ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE SCHUKO THE COMPANY

ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE SCHUKO
Corso San Gottardo 8
20136, Milano
C.F. e P. I. 05720630960
www.schuko.it
[email protected]
www.myspace.com/associazioneschuko
tel +39 340 7640301 +39 335 6085763
For informations and contacts:
Elina Pellegrini
Associazione Iris
Tel//fax 0586 829073
Mobile + 39 338 7059338
Mobile + 39 392 8130107
e-mail [email protected]
skype elina.pellegrini1
sito web http://associazioneiris.spaces.live.com
THE COMPANY
Schuko originates from an idea of two dancers, Marta Melucci and Francesca Telli, who share a common training in
contemporary dance. In 2003 they began their activity as a duo, UMPALUMPA prodAction, creating performances
staged in several Italian dance festivals and bringing dance to unusual environments such as urban sites, gardens and
disused areas. In 2005 they produced NEON, ambienti sottopassione created with light designers Paolo Spotti and
Federico Favero, and video artists Beniamino Borghi and Alice Rosa. This show was first presented at the Biennale dei
Giovani Artisti del Mediterraneo ’05; in 2006 it was selected for the Santarcangelo dei Teatri Festival and for
Pétites Scenes Ouvertes in Paris. In 2007 Marta, Francesca and Paolo created the cultural association Schuko, which
involves a group of young artists with different backgrounds, and promotes the interaction between dance and multiple
other languages.
Schuko is the name of a electrical plug, something that connects different elements with each other. It has to do with
technology but it also refers to the transmission of energy created by dancing bodies. Schuko also sounds as the name
of an imaginary character coming from a remote place, as if the company were a “somebody”; a technical medium that
becomes a fantasy subject.
Schuko’s productions have been presented at: Festival di Santarcangelo ’06, Pétites Scenes Ouvertes (Paris),
Biennale dei Giovani Artisti d’Europa e del Mediterraneo (Napoli), Istituto Italiano di Cultura (Bruxelles), MART
(Rovereto), Festival Danae (Milano), Festival Traiettorie (Como), Festival Danza Inmediata (Fabbrica del Vapore di
Milano), Mostra D’Arte Grafica Corpo Urbano (Salò), Uscite d’Emergenza (Milano), Lavori in pelle (Alfonsine), La
Notte della Danza (Milano), Festival del Ticino (Sesto Calende), Festival del Mondo Antico (Rimini), Danzaestate
(Bergamo), Notte Bianca dello Sport (Milano), Officine CAOS (Stalker Teatro, Torino), Teatro Guanella (Milano);
Anticorpi XL (Ravenna).
Artists collaboratig with Schuko: Alice Rosa multimedial artist, Beniamino Borghi video artist, Federico Favero light
designer, Yuri Tartari sound designer and technician, Mattia Costa film director, Francesca Santaniello fashion
designer , Tommaso Zarini light designer, Lulù Poletti photographer, Greta Bazzotto graphic designer, Giorgia
Falcier video maker, Arianna Fantin costume designer, Flora Vannini choreographer.
PRODUCTION
Theatre performances:
2008: “Here you are!” (Anticorpi XL, Ravenna).
“i” (Festival Exister, Milano).
2005: NEON, ambienti sottopassione (Santarcangelo dei Teatri ’06; Biennale dei Giovani Artisti d’Europa e del
Mediterraneo ‘05, Napoli; Danza Inmediata, Milano; Festival del Ticino; La Notte della Danza, Milano; Corpo
Urbano, Mostra d’Arti Grafiche, Salò; Festival Traiettorie Como; Petites Scènes Ouvertes ‘06, Parigi; Istituto
Italiano di Cultura, Bruxelles; Officine CAOS, Stalker Teatro, Torino; Teatro Guanella, Campo Teatrale, Milano;
Festival delle Città Impresa, MART, Rovereto).
This show was selected by GAI Giovani Artsti Italiani for the Movin’up project 2007 and will receive a financial
support to be presented during the Refract Festival in Belgrade.
2003: Kg 123 and Vissidarte dance and video performance (Festival Danzaestate, Bergamo; Uscite d’Emergenza,
Milano; Lavori in pelle, Alfonsine; Festival Traiettorie, Como).
Urban performances:
2008: Due, urban performance (Festival Suburbia, Milano). Guest of YourNoise on MTV.
2008: Domestic Scape, ending performance for Interior Design Lab at Fine Arts Academy NABA (Milano).
2007: Acqua Corrente, performance in a swimming pool (Notte Bianca dello Sport, Lido di Milano). Golconda, urban
performance (Festival Danae, Milano); Corpo Reo Mostra D’Arti Grafiche (Salò); MART (Rovereto).
2006: Bagnanti, performance in a swimming pool (Milano).
Je suis l’espace oú je suis, performance created with architect Andrea Branzi of Politecnico di Milano (Rimini).
Qui, dance-instalation (Santarcangelo di Romagna).
2005: ¿Qué Tal?, urban performance (Milano).
