A project for Collezione Maramotti and I Teatri di Reggio Emilia
24 – 27 October 2019
Collezione Maramotti
Presented as part of Festival Aperto 2019, Sisyphus / Trans / Form is the exclusive Italian debut of a new project that Greek choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou has created for Collezione Maramotti, a private contemporary art collection open to the public since 2007 and housed in the former Max Mara corporate headquarters, a brutalist building from the 1950s.
Papaioannou’s site-specific piece will be performed from 24 to 27 October (6 performances) in the Collezione Maramotti spaces.
This marks the sixth initiative in a decade-long collaboration among Collezione Maramotti, Max Mara and Fondazione I Teatri, after performances by the Trisha Brown Dance Company (2009), Shen Wei Dance Arts (2011), Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (2013), Hofesh Shechter/Shechter Junior (2015) and Saburo Teshigawara_KARAS (2017). Invitations to choreographers of international renown to conceive and present dance performances in a place dedicated to contemporary art arises from the wish of fostering a close and exciting dialogue between the world of dance and the visual arts.
This collaboration includes the presentation of the new production by Papaioannou the for Aperto Festival 2020: an international project which will see I Teatri as co-producers, supported by Max Mara.
In Sisyphus / Trans / Form, the dancers’ bodies are in perfect equilibrium yet seem broken, moving through an installation where they create optical illusions, inspired by the myth of Sisyphus, that shed a subtle light on the human quest for meaning. It is a piece that explores our relationship with the material world, a form of engagement that can help us rise above it. Papaioannou has conceived this performance as an attempt to generate meditative energy through simple actions, prompting an emotional journey through illusion.
Dimitris Papaioannou’s original training was in the visual arts, and he worked in painting and comics before turning his attention to performance as a choreographer, director, dancer, and set and costume designer.
His powerfully original, visionary language does away with the traditional boundaries between dance, painting and sculpture. The performers’ bodies, as they constantly interacting with props and raw materials, split apart and regroup in deft compositions that echo classical myth and universal narratives. The lyrical images they conjure up teem with contrasts and epiphanies that reveal traces of individual and collective memory, fluidly blending different eras and cultures. Papaioannou constructs dream worlds brimming with deep-rooted archetypes and iconographies, elements rooted in human experience as well as art history.
Programme
24-27 October 2019
Collezione Maramotti
Sisyphus / Trans / Form
site-specific performance
Thursday 24 October, 8:30 pm
Friday 25 October, 8:30 pm
Saturday 26 October, 4:30 pm and 7 pm
Sunday 27 October, 4:30 pm and 7 pm
Visual concept and direction Dimitris Papaioannou
with Christos Strinopoulos, Drossos Skotis, Costas Chrysafidis, Ioanna Paraskevopoulou, Pavlina Andriopoulou
with support from MEGARON – THE ATHENS CONCERTHALL
Tickets can be purchased at www.iteatri.re.it and at the Teatro Municipale Valli ticket office (check opening hours at www.iteatri.re.it).
Any remaining available tickets can be purchased at the Collezione Maramotti, from one hour before that the performance starts.
Dimitris Papaioannou will meet the public of the show at the end of the performance of 7.00pm on Saturday 26 October.
In the days of the performances the ticket holders may freely visit the 1st floor of the permanent exhibition of the Collezione Maramotti:
Thursday 24 October, from 7.00pm to 8.00pm
Friday 25 October, from 7.00pm to 8.00pm
Saturday 26 October, from 3.00pm to 4.00pm and from 5.30pm to 6.30pm
Sunday 27 October, from 3.00pm to 4.00pm and from 5.30pm to 6.30pm
The temporary exhibitions by Helen Cammock and Mona Osman will be open in the following hours:
Thursday 24 October, from 2.30pm to 8.00pm
Friday 25 October, from 2.30pm to 8.00pm
Saturday 26 October, from 10.30am to 4.15pm and from 5.30pm to 6.30pm
Sunday 27 October, from 10.30am to 4.15pm and from 5.30pm to 6.30pm
Press-clipping selection
F. Pini, Il muro sulle spalle e la fatica di essere umani, in "Corriere della Sera", 16 Nov. 2019
H. Hayes-Westall, Performance of new work by Dimitris Papaioannou Sisyphus/Trans/Form, in "FAD magazine", 11 Nov. 2019
G. C. Chernetich, Papaioannou: le trasformazioni di Sisifo, in "Doppiozero", 8 Nov. 2019
G. Capitta, Dimitris Papaioannou e i possibili percorsi della condizione umana, "Il Manifesto", 2 Nov. 2019
G. Di Stefano, L'assurdo Sisifo di Dimitris Papaioannou alla Collezione Maramotti, in "Exibart.com", 1 Nov. 2019
G. C. Chernetich, Dimitris Papaioannou's first site-specific work for an art gallery, at Collezione Maramotti, in "Springback Magazine", 31 Jan. 2020
M. Kanai, An Attempt at the private museum to support the next generation and create a place to meet artwork, in "Bijutsu Techo", Feb. 2020
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