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The manual So Far So Close. Practices of infra-pandemic.
The manual “So far, so close. Practices of infra-pandemic closeness” is an operational tool of the performing arts festival “So far, so close. Exercises in closeness”, a collection of strategies and experiences gained within the Festival and in other national and international events during the infra-pandemic period.
Developed in parallel with the events of the Festival that were held in Basilicata from 12th September to 24th October 2020, the manual analysed the various regulatory updates of the DPCM [Prime Ministerial Decree], dealing with the progressive changes regarding the regulations and guidelines for live entertainment, ending precisely in conjunction with the general suspension of public and private events sanctioned in the decree of 26th October 2020.
The manual is not configured as a definitive guide, it is rather the beginning of research made up of various contributions, experiences in the field and design solutions that can be expanded in order to rethink the paradigms of the live entertainment sector.
With the preface by the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism Dario Franceschini, the Manual is organized into three sections:
SO FAR. Expanding the field of investigation.
This is the part of research and in depth analysis of the issues that gravitate around the new rituals imposed by the virus. It contains contributions from artists, architects, researchers, philosophers, and scientists who have addressed issues of proximity, public space and the pandemic,
including, among others, Virgilio Sieni, Antonio Tagliarini, Michele Di Stefano, Annamaria Ajmone, Luigi Coppola, Giulia Fiaccarini and Patrizia Braga (Melting Pro), Maurizio Carta, Maurizio Ferraris, Luigi Civalleri, Patrizia Giancotti, Anna Gesualdi and Giovanni Trono (TeatrInGestAzione), Janet Hetman, Salvatore Iaconesi, Bertram Niessen, Michele Pagliaroni of the Urbino Festival Teatro Urbano, Marco Petroni, Francesco Piersoft Paolicelli , Alessandra Pioselli, Enorme Studio, Post Disaster.
APPARATUSES. Regulations and possible solutions.
It is the collection of regulations, DPCM, articles and projects that have accompanied the research phase.
References and case studies present possible creative solutions or food for thought with respect to the new rules for containing the contagion. The user will also find a selection of manuals, guides and tools available under an open source licence and ready to be used, improved and integrated.
SO CLOSE. Experimentation in the field.
It is the strictly operational section that includes the tools, the survey method, the projects, the structures and the visuals designed, with the analysis of critical issues and the return of the results and solutions adopted.
This ever-changing collection is distributed under the Creative Commons licence, CC BY-SA-NC, in digital and freely printable form. Its main objective
is to contribute to the discussion on culture as a response to the crisis, seeking solutions, sharing results, reflections and good practices.
Read and download the manual here: So Far So Close. Practices of infra-pandemic.
The So Far So Close Festival and its exercises in closeness
A few hours after the Prime Minister's Decree suspending public events in theatres, cinemas and open spaces, the “So Far So Close. Esercizi di vicinanza” Performing Arts Festival reached its conclusion in Matera on Saturday 24 October.
We welcomed seven artists and companies (Emma Dante, Virgilio Sieni, Chiara Guidi, Annamaria Ajmone, Luigi Coppola, the Compagnia MK and Daria Deflorian and Antonio Tagliarini, who updated their questions in the middle of a pandemic, placing proximity – including in relation to the relationship between interpreting reality and constructing the imaginary – at the heart of their work, and focusing on the relationship between the human and non-human, and between the visible and invisible.
We put on ten works and sixteen repeat performances, including theatre, dance, cinema and public and relational art, characterised by interventions in a redesigned public space using forms of opening that were able to include the public not only in the enjoyment of a finished work, but in very different ways, in the responsibility for constructing it.
Approximately 2,000 spectators attended the performances, while around 50 citizens were involved in the three workshops set up in Matera with the artists.
Matera was not the only location of the Festival programme. Another six municipalities in Basilicata hosted the performing arts of our "exercises in closeness": Montescaglioso, Venosa, San Mauro Forte, Latronico, San Severino Lucano and Cirigliano.
All the events were held in full compliance with the laws on preventing contagion, which were communicated using the arrangements set up by the Open Design School, which over the past months studied and tried out the system for hosting the public so that in spite of the distance, those taking part in a performance would be able to feel that they were fully involved in it and were protagonists in complete safety.
