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In Artemis Danza's artistic activity, numerous professional contributions have often given rise to side events that enrich the dialogue between Company and public, by sometimes playing an information and study role for aficionados, but also an encompassing role for those who approach contemporary dance for the first time. They may be books, exhibitions or real events that are evidence of what is behind and beyond dance in terms of knowledge and experience, and they are an opportunity to show the Company's work from different angles and viewpoints.
Exhibitions
In 2004 at Teatro Due in Parma, the Company promoted the organisation of the travelling photographic exhibition on Pina Bausch supervised by Sonia Schoonejans: large black and white images by Maarten Vanden Abeele, taken in the mid 90s, show shots of Bausch' performances, by highlighting her emotions and expressions, but also conveying the photographer's personal viewpoint.
The exhibition entitled Un secolo di danza is supervised by the French critic Sonia Schoonejans, who is also the author of the documentary that lead to Monica Casadei's work bearing the same name. The exhibition - that can be associated to the performance as an in-depth study - aims at telling with photos (around 200, black and white and colour, by masters of contemporary photography, including Lewis W. Hine, Edward Streichen, Berenice Abbot, Robert Capa, Brassaï, Kertesz, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau) the history of Western dance through the history of the 20th century.
Part of the project Artemis incontra culture altre is the collaboration with photographer Fabian who follows the Company during its stays abroad and makes extraordinary photographic reportages. Corpioceanici, Corpi all'infinito, released in 2005, is the exhibition of photos and video installations that was born from the reportage on the trip to Brazil, which was followed by the exhibition Moto sospeso in 2006 that was instead the result of the reportage made during the stay in Cuba.
Some of the Artemis dancers are amongst the protagonists of Alchimia, the exhibition by the photographer Beatrice Pavasini, which follows the artistic growth of the Company from its very beginnings. The essentially feminine view of the photographic images reveals a dance which is smooth and slow in its liquid, transparent or circular element (glass, bubbles): a reflection on motherhood and the mysteries of conception and creation as allegories of human creativity.
Publications
In addition to exhibitions, the collaboration with Fabian resulted in the production of two photographic catalogue-books.
Corpi oceanici. Corpi all'infinito (Aliberti Editore, 2005) - Massimo Mussini states in his introduction - is the meeting between a photographer in love with dance and an Italian choreographer, on the background of Brazilian landscapes that suggest the various book "chapters": Bamboo, Sea, Centre (the choreographic centre of Rio), Corcovado and Ocean.
The second publication entitled Moto sospeso (Casadei Libri, 2006) reproposes the collaboration with Fabian on occasion of the Company's journey to Cuba: "The bodies of dancers, fixed in their instantaneous equilibrium, take along the miracle of interrupted motion without a supporting plane: an extraordinary mix of dynamism and motionlessness. Suspended Motion is indeed the moment when motion stops and, at the same time, takes place in suspension."
La vita oltre - Tribute to Gennaro Labanca
In December 2004, one year after his passing away, his wife Monica Casadei, relatives and numerous friends of Gennaro Labanca - a man who turned dance into his raison d'être and prematurely left a world of artists and operators, public and critics - wanted to pay him a kind tribute by dedicating him two days of meetings, shows and events in the theatre founded and led by him since 1992, Fondamenta Nuove in Venice, which has become a reference point for contemporary dance in Venice and in Italy thanks to his work.
The success of the initiative and the warmth expressed by numerous artists and operators led promoters to turn this event into a yearly appointment during which to resume a key topic for the work and life of anyone operating in the artistic sector: namely, the passion for art that motivates and explains the devotion for such a different and complex sector, and that sustains those who invest in its development and growth.
In 2005 it was Teatro Nuovo in Turin, another city he valued a lot, that hosted this appointment: Gennaro Labanca lived here during his education years and, after several experiences in the field of visual arts, he focused on dance by establishing the Sutki Company, led by Anna Sagna, and starting his twenty-year long career dedicated to the development and growth of this field.
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