IMPORT/EXPORT

LIVORNO

with Alireza Ostovar · Aleksander Zain · Rascal Black · Enrico L'Abbate RILABEN · Ivana Ranisavljević · Florence Lam · Maria Larocca · Cecilia Ventriglia · Davide Calvaresi · Marta Capaccioli · Lucrezia Palandri · Danaï Galeou · Darius Bogdanowicz · Pietro Gaglianò · Federica Coseschi. Curated by Maria Novella Tattanelli, Sharon Estacio and Tiina Lehtimäki

The first event of our nomadic performance art platform, IMPORT/EXPORT LIVORNO, melded the I/E artists, active participants, and spectators together with the city of Livorno (IT). Following our kaleidoscopic and exchange-based format, from the 18th to the 23rd of September 2023, the Tuscan portuary city became the perfect context for our departure shot. Livorno was flooded with performances, workshops, after-hour meetups, and collaboration between local and international artists and cultural realities. A free-of-charge original proposal to which the Livornese answered with a turnout of over three hundred attendees.

Fallen Bird by RILABEN, Enrico L’Abbate (Italy)

Picture of resistance by Alireza Ostovar (Iran), second performer Nina Božičko (Slovenia)

Anonima by Cecilia Ventriglia in collaboration with Davide Calvaresi (Italy)

Gold Diggers by Danaï Galeou and Darius Bogdanowicz (Greece - France / Spain - Belgium)

Tower of the Fortezza Vecchia

Heaven Spot 疒 by Florence Lam (Hong Kong)

In the name of the mother and the daughter by Ivana Ranisavljević (Serbia)

Una Fantasmagoria by Maria Larocca (Italia)

ACTA DISTANTIAE 2.18 (The Journal of Distance 2.18) by Aleksander Zain (Serbia)

Dreams about dying_funeralia by Marta Capaccioli and Lucrezia Palandri (Italy)

Audience in the basement of Fortezza Vecchia

Scheletro della vita by Rascal Black (Poland)

AFTERHOURS at Carico Massimo

Transcultural music and interdisciplinary art: Intercultural and Transcultural processes in Electroacoustic music and interdisciplinary projects, a workshop of Alireza Ostovar at Conservatorio P.Mascagni of Livorno

Documenting and Narrating Performance a workshop by Federica Coseschi at Carico Massimo

Transition. Transgression. Transformation, a workshop byIvana Ranisavljević at Ondalab, Livorno

The Paradoxical Pedagogy, workshop by Pietro Gaglianò at Cinema Teatro 4 Mori

IMPORT PROGRAM

Our signature evening event, IMPORT brought ten international artists from our community to perform simultaneously for two evenings under the roof of the Fortezza Vecchia. If the venue was the protagonist -its mixture of medieval dungeons, vigilance towers, cruise boats, spectacular sea views, and import/export transit boats is indeed a unique mixture of the oldest and the hypermodern- each artist found their share of the spotlight. From sunset-long to all-evening performances (5h!), the curatorial combination of ten different life stories, energies, identities, and thematics gave the audience navigating the space the opportunity to approach the most intimate expression of the artists; an in-depth exchange between audience and performer.

EXPORT PROGRAM

EXPORT brought a didactic dimension to the event, proposing four workshops about performance art, transdisciplinary music, documentation of performance, and pedagogy of performance, facilitated by both artists of the platform and local artists and theoreticians. Furthermore, it accomplished one of the bets of I/E: becoming a platform of non-monetary exchange, establishing the ground for new local and transnational connections and collaborations. This was felt at its best during the Afterhour meetups, three relaxed evenings happening at Carico Massimo prior to the main evenings of performance (IMPORT). During the Afterhours, participants in the event could chit and chat and share, getting to know each other in a more personal way after long journeys of creative and reflective work. Finally, EXPORT brought the opportunity to three of the selected artists of IMPORT to adapt their proposed pieces to the site-specific location of the Fortezza Vecchia in a four-day-long art residency, giving them the opportunity to create something up-for-the-occasion both in content and quality.

FOR MORE

IMPORT/EXPORT is Maria Novella Tattanelli, Tiina Lehtimäki, Enrico L’Abbate, Aleksander Zain, Sharon Estacio, Darius Bogdanowicz (core group of artists and co-creators), Achille Léa Santantonio (art and communication assistant), Claudia Caldarano, Alessandro Brucioni (mowan teatro), Matthias Krause (flutgraben e.V), Sanda Kalebić (U10 Art Collective). Jovana Trifuljesko, Ana Simona Zelenović, Bojana Jovanović, Ljubica Vujović, Maja Petrović (curatorial handbook team)

With the financial contribution of Creative Europe, il Comune di Livorno, la Fondazione Livorno, the Ministery of Culture of the Republic of Serbia and the Consiglio regionale de la Regione Toscana

Created in collaboration with Fortezza Vecchia, Carico Massimo, Cinema Teatro 4 Mori, Ondalab, Conservatorio Pietro Mascagni and Erasmus+

Photography and Video: Laura Sgherri and Chiara Cunzolo
Cover pictures: Aimone Bonucci
Copyright (C) 2023 IMPORT/EXPORT a nomadic platform for performance art. All rights reserved.
All credits to the artworks are owned by the artists