2004: Alfonsine mon amour, improvisation in train station (Ravenna).
Danza Temporanea, performance for dismissed areas (Como, Milano).
Corto Botanico, performance for botanic garden (Como).
Videos:
2005: Ore appassionate, multimedial collective work created with europeans young artists under the artistic direction
of STUDIO AZZURRO Milano (www.oreappassionate.com).
Digestione Pubblica, video-dance-photography project created with Collectif K.O.com from Marseille.
2003: Michelle, video-dance project in Milan’s subway.
Choreographic Residences:
2008: Residency at Art’s Lab Derganino20, Milano.
2005: Selected for the workshop for young artists Ore Appassionate on multimedia communication, directed by
StudioAzzurro (Milano).
Generis, young choreographers residence directed by Ariella Vidach Fabbrica del Vapore (Milan).
Selected by Santarcangelo dei Teatri for a choreographic residence (Teatro Il Lavatoio Santarcangelo).
WHO’S WHO
MARTA MELUCCI (1977) dancer, choreographer, teacher
Marta studied Philosophy and trained as a contemporary dancer in Italy, United States and Spain. She danced in
several italian companies (Materiali Resistenti, Lucylab Evoluzioni, Lische) and created solos and choreographies
presented in many dance festivals. She teaches contemporary dance, movement research and Feldenkrais Method
for professionals in various academies and dance centres in Milan.
FRANCESCA TELLI (1978) dancer, choreographer, designer
Francesca has a PHD in Design from the Politecnico of Milan with a specialisation in Interior and Stage design. As a
dancer she studied with several international choreographers (Ivan Wolfe, Daniel Lepkof, Jeremy Nelson). She danced
for important Italian choreographers (Ariella Vidach, Rosita Mariani, Regina Marquez) and created her own dance, video
and interactive performances.
PAOLO SPOTTI (1978) lighting designer
Paolo graduated in Light Design and worked both for theatre and architecture. He worked as designer for Castelli Design
studio in Milan and collaborated with the architect Tadao Ando for the refurbishment of Palazzo Grassi in Venice. He
works as a lighting designer for several italian theatre festivals and for the Ferrara Palladino Light Design Studio in
Milan. He teaches Lighting Design at the European Insitute of Design of Milan. Since 2005 he is member of APIL Professional Lighting Designer Association.
THEATRE PRODUCTION
i (2008)
choreography and dancers: Marta Melucci, Francesca Telli
choreography assistant: Flora Vannini
light design: Paolo Spotti, Tommaso Zarini
video: Greta Bizzotto, Giorgia Falcier
costumes: Arianna Fantin
technician: Yuri Tartari
music: Thomas Brinkmann, Battles, Amon Tobin, Yuri Tartari, Of Montreal, Psapp, Stars
production: Schuko, Festival Exister, Derganinoventi
duration: 50 min.
I, interior, image, information, internet, intimacy, individual…these are some of the key words that inspired
Schuko for this project. The company investigates “identity” by putting on stage an enclosed space, which
allows its content to filter outside, which binds its inhabitants in a specific area but at the same time grants
them any experimentation. An enclosed space but a space of liberty, in which a multitude of ways of being can
take place. The bodies show, they hide, transform, they look for, they choose, continually to the takings with
the question: “who am I?”
Into the boundaries of this interior they attempt to build. In the confinements of relationship and gravity, the
dance finds its space.
NEON AMBIENTI SOTTOPASSIONE (2005)
idea and dance: Marta Melucci, Francesca Telli
light design: Paolo Spotti, Federico Favero
video: Alice Rosa, Beniamino Borghi
music project: Francesca Telli
styling: Francesca Santaniello
techinical support: Yuri Tartari
duration: 40 min.
From the intimate space in which individual bodies show themselves
in private activities, dance moves towards public places of passage.
Here bodies turn into perfect machines, images, compressed
products, which become multiplied and mistaken for their own
shades. But in the frame of neon reality, bodies perceive themselves
as humans and passions which move them linger in the search of
forms of expression.
As in previous performances the research is focused on both the movement and the stage area, able to transform the
dance and be transformed by it. The subject of this work is the body moving in public spaces, which are represented by
the neon lights. The attention goes to passions and the intimate feelings of the two dancers that change according to the
lights.
As if they where under pressure, sometimes the interior universes don’t come out of the bodies. The dance develops
within a graphic space and following the atmospheres becomes relation, isolation, communication or pure image. The
video shows the dancers acting in real public spaces and interacts with them live on stage. The scene becomes a close
up to what you see in the video, always shifting the audience attention to inside and outside the performing space.
The initial idea stemmed from the observation of humans in public spaces, the neon light was chosen as the
representative atmosphere of these places.
During their studies in different fields (anthropology and design/architecture) the two dancers developed an interest on
the theme of non-places and on the relationships in public spaces, referring to important authors such as the
anthropologist Marc Augé, the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, the architects Andrea Branzi and Toyo Ito.
