Time, Space & Performing Arts: Fabbrica Europa

FABBRICA EUROPA avant-garde performing arts festival.  Various venues throughout Florence.  Tickets will range from €5 to €12 and will be available via ticketone.it.  All events will follow health regulations including social distancing and capacity limits, so buy your tickets in advance to secure a spot. For more information on this year’s festival, visit www.fabbricaeuropa.net.

Fabbrica Europa will offer live music, dance, and theater performances in the Performing Arts Research Center (PARC), as well as the Cascine Park, Teatro Puccini, Teatro Studio Mila Pieralli di Scandicci, Teatro Cantiere Florida, and Villa Favard. The foundation will also be collaborating with artists from Festival au Désert Florence, a multicultural music network founded in 2010 that shares art between Africa, the Mediterranean, and Europe.

In a typical year, the festival takes place in the months of May and June, but due to the health emergency, the events had been postponed until September 2020. Despite the obstacles of navigating hosting festivals during a pandemic, Fabbrica Europa reimagines a new way to experience live performances. Founded on the principles of questioning traditions and space itself, the festival uses performing arts to reflect on pertinent issues and the new identities artists and citizens alike are adapting during the pandemic.

For this reason, the 27th edition of the festival will question the passage of time and space through the language of performing arts. Artists will employ various mediums to respond to the impact of social distancing and ask what the future holds post-COVID. In addition to a vibrant itinerary full of introspective dance and music pieces, Fabbrica Europa will debut Dance Wall, a video immersive room that tells the story of national and international performing arts through archived research, as well as masterclasses with various performers who will showcase their work during the festival.

On September 8 at 6 pm at PARC, Almar’à will deliver a breathtaking show also under the auspices of the Festival au Désert. Almar’à, which means “woman” in Arabic, is the first orchestra composed of Arab and Mediterranean women from different musical backgrounds. For another musical masterpiece coordinated by the festival, return for Trilok Gurtu’s concert “Solo” at 9 pm in Teatro Puccini on September 10. Gurtu is one of the most important musicians and percussionists in the world and is known for his energetic music that is grounded in Indian tradition.

Gianni Maroccolo will play tracks from his album “Alone But Not Alone” — displaying post-rock, psychedelic, electronic  and punk influences–at Teatro Puccini on September 12 at 9 pm.

The following week on September 17 and 18 at 9 pm in the Teatro Studio will see choreography by Daniele Ninarello and music by Cristina Donà and composer Saverio Lanza in their show “Perpendicolare.” As the name implies, meaning “perpendicular” in English, the show will explore natural movement in the body and what this motion looks like during a lockdown. “Toccare the White Dance” with music by harpsichordist J.P Rameau and Italian composer Ruggero Laganà at 9 pm in Teatro Studio, Scandicci. French choreographer Alexandre Fondard’s and Leïla Ka’s dance performance at September 26 at 9 pm in the same space will also discuss themes of touch and momentum, as well as nature, desire, and what is just beyond the horizon.

Alessandro Sciarroni will present “Save the last dance for me” for the final performance that will take place on Thursday, October 8 at 7 and 9 pm. Sciarroni will perform the traditional Bolognese dance Polka Chinata with Gianmaria Borzillo and Giovanfrancesco Giannini. The Polka Chinata dates back to the early 1900s and was originally performed by men, but Sciarroni’s version delivers a contemporary interpretation that is just as physically demanding, but more inclusive so as to revive an almost extinct tradition. 

Supported by the European Union, Fabbrica Europa was established in 1994 by Maurizia Settembri and Andres Morte Terés as an avant-garde celebrating performing arts across Europe. In 2003, the festival grew into a foundation and for the past seventeen years, the foundation facilitates artistic and multicultural connections through a vast itinerary of cultural events including dance, theater, music, exhibitions, and workshops. Fabbrica Europa recently took residence in the Piazzale dele Cascine Park after receiving recognition for their collaboration with the equally brand-new Performing Arts Research Center (PARC) also in the park. 

Tickets will range from €5  to €12 and are available via www.ticketone.it. All events will follow health regulations including social distancing and capacity limits, so buy your tickets in advance to secure a spot. For more information on this year’s festival, visit their website www.fabbricaeuropa.net. (elizabeth berry)