digital culture and technological innovation, hot topics for the cultural offer of the future with interactive experiences, multimedia games, entertainment and testimonials from the most important players in the digital market.

Every day until 20 December we will be counting down to the big Open Future, Together! party, featuring famous international musicians who will perform in Cava del Sole in the presence of a welcoming and festive audience.

For more information on everything that is happening between 1 and 20 December, see the 'special countdown' schedule on Matera Events and follow Matera 2019 on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Gardentopia, artistic residencies to reflect on shared heritage

There are 32 artistic residencies that awakened the curiosity of, and continue to interest Basilicata, within the wider framework of the Gardentopia project. Individual and collective artists are embarking on a journey through the gardens, the vegetable patches and, more generally, the region's public areas to reflect, together with the citizens, on their function, trying to translate into virtuous practice the concept of an asset that is no longer just public but communal.

The artistic residencies have taken on various formats, from short workshops to longer investigations into the region's intangible heritage right up to the widespread initiative that has seen public places become areas of interest from the artists' viewpoints.

Following the residency model, workshops were held with specific targets that did not invest in the aspect of physical space. Knowledge was transferred or networked by the artist to the citizens, who, in turn, transferred their own knowledge to the artist. One example of this is Otobong Nkanga's residency at Casino Padula, in Matera, and in Pietragalla.

On the other hand, a different format was used for the residencies of Martina Muzi and Nomedas and Gediminas Urbonas, in Sasso di Castalda and Vaglio Basilicata, respectively. The residencies were longer than the previous ones, in which field research was carried out by citizens, focusing not only on the communal garden or vegetable patch, but on the entire surrounding area. The study and re-working of the physical and intangible heritages have been a means of restoring centrality to the region, leaving citizens the legacy of a constantly evolving and never completed common space.

The third, and final, model of Gardentopia residencies reflected on the transformation of public spaces. Landscape artists and architects have imagined new forms of managing shared assets and opened up discussions on the sustainability of spaces. Two examples of this approach were the residencies of Volumezero in Montemilone and Lavello and Luigi Coppola at Casino Padula in Matera.

Gardentopia's cycle of residencies is coming to an end. However, reflection on the new ways of thinking about communal spaces will certainly continue.

The Fusion Urban Games Festival in Matera from 31 October to 2 November

From 31 October to 2 November, through 15 different games, citizens of all ages had the chance to explore secret corners of the city, look for clues, solve mysteries, work together and compete, challenging other players and trying to come out on top.
The Fusion Urban Games Festival used virtual reality to inject new life into urban spaces and help participants rediscover traditional games through encounters with ghosts, porcelain dolls and strange personalities looking for gems and tails, the mystery of the death of CountTramontano, ecological tasks and urban poetry. The festival, which was produced with Plovdiv 2019, the other European Capital of Culture, was three days of pure enjoyment, and also part of a larger joint programme of activities called “Plotera weeks – Plovdiv and Matera together for an Open Future”. The games were designed by a team of game designers chosen from a public call published across Europe that rewarded projects from Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Germany, England, Slovenia, Romania and Italy. From its first day, the Fusion Urban Game Festival's playing field included the outskirts of Matera, including Serra Venerdì, for the game dedicated to ecology called the "Clean Game" and Agna Le Piane and Casino Padula, the location of the Open Design School, where one of the two Villages dedicated to the event was set up. Here, using a special VR set, participants were able to immerse themselves in virtual reality while they hunted for the ghosts of legendary personalities with their smartphones. There were also sessions of ancient games that were unknown to digital natives. During the same period, another part of the Village was established in Piazza San Francesco, the central point from which the routes followed by some of the games started and an info point for temporary and permanent citizens alike where they could register for some of the games and find information and promotional materials on Matera's twin European Capital of Culture, Plovdiv 2019. The games on offer included "Detective among the Sassi", a fascinating game for lovers of thrillers, who had to use a series of clues to discover who was responsible for the death of Count Tramontano in 1514. There was also the "Case of the Red Lady", the "Narrative Puzzle" and the "Urban Poem", which fully involved the participants in the festival of urban games. The urban game known as "Penombra", an "international" version of the project co-produced with the "Il Vagabondo" Association, also caused excitement with its journey into a dystopian future of Matera in 2119, which was transformed, divided and under a mysterious threat.
After Matera, the festival was also held in Plovdiv from 8 to 10 November, confirmation that it was an important tool for social activation and territorial inclusion for both cities.