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OPEN EYES #DREAM A/Ω

«We know that underneath the revealed image there is another one more faithful to reality, and underneath this other one another, and again under this last one, until the true image of that reality, absolute, mysterious that no one will ever see, or perhaps until the breakdown of any image, of any reality.» Michelangelo Antonioni's

Open Eyes - #dream A/Ω is a research project that combines cinema and performance: a participatory, site-human-specific cinepoietic operation involving the communities of inhabitants of a specific urban area or of a larger territory. It is based on creating a live streaming cinema performance of long duration and shares the meaning-making process with the audience.

TOUR: 2022, Periferico Festival, Modena; 2023, Timișoara European Capital of Culture, (ROU)

The suspended time of astonishment is what we seek, wonder at every step. Slow everything down. Dilating the pupils to the extreme. Being dazzled by a breathtakingly visible whole. Following familiar directions to suddenly change gear. Find oneself on the trail of a stranger. Crossing into another reality. Exercising the power of the gaze.

'Open Eyes' questions the possibility of bringing back a poetic attitude to sight; to gain life to life.

The structure of the performance is specific and exclusive to each location. The event is called 'dream + Greek letter + city'.

The final performance consists of one or more episodes, arranged over the course of a day, grafted into the habitual flow of life in a given place. The everyday space becomes a natural film set, where the real and fictional dimensions are combined.

Filming takes place along a defined area, outdoors, and in some interiors where made possible by the participation of local inhabitants.

The episodes are presented as short walking paths that the audience follows at a pace governed by the progression of the long take. The walking audience follows the development of the film live and, at the same time, watches its cinematic output on the screens of their mobile devices, thanks to simultaneous streaming. Scenes shot live and recorded scenes come together in an instantaneous montage, playing back the film on mobile devices.

The relationship between the individual and the landscape, whether natural, urban or human, determines the visual theme of each #dream. The local stories and personal memories of the inhabitants nourish the writing of a site-specific script to be enacted with the community. Human and landscape architecture merge in a discontinuous composition, inspired by the formal innovation introduced in cinema by Michelangelo Antonioni, whose poetics the project is inspired by.

The narrative layout develops according to that 'interior neo-realism' attributed by French critics to Antonioni's early works. Not a sequence of facts, but a gaze that lingers on silences and absence, on the personal consequences and social effects of a tangle of existences. The plot emerges as a symptom of evoked events, placed in an indefinite time, inspired by events that really happened in the community and linked to the historical memory of the place, but decontextualised and reworked in a fictional subject. The particular and the universal combine in the alternation of depth of field and subjective camera, in a single long take, with open eyes.

EXECUTION

The creation process can be proposed in two different solutions, according to the scheduling requirements and the contractual engagement's economic, organisational and logistical possibilities.

FIRST SOLUTION: is developed in a single artistic residency of a minimum of 15 days, including the involvement of an already defined local community, collection and processing of materials, finalisation and opening to the public. The working group consists of 6 people: theatre director, film director, film director assistant, performer, two runners.

SECOND SOLUTION: is developed in 4 different work periods, involving a team of 10 people. A residency of exploration, research, contact and involvement of the residents of the area; an artistic residency of collection and processing of the materials involving the community; an artistic residency of finalisation and live performance; a final period of remote work for the post-production of a short film derived from the filming. The working group consists of a theatre director + assistant, a film director + assistant, two performers, a sound designer, a photographer, a dramaturg, and a producer.

THE FILMS' ARCHIVE

In this section you find all the films produced by the Open Eyes residencies. Each City is named with a specific greek letter.

  • OPEN EYES § ALFA DREAM_Modena (2022)
  • OPEN EYES § BETA DREAM_Timișoara (2023)
OPEN EYES § BETA DREAM_Timișoara

OPEN EYES § BETA DREAM_Timișoara

2023, Timișoara European Capital of Culture, (ROU)

Watch the making of by Antonio Arte👇👇👇

THE FILM

We want to thank our local resident dream team, which worked with us to give birth to OPEN EYES § BETA DREAM_Timișoara:

Minola Ilica, Bianca Rusoaie, Mihai Rusoaie, Monica Schneider, Joanna Zieminska, and especially to Bianca Băilă for caring for us!

Our special thanks go to Laura Napolitano, director of IIC Bucharest, for inviting us!

OPEN EYES

A project by TeatrInGestAzione

Directed by Gesualdi | Trono

Film director Giuseppe Valentino

Film direction assistant, editor and documentation Antonio Arte

Production and Organization Roberta Ruggiero Chiara Cucca

With the support of

Istituto Italiano di Cultura Bucarest and HEI - House of European Institutes

🟡 The project is part of the National Cultural Programme "Timisoara - European Capital of Culture in 2023" and is funded by the European Echoes programme, run by the Timisoara City Council Project Centre, with funds allocated from the state budget, through the Ministry of Culture budget. It is organized in partnership with the Municipality of Timișoara through the Project Centre.

#EuropeanEchoes #Timisoara2023 #MinisterulCulturii #municipiultimisoara

OPEN EYES § ALFA DREAM_Modena

2022, PERIFERICO FESTIVAL

#DREAM Alfa_Modena - The project premiered as part of “INA CASA. Una casa per uno. Una casa per tutti” - a project curated by Collettivo Amigdala and Aidoru, winner of the "Creative Living Lab - 3rd edition", promoted by the Ministry of Culture's General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity.

👇👇👇 PASSWORD trailer >>> alfamodena

THE FILM

Created and curated by TeatrInGestAzione

With the collaboration of Giuseppe Valentino

With the participation of the community of INA Casa residents of the Sacca district of Modena and Euphonia.

#sogno Alfa was born in Modena thanks to a request from Collettivo Amigdala, which allowed us to take the time to explore, inhabit and create.

Thanks to Anita Barbi, who assisted us with care.

Thanks to Antonio Arte for joining us and supporting us in the last phase of preparation and debut.

TEATRINGESTAZIONE.COM