The culture of Emilia-Romagna abroad in 2020
Year 2020: the pandemic has affected the whole world. Among the many disastrous consequences, the cultural venues have been closed, cultural activities have been stopped, cancelled, re-scheduled, redefined, transformed.
Culture did not want to stop: theatres, museums, culture professionals, public bodies, and institutions created new virtual stages and shared with a wide audience many contents and new ideas, and new ways to interact.
In this particular time and unprecedented condition, it is difficult to do the usual year-end report of Emilia-Romagna cultural export, commonly rich in numbers and activities, but it is important to underline that, in spite of the apocalyptic scenery of this annus horribilis, anyway, the culture of Emilia-Romagna left its traces around the world and was able to assert its creativity with innovation.
How much, where, what
The number of events had a drastic strong contraction (more than 40%, compared to 2019) but, even if numerous appointments already scheduled have been cancelled over the months, 195 events took place in 130 cities in 50 Countries on all continents.
France, Germany, United States, and Croatia -in that order- are the countries which hosted the largest number of events.
Dance, music, and theatre live staged performances were 61, mainly in Europe.
Amongst the most active companies we still find: Aterballetto as regards dance (7 cities in 5 Countries); Accademia Bizantina and Soqquadro Italiano as to music (4 cities each, in 2 and 3 Countries, respectively); Teatro Gioco Vita (8 cities in 2 countries) and La Baracca-Testoni Ragazzi (7 cities in 2 countries) as to children theatre; ERT / Pippo Delbono (11 cities in 9 Countries) and Teatro Due Mondi (14 cities in 2 Countries) as to drama (but we cannot fail to mention a new record by Motus theatre company: the highly acclaimed performance MDLSX, on tour since 2015, reached two cities abroad also this year, in Argentine and Portugal).
As regards cinema, the absolute protagonist of 2020 was Federico Fellini, in the year of the centenary of his birth, celebrated worldwide. According to estimates by the official programme of the Committee for the Celebration ‘Fellini 100’ (Emilia-Romagna Region is one of the eight supporting bodies), the events abroad dedicated to the Maestro from Rimini are more than 100.
In the specific context of documentary film, it is worth mentioning the international prizes awarded to Il varco - Once More Unto The Breach by Federico Ferrone and Michele Manzolini, produced by Bologna-based, Kiné: Best Film in the section ‘What the Doc!’ of the 23rd DocsBarcelona; EFA Editing Award to Maria Fantastica Valmori.
And speaking about international prizes, also the audiovisual installations by Modena-based art studio fuse* received important recognitions: Multiverse won the Red Dot Award and the CODAawards Merit Award, Treu / Trust was awarded at POCHEN Biennale.
Turning to exhibitions, different conditions and criteria are concerned: many were presented online and for the most part they are included in the promotional events organized by Emilia-Romagna Region (more than 100).
An intense activity was carried out by the Office for cultural activities abroad on the occasion of the Fellini 100, Rodari 100, and Artusi 200 anniversaries (the last, also celebrated in the 5th Week of Italian Cuisine in the World).
The three digital multilingual exhibitions dedicated to Fellini, made in co-operation with the Centro Cinema Città di Cesena and the Municipality of Rimini, were arranged/presented -both on site and virtual- in 58 international venues.
The exhibit Illustrators for Gianni Rodari. Italian Excellence, made in collaboration with Bologna Children’s Book Fair, was programmed in 28 venues the world over (and was one of the most appreciated events of the 20th Week of the Italian Language in the World).
On the occasion of the 5th Week of Italian Cuisine in the World, more than 60 events organized by Emilia-Romagna Region and Casa Artusi (the exhibit dedicated to Artusi, webinar, conferences, videos, …) were presented in 31 Countries on all continents.
The ‘virtual stage’
Many cultural contents have been made available online by the more than 1800 cultural professionals of the territory since March, sharing the campaign of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) #WeAreItaly, and the virtual festival promoted by the regional Ministry for Culture #laculturanonsiferma: theatre, poetry, cinema, concerts, virtual tours in museums, interviews, and much more (the virtual programme by Emilia-Romagna Region restarted in December with the title “La cultura viaggia online”).
