Pergine Festival 2021: exploring the concept of “reconnection”
The 46th edition of the Pergine Festival, a renowned event during summer in Trentino, was presented this morning at a press conference in Palazzo Festi. After a difficult 2020, with the cancellation of the ‘autumn edition’ due to the pandemic, the festival returns to its usual summer location with a programme of events between 2 and 17 July.
“The 2021 edition of Pergine Festival – according to artistic director Carla Esperanza Tommasini – wants to be an invitation to reconnection, contact and relationship after the long time of social isolation and cultural emptiness. We have imagined this edition as a great social embrace: an embrace between individuals, between artists, the audience and our entire sector which, like many others, has been hit hard by the health emergency. The aim is to safely restart cultural activities through a rich programme of events, shows and performances, guaranteeing a cultural offer to different audiences and interests”.
For 46 years, Pergine Festival has been an eagerly awaited and appreciated appointment for the Trentino audience and beyond. The festival has established itself as a point of reference in the province for live arts and experimental performing arts, succeeding in attracting the interest of an audience made up of both professionals and common citizens.
In 2021, the festival is challenged by an improving health situation, but with a bigger margin of uncertainty. For this reason, this year too there will be numerous open-air events inviting citizens to reclaim their spaces and rediscover the territory.
THE PROGRAMME
The festival starts on Friday July 2 with “Oasi“, a weekend of music and cinema at the Parco Tre Castagni in Pergine. On stage you’ll find: Baiba, Latvian singer-songwriter and finalist of the last edition of UploadSounds, N.A.I.P., multi-instrumentalist and performer, finalist of X Factor 2020, and Sisma Tumbao, with their Afro-Cuban contaminations. Saturday July 3 will continue with two projects from Trentino, hip hop group SinCensura and rapper and producer Big House, followed by the Latin-American sounds of Cacao Mental and the Jamaican sounds of Yardie Groove. On Sunday July 4, Pergine Festival evening opens with Bianca, the South Tyrolean singer-songwriter and best artist under 21 at UploadSounds 2020, and Panaemiliana, an irreverent quintet made in Bologna, followed by the short films selected by the Lago Film Festival and PerSo – Perugia Social Film Festival.
The second week of the Pergine Festival opens on Tuesday July 6 with Luca Stefenelli/Montanamente and the first of two walks to discover the Fersina river. The following day, Wednesday July 7, the Catalan Agrupación Señor Serrano are on stage with a special “Prometheus” for kids only. On the same day, Circolo Bergman‘s “Vista interno”, a walk to discover some usually inaccessible places in the town, makes its debut in Pergine. On July 8, contemporary drama arrives at the Teatro Comunale di Pergine with the Milanese company Oyes and their “Oblomov Show”, a show inspired by the Russian literary masterpiece of the same name. Friday July 9 is dedicated to Stalker Teatro with a double appointment: at the ex Rimessa Carrozze there is “Box Theatre”, a renowned production of the Turin company, while at the Don Bosco Theatre we’ll present the regional premiere “La nebbia della lupa”, a dreamlike performance that takes its name from the thin veil that is created in summer on the Strait of Messina. The morning of Saturday July 10 opens with an itinerant dialogue on the themes of landscape, territory and regeneration. The protagonists will be artists Leonardo Delogu and Valerio Sirna and researcher Alessia Zabatino. At Palazzo Gentili-Crivelli, Francesco Fassone accompanies the audience in the discovery of his “Architecture of Disobedience”, an immersive and interactive work that investigates the concept of the city’s collective unconscious. At the Don Bosco Theatre, there will be Martina Badiluzzi with “Rumori”, a collection of musical stories inspired by the metropolitan suburbs. The week ends with “i paesaggi della Fersina: a valle”, the second part of the activity proposed by Luca Stefenelli.
On Wednesday July 14, Claudia Caldarano‘s “Riflessioni” brings together the performer’s naked body with the audience’s gaze, inviting spectators to become the authors of their own and others’ images. The Danish company Cantabile 2 will perform “Tre riti” (Three Rites), a multisensory journey in search of mutual connection, while Tia Airoldi will perform “La stanza elementare” (The Elementary Room), a multisensory art installation accessible to people with disabilities. On Thursday July 15 and Friday July 16, we are back to the Teatro Don Bosco for a double debut: a regional one for the Compagnia Abbondanza/Bertoni, which brings to Pergine “Doppelgänger”, a work on the concept of “double” and duality as difference; a world premiere for Kalakara and “Close up”, an instrumental theatre piece for violin, accordion, voice, electronics and movement. On Friday and Saturday it is also the turn of Anna Rispoli and Martina Angelotti with “A certain value”, an interactive performance inviting people to reflect on the many forms that sharing can take. On Saturday July 17, the festival closes with a workshop on accessible art led by Donika Rudi and the national debut of Dynamis’ “Monday” at the Don Bosco Theatre.
For the entire duration of the festival, the centre of Pergine will be animated by “Labirinto” by the Trentino artist Franz, a site-specific work that uses recycled objects to create a temporary structure, and by the exhibition “Saluti da” by the French artist Marilyne Grimmer, a participatory photographic project that explores the relationship of each and every one of us with the here and elsewhere.
There will also be a space dedicated to artists from Trentino under 35 with creations from the Performing Arts Generation call of the Piano Giovani di Zona and the Pergine Arte Giovane call of the Pergine Valsugana Municipality.
NO LIMITS: A FESTIVAL WITHOUT BARRIERS
Pergine Festival believes in the value of culture as a common good that can be enjoyed by everyone. This is why since 2012 it has been offering NO LIMITS, the project that guarantees access and inclusion to people with physical and sensory disabilities. The festival provides them with many services, such as dedicated transport, mapping of spaces, subtitling, translations in LIS – Italian Sign Language, audio-introductions and live audio descriptions, as well as the training of volunteers directly involved in the project’s activities.
Within the framework of NO LIMITS, this year Pergine Festival proposes two activities: the installation “La stanza elementare” by Tia Airoldi (from July 14 to 17) and the workshop “Sentire/Ascoltare” by Donika Rudi (17 July), both at Palazzo Hippoliti. NO LIMITS is coordinated by the Associazione Culturale Fedora.