Community moments (2019-07-27) by Action CollectiveMatera European Capital of Culture 2019
“Associating the distance from the centre to an idea of discomfort is now misleading: there are degraded areas near the centre and distant areas of wealth."
(Stefano Boeri)
Community moments (2019-06-06) by Rocco Figliuolo - MatridayMatera European Capital of Culture 2019
Matera is the city where the periphery was created with the centre in mind: when the evacuation of the Sassi stone districts began in 1952, a public debate opened following which urban interventions were carried out to which Aymonino, De Carlo, Quaroni, Piccinato and Olivetti contributed, aimed at creating neighbourhoods that would reproduce the social characteristics of neighbourhood life. Giuseppe Stampone's work 'Double face / Welcome to Matera', as part of the 'Matera Alberga' project, reproduces an image of the city where the two souls, that of the centre and that of the periphery, overlap, to indicate iconically that there are not two 'Materas' and time is needed to capture the universal spirit of the city, beyond the picture postcard.
Seventy years later the historic centre flourished again, leading one to question the inverse problem of gentrification, but the outskirts remain a key point in the development of the city. The 'Architecture of Shame' project questions precisely which places are considered shameful, but have inherent unexpressed potential, and which others are socially acceptable and then revalued as shameful in the future. The project brings Matera closer to Europe through a collective psychoanalytic analysis of architecture based on current topics such as social housing, walls between nations, unfinished works, outskirts, ghetto neighbourhoods and all those places that exist, but our mind does not really perceive.
The imagined outskirts (2019-07-27) by Action CollectiveMatera European Capital of Culture 2019
The 'Talks of Shame' are a series of round-table discussions held during the year in districts that epitomise the city. Urban planning experts and residents have studied each of the themes addressed by the project.
The imagined outskirts (2019-07-26) by Action CollectiveMatera European Capital of Culture 2019
Gardentopia Day (2019-04-14) by Digital LighthouseMatera European Capital of Culture 2019
'Gardentopia' addresses the issue of redevelopment of green spaces: artist Pelin Tan has coordinated landscape designers and architects in workshops organised throughout Basilicata.
Gardentopia Day (2019-04-14)Matera European Capital of Culture 2019
If the association of the concept of the periphery with that of a degraded environment is no longer valid, it is also true that this remains a middle ground between the city and the country, a place where you can afford to get lost in suggestions and desires, which would be unthinkable elsewhere. Within the project 'Petrolio', inspired by the work of the same name by Pier Paolo Pasolini, A. Sciarroni's 'Turning Matera' is inspired by the journey of some animals that return to the place where they were born to reproduce and then die. The show is based on the movement of rotation around its axis, giving the title the nuance of evolution and change.
From a distant place to a stage that reaches its audience: the outskirts become the ideal stage for the performances of the Stopgap Dance Company, a British dance company that uses disability as the underlying strength for its choreographies. Through the coordinated movements between the different dancers, we arrive at a deeper understanding of the physical limits of a person with motor difficulties and break down those that are merely preconceptions. 'Free Movement' has shown once again how marginalisation derives from the missed opportunity to understand different realities from ours.
The videotap of the "Movimento libero" project (2019-10-19)Matera European Capital of Culture 2019
The themes of accessibility and participation have permeated the 'Silent City' project since its inception: the L'Albero theatre company, working with the silent inhabitants, the elderly and children, has created a "community opera", in which citizens have collaborated in all its stages of realisation, from writing to orchestration, from costumes to scenes. The plot of the opera arises from reflection around two apparently antithetical concepts: on one hand silence, on the other the city; through the workshops it emerged how the relationship between these two elements creates a space free from conditioning where you can imagine the future of urban centres.
The Temporary Theater of "Silent City" (2019) by Mariano SillettiMatera European Capital of Culture 2019
In line with this vision, there is the creation of a temporary theatre in one of Matera's peripheral squares.
The Temporary Theater of "Silent City" (2019) by Mariano SillettiMatera European Capital of Culture 2019
With the collaboration of the Open Design School it was in fact possible to create a new cultural space, but above all one that is accessible to all citizens, even those with motor disabilities.
"Silent City" (2019-12-29) by Giovanni MarinoMatera European Capital of Culture 2019
A further example of how the concrete realisation of the principle of social equality comes from revaluation of the periphery.
"Humana Vergogna" (2019-03-01) by Lia Zanda per AngelOneMatera European Capital of Culture 2019
Not only the outskirts need to be rediscovered: 'Humana Vergogna' is a project on shame, also the result of the work completed during workshops with inmates of Matera prison.
'Aware', in Japanese, expresses a strong emotional interaction with the beauty of nature and at the same time nostalgia for its continuous change. This is the name chosen for La Nave degli Incanti (The Enchanted Ship): a travelling stage, inspired by the concrete ship in the Cocuzzo district of Potenza, a symbol of the immobility of the South, which thanks to this project takes off towards the city of Matera on a journey that passes through the towns of Basilicata and connects them to the rest of Europe. A South that becomes mobile, because it believes in the future and has within itself all the magic of change as rebirth.
The Enchanted Ship (2019-07-21) by Luana Petrullo / Officine della LuceMatera European Capital of Culture 2019
The comic duo Okidok (2019-03-03) by Digital LighthouseMatera European Capital of Culture 2019
'Circus+', Matera 2019's contemporary circus, with its two chapiteaux in the Parco del Castello, for a month created an imaginary place that thrilled both adults and children alike.
"Danza in abatjour" by Martina Nova (2019-03-02) by Digital LighthouseMatera European Capital of Culture 2019
Circus+: the interviews to the audience (2019-03-17)Matera European Capital of Culture 2019
