2016/2017 Verona

CdA Tra Veneto e Mondo” is a project developed within the “Nani Boccioni” Art School, with the participation of the “Carlo Montanari” Music High School of Verona, curated by Teatro Ricerche and the Philosophy Department of the Art School. Sponsoring partners are the Veneto Region, the Municipality of Verona Education Department, SAT: former NGO UNESCO Consultant for the Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage, Cuore della Stella Non-profit Association, Liceo Musicale Carlo Montanari, Galleria Massella, Satiro Teatro Off, Crescere con Arte . The project involved more than 100 students from the classes of: graphic design, photo and video, scenography, costume-fashion, painting and sculpture, music.

The Symposium of the Comedians is a work freely inspired by Plato’s Symposium, proposed in the original forms of a “Commedy of the Art of innovation”. The theme is Eros, which, today as then, is hunger for body and soul, an incessant search for nourishment, completeness, knowledge and immortality: just like theater. The protagonists of the Platonic Symposium take the form of the traditional characters of the Commedia dell’Arte: Arlecchino, Balanzone, Brighella, Pantalone, the Captain, the Servetta, the Boy. Together with them, actors, dancers and musicians attempt the daring enterprise of making theater with philosophy and philosophy with theater. The nomadic artists juggle trunks, suitcases, musical instruments, very light lasagna and a large moon, faithful travel companions. And then there is a stool: Socrates’ stool. But where is Socrates? We found, embedded in the Platonic text, comic veins and arrows of irony: we wanted to bring them to the fore, convinced that – perhaps also in Plato’s intentions – they signaled important points of dialogue. From these comic and ironic junctions, the metamorphosis of the philosophical writing into the play of Commedia dell’Arte began in our imagination. The same metamorphosis that, in the staging, ritually transforms the actors into masks: the bodies are transformed and so the voice, the gesture, the movement, the dress. The result was a dramaturgical trace, then altered by the work of the actors, in which comedy is flanked by melancholy or even tragedy, with lyrical notes and – to put it as Diotima – with “linear glimpses of thought”. Thanks to the Philosophy Department of the Liceo Artistico di Verona, who encouraged us in this adventure. Mario Gallo, Francesca Nardi (authors of the canvas). The music was inspired, as suggested by the subtitle of the project, from a meeting between the musical tradition typical of the Commedia dell’Arte and Innovation. In line with the theatrical text, popular rhythms are combined with echoes of the Renaissance and Eastern dances alternating with impressionist melodies or, sometimes, Post-Modern percussive experimentalisms. Francesco Menini (author of the music and conductor).

The following photos were taken by Beatrice Guardini (1-26) and by the students of the photography class (27-36); the video of the show was taken by the students of the video class.

CdA Fashion Design Studio –  Show Poster – Show Program – Exhibition Program

Liceo Artistico “Nani Boccioni” di Verona – Project on liceo artistico’s website