Florence Hotel Atlantic Palace

Florence Hotel Machiavelli

Florence Hotel Paris

Tuscany-coast Residence I Macchiaioli

from 06th May 2010 at 06:00 p.m. to 25th May 2010 at 11:59 p.m

With this 2010 edition Fabbrica Europa completes the three-year cycle on artistic and cultural relations between Europe and the other continents. After the 2008 edition "Europa <-> Mediterraneo <-> Africa" and that of 2009 with "Europa <-> Mediterraneo <-> Americhe", in 2010 - May 6th to 25th - it will be the turn of Europe, the Mediterranean and the East.

The relations between Europe and the East have been complex and fluctuating: sometimes really intense and enthusiastic, other times difficult, not infrequently conflictual. It is however evident that without diminishing its own originally pluralistic identity, western culture has always encountered and confronted oriental culture at every level. It has always been possible to reconstruct this vivacious, sharp yet often inclusive confrontation in the reality of history and common and respective cultural identities; and within the framework of this confrontation, spiritual pathways and those more or less "secret" of mystiques, religious and otherwise, have always played a central role due to their fertility, depth and enhancement potential without removing conflicts yet refusing to clash with them or to attempt to over-run them. The paradox of this centrality, so closely linked to the logic of art, science and living culture, and in spite of so many so-called "holy" wars and hidebound, aggressive opposition "instrumentally" based on doctrine or morals, tells us that the profound reality of the circulation of ideas and the various disciplines of human intelligence and spirituality have always marked - and still mark - positively the routes of salt, silk, spices, but also and perhaps above all the pathways of art, mathematics, poetry, deep spirituality and acceptance.

The XVII edition of Fabbrica Europa will therefore focus on the investigation by means of the instruments of contemporary artistic creation, the pathways, the links, the hints, and also the differences, between the West and the East. Moving ideally towards the East, from Europe and the Mediterranean to reach as far as China, one of the keystones of this itinerary will be research on the pathways of spirituality and sociality, hence the social spirit, of groups on the move, and of pilgrims in search of themselves in others. The itinerary abounds in tangible, interior traces of these journeys, in dimensions and directions, in wonderous performative, monumental and textual syntheses at all levels of art and science, from that of the multidisciplinary contemporary scenario so rich in memories, functions and above all in future potential.

Another approach found throughout Fabbrica Europa 2010 will be that investigating the relationship between art and science. More and more, artists (choreographers, theatre directors, musicians, visual artists) and scientists together are carrying out research and work at international level which merge contemporary performing arts, science and new technologies, contributing to the definition of new interdisciplinary aesthetic paradigms and overcoming the classic concept of artistic disciplines. Continuing the investigation on the most innovative and original artistic procedures, Fabbrica Europa will therefore provide space for those artists who more than others confront experimental practice and technological research by examining the "secret" mechanisms of knowledge and adopting the potential offered by new theories and methodologies.

Through a structured programme of dancing, theatrical and musical events, installations, laboratories and meetings, Fabbrica Europa will thus again be an occasion for confrontation among differing cultural practices, stimulating work on research and interdisciplinary creation, and at the same time tracing out and enriching the map of relations and knowledge through an itinerary between the West and the East; recent movements of peoples, goods, documentation and creativity, both individual and collective, have been redesigning this itinerary day by day with instruments featuring more and more frequently new communication and environmental technologies as well as old and new contradictions and the appearance of new global and local entities.