EUtropia

Performing arts

EUtropia is a cultural and artistic project involving young artists from 9 European countries in the making of an international multidisciplinary performance-in-progress. Designed in a four-month-residency in Silkeborg, this work is travelling through the different European partner countries and is “re-invented” and re-created at each stop in workshops and residencies, involving new artists and new artistic disciplines, all contributing in the creation of a new shared expressive language based on the cultural heritage and modern influences of each, while bridging traditional and contemporary aesthetics.

EUtropia is not a tour of a show but rather a tour of a concept, that is constantly evolving on its travel, till the final presentation in 2013 as part of the celebrations of the 300 year anniversary of the Treaty of Utrecht. Based on the legend of the Tower of Babel, the project is a parable on the human need to create societies that are by nature self-destructive. We do not claim to explain, criticize or suggest solutions. We attempt an allegorical approach to loneliness and coexistence, subjectivity and truth, communication and understanding.

Sometimes in a poetic and sometimes in a sarcastic mood, starting by the fear of loneliness (or the loneliness of fear) on the stage unfolds the tangle of human relationships, through the need for coexistence. But the creation of a social web requires a common language and signals the need for common goals and values. But if there is a universal truth, who defines it? The absurdity of selfishness triumphs and the tower of coexistence collapses. People folds back to the tangled of loneliness…

In Florence, the focus will be on visual expression, from light design to visuals taken from the pre-photo cultures, such as paintings, engraves, prints. In a complete union with the visual-light-scenography and the digital audio narratives mixing music with real-sound compositions, the performers will create a unique body on stage behaving as the water fluid, assuming different shapes in a permanent change strenuously tending to a utopian balance.

Jérôme Li-Thiao-Té contributed to the soundtrack of the EUtropia show, performed in April 2011 at Arkadas theater in Cologne, Germay and May 2011 at the Fabbrica Europa Festival in Firenze, Italy. On September 2012, he was a coach to young artists during one of the many Eutropia residency in Lille, France.

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Project team: - Marina Arienzale (IT), Pamela Barberi (IT), - Lorenzo Ciacciavicca (IT), Valentina Cipelli (IT), Mikkel Brask (DK), - Filippo Carli (IT), Federica Cracco (IT), Prisca Nishimwe (BE), - Lotte Hamelink (NL), Szabrina Környei (HU), - Deborah Sophia Leist (DE), Jérôme Li-Thiao-Té (HU/FR), - Aurora Loffredo (IT), Myriam Méret (FR), Marta Rubichi (IT), - Rebecca “Realz” Turini (IT), Ruben Vandendriessche (BE/ES), - Serena Vecci (IT) - artistic direction: Costas Lamproulis - choreographic advice: Lisa Brasile - visuals coordination: Olga Pavlenko - light design: “Luce Attiva” di Gabriele Termine - filming coordination: Fathir Ismail, Stefphane “Stuggi” Ragnit - organisation: Marina Bistolfi, Lisette Reuter

EUtropia is a ROOTS & ROUTES activity funded by the Culture programme of the European Union. Nine international partners are involved – RIF (France), S.Mou.Th. (Greece), Zuiderpershuis World Culture Centre (Belgium), Associazione Fabbrica Europa (Italy), Sziget (Hungary), Stichting ROOTS & ROUTES (The Netherlands), Performers House (Denmark), SVI (Serbia) and jfc Medienzentrum (Germany) who is in charge of coordinating the project. ROOTS & ROUTES is an international network for the promotion of cultural and social diversity in contemporary performing arts and media.