“ The huge commercial installations offer to the innumerable ephemeral groups of people that are lost in the
cities, a place where they can maintain their relationships. They fragment the functions that were once carried
on into their houses; they bring them outside and distribute them in the city” (Toyo Ito, 1992).
The young artists introduced this research into the dance field, and analyzed these themes from the point of view of the
moving body. The show was conceived as a series of images and situations in which the two dancers meet, interact and
transform in relation to the light. The neon lights make the atmosphere neutral and homogeneous and they are used with
both an evocative and graphic function.
“Typical of this spaces is to be homogeneous, transparent, fluid, relative and fragmentary. They are all neutral,
with no shadows, dry, odourless and homogeneous.
They are rarefied and transparent they don’t make you perceive dimension or weight of things” (ibid.).
“The non-place space doesn’t create identity nor relation, but solitude and similitude” (Marc Augè, 1992).
The projection integrates with the dance action with the purpose is to emphasize some details, multiply and transform
the dancers, bring the movement out of the stage into real public spaces.
Although these spaces are conceived as neutral and alienated, they are also contexs in which the interpreters make
attempts of dialogue and try to express their interiority. They alternate the expression of their state of mind to the
impossibility of doing so, as if they were compressed products. In the frame of neon reality, bodies perceive themselves
as humans and passions which move them linger in the search of forms of expression.
URBAN PERFORMANCE
Since the beginning the company has been working on urban and public spaces. They created site specific
performances, with the aim of re-interpreting places through dance and art. They performed in train stations, disused
areas, public transport vehicles, supermarkets, gardens, everytime trying to adapt dance to that specific space and
atmosphere.
DUE (2008)
Urban performance dedicated to the relationship between two people. Two as an experience of oneself, of space and
gravity. It has been presented to Suburbia Festival in a train station of Milan and on TV at the MTV program YourNoise.
ACQUA CORRENTE (2007)
Acqua Corrente is part of a project that began in 2006 with the participation to the Swimming Pool Xpò. A performance
called Bagnanti was created for the public swimming pool Romano, in Milan. The swimmingpool is a very characteristc
public place that, in a city like Milan represents a possibility of evasion from urban spaces. Dance, videos and
installations with helium balloons were used in relationship to the image of water. They transformed the swimming pool
from a space of relax and sport activity into an oniric and imaginary environment. This performance was presented to the
Notte Bianca dello Sport ’07 at the Lido di Milano.
GOLCONDA (2007)
The title refers to Magritte’s famous painting, and it is originally the name of an ancient Indian city. Using two helium
balloons hanging above their heads, the dancers interact with the urban environment, as if they were flying. As in a
surrealist painting they rise up or rain down, dancing through traffic lines, gardens, squares. It is as if these urban
scenographies were suspended in the air, giving the audience an imaginary flight upon the rest of the city.
fotgrafie di Lorenza Mercuri
JE SUIS L’ESPACE OÙ JE SUIS (2006)
The project was born thanks to the proposal of the Festival del Mondo Antico of Rimini of creating a performance for the
Anthropology Meuseum Museo degli Sguardi. The title of the performance refers to a poet, N. Arnaud, and develops on
the relationship between space and identity. It was created in collaboration with Architect and Designer Andrea Branzi of
Politecnico di Milano. Identity is seen as a process of transformation in which the environment of our actions is always
changing. Through the use of dance and video the dancers suggest an interpretation of Branzi’s idea of city as “a model
that is not a caotic organization, it is rather an elastic system, that changes with time and relation’s necessities”. A
version of Je suis l’espace où je suis, titled Qui, was presented to the Notte Bianca, opening the Festival di
Santarcangelo.
¿QUÉ TAL? (2005)
The performance entails a series of interventions in various spaces of a disused area, recreating domestic atmospheres.
The idea is to live a disused space as a familiar scenario, in which people meet, chat, do habitual activities, live like in a
familiar un-anonimous place.
CORTO BOTANICO (2004)
A choreography that takes place as a loop in a botanic garden. In a poetic environment, among plants and natural
sounds, dance develops in linear geometries, alternating contact and contrast with the surrounding scenario.
DANZA TEMPORANEA (2004)
Danza Temporanea was presented both as a theatre performance and a urban performance. It refers to the precarious
conditions and restricted time for independent productions. The dancers build up and down the scenography, they adapt
to a confused music sound and share the only stage available. To underline the temporality of the performance a digital
countdown is projected..
ALFONSINE MON AMOUR (2004)
A train station. A place of waiting, expectations, goodbyes, and arrivals. This is the context that inspired this transitory
improvised performance.
VIDEO PRODUCTION
DIGESTIONE PUBBLICA (2005)
This video was realized in collaboration with Colectif K.O.com, a company that works with dance and visual arts in
Marseille. Dance and pictures refer to public spaces. Urban environment that usually swallows people, becomes a
projection on dancers bodies. They wear it, they absorb it as nutrition.
MICHELLE (2003)
This video was shot in Milan’s underground. It is a study on movement in a moving space. Choreography adapts to
speed, breaks and flowing people.