Throughout the year, many events became completely virtual or programs available both live and streamed were planned. Various proposals of cultural contents transferred on the digital environment were developed.
We want to remember just some among the most virtuous and innovative ones, that deal with theatre, music, dance, opera.
Emilia Romagna Teatro and Compagnia Pippo Delbono, in co-operation with international partners, developed a project of multilingual subtitling (11 languages) of 4 shows, made available free streaming and shared with about Italian Cultural Institutes, Embassies, and Consulate on all continents. Moreover, ERT made ERTonAIR, a virtual arena where to join streaming events and interact, that is still going on.
Instabili Vaganti theatre company conceived the project ‘Beyond Borders’, which combines theatre, dance, video, visual and digital arts following an innovative process of remote interaction and co-operation with artists from around the world. Among the works performed, the web series created with Iranian Don Quixotte theatre company 8 1⁄2 Theatre Clips: How the pandemic changed our lives, coproduced by the Embassy of Italy in Teheran: eight video-performances premiered on the Company’s and the Embassy’s social channels. The debut was in August, the last episode is expected in February 2021 (and new projects are developing with artists from China, Spain, India).
ATER Fondazione made the platform “Teatri nella rete”, proposing a streaming season from December to January to replace the seasons of the theatres closed due to the pandemic and keep theatre in close connection with the community: 11 shows premiered from the stages of the Multidisciplinary Circuit of Emilia-Romagna and from the Teatro Galli in Rimini, besides webinars, backstage videos, events for children.
Fondazione Ravenna Manifestazioni/Ravenna Festival made the platform ravennafestival.live, offering almost 40 live stream and on demand appointments from the Festival programme (and re-proposing more than 30 during the holyday season).
Ravenna Festival has been the forerunner not only with regard to the live streaming. The opening concert conducted by Maestro Riccardo Muti was also the opening event of Estate all'italiana Festival, the digital festival promoted by the MAECI and shared by its cultural and diplomatic network abroad: a symbolic message to the world on June 21st, World Music Day.
Estate all'italiana Festival programmed other events ‘made in Emilia-Romagna’: three further shows from Ravenna Festival; the opening concert of Emilia Romagna Festival (celebrating its 20 years with a very special debut: the flute and strings Concerto n. 2 by Michael Nyman, written for Massimo Mercelli’s flute and dedicated to their mutual friend Ezio Bosso); L’Orfeo by Monteverdi, performed by Accademia Bizantina conducted by Ottavio Dantone, the Spoleto Festival of 2Worlds opening event.
The Teatro Regio di Parma made “Festival Verdi Home Streaming”, programming through March and April the free vision of 11 operas among the most successful produced for the Festival, a virtual review shared with the Italian Cultural Institutes network that registered users from more than 100 Countries all over the world.
Together with all the Teatri di Tradizione, the Regio di Parma participates in the project "OperaStreaming", promoted by Emilia-Romagna Region and coordinated by Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Modena: 9 works by the main regional opera production bodies live broadcast from the theatre where they were produced and staged, with a programming from September 2020 to April 2021, also available deferred. It is the second season of a project started in 2019 that has already reached more than half a million spectators and has gathered an enthusiastic international audience interacting from many Countries (and in December it arrived also in China, on the Bibili platform).
Fondazione Nazionale della Danza/Aterballetto dance company conceived video-creations made in quarantine, premiered streaming on RAI 5 in April and June, then available on the Company’s website and social channel.
But the Company, which started the year 2020 on tour in Israel, could also perform abroad the new creation by Johan Inger, Don Juan. After the premiere in Italy, in October, the performance was staged in the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris, opening show of the season of one of the most important French theatre as regards dance, and at the Festspielhaus St. Pölten, another leading venue for dance (and music) near Wien.
The crowning of this ‘creative tenacity’ was a prize: the Danza&Danza Award as Best Italian production in 2020.