The objective was reached! The data from the monitoring questionnaires at the end of the performances, which successfully involved not only Matera 2019’s loyal public but also a completely new audience, tell us that a fifth of the attendees travelled from Puglia, especially from Bari, Taranto and Valle d'Itria. 70.7% of the participants stated that the physical distancing measures that were adopted did not affect their participation, while 90.4% reported that they were satisfied with the security and the contagion prevention methods that were adopted.
Special thanks go out to our wonderful team of volunteers, who succeeded in offering a warm welcome to the public despite the gloves and masks, and conveyed the kindness and enthusiasm that had distinguished them throughout 2019!
Read and download the manual here: So Far So Close. Practices of infra-pandemic.
The "So Far So Close" Festival
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From 12 September to the end of October, Matera and various remote areas of Basilicata Region will be the venues for the “So Far So Close. Esercizi di vicinanza (exercises of closeness)” Festival of Performing Arts produced by the Matera Basilicata 2019 Foundation, with artistic collaboration from Silvia Bottiroli and Cristina Ventrucci, in partnership with APT Basilicata and ASM Matera and under the patronage of the Municipalities of Matera, Montescaglioso, Venosa, San Mauro Forte, Cirigliano, Latronico and San Severino Lucano.
The “So Far So Close" programme offers exercises of closeness as a way of re-embracing the existing reality through the performing arts, with a new awareness of our shared lives in an "infected planet", and rediscovering the force of collective action.
The Festival’s leading artists are Emma Dante, Virgilio Sieni, Chiara Guidi, Annamaria Ajmone, MK, Motus, Deflorian and Tagliarini and Luigi Coppola, who for the occasion take a careful, delicate new look at the relationships created by live meetings. Proximity is a central element of their work, including in terms of the relationship between interpreting reality and constructing the imagination, in which the theatre in all its forms and with all its influences – from drama to performance, from the relationship with the cinema and music to dance and from the experience of public and relational art – becomes a tool for studying relations and places through intertwined narratives, and dedicating attention to the relationship between the human and the non-human and between the visible and invisible in a city that has always brought these dimensions together as its vocation.
In Matera and in Basilicata, we propose exercises for a renewed citizenship, in the wake of the experience that made our land a special place for shared creative processes and the relationship between art and space in the course of 2019.
Through the research carried out by the Open Design School, a project that was a pillar of Matera 2019, the Festival is an experiment aimed at putting on live events in the time of COVID by means of a study of new relationships and codes of social behaviour so that notwithstanding the distance between them, participants in the performance can feel that they are fully involved and protagonists in it. Emblematically, the name "So Far So Close" is an expression both of the work that is intended to be done on the new relations among people in the time of social distancing and the new relations that can be constructed between urban and remote areas.
Quanto dura un anno a Matera?
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Quanto dura un anno a Matera?
A questa domanda proveremo a rispondere giovedì 30 luglio dalle 17:00 in diretta streaming da Casa Cava con la presentazione del report di monitoraggio dell'anno di Matera Capitale Europea della Cultura e il nuovo portale open data.
Nel corso dell'evento analizzeremo le sfide poste già dal dossier di candidatura di Matera 2019: l'investimento sulle produzioni originali, la cittadinanza culturale, gli impatti sociali.
Parteciperanno all'incontro esperti del terzo settore e della cultura tra cui Carlo Borgomeo (Presidente Fondazione con il Sud), Pierluigi Sacco (IULM), Carola Carazzone (presidente Assifero), Giuseppe Bruno (presidente CGM), Marta Ragozzino (Direzione Regionale Musei Basilicata), Giampaolo d'Andrea (consigliere del Ministro Franceschini), Franco Bianchini (Università di Hull), Rossella Tarantino (Fondazione Matera Basilicata 2019), Paolo Verri, Giuseppe Laterza (Editori Laterza), Marianna Dimona (Comune di Matera), un rappresentante dei produttori culturali di Matera 2019, da poco costituitisi in Comitato. Concluderanno i lavori i rappresentanti del Consiglio di Amministrazione della Fondazione Matera-Basilicata 2019.
Segui la diretta streaming sul canale YouTube di Matera 2019 e interagisci con i relatori!