as part of Fabbrica Europa 2024
in collaboration with Fondazione Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Monumentum stands for: memory, document, sign of recognition, something that comes from the past. Something that lingers and that, stopping the continuous progression of the production flow, moves into the depths of memory, in a sort of temporal anachronism.
Crossed by dreamlike visions and non-verbal bodily experiences, such as guided hypnosis practices, this first part of the project has a temporal progression enclosed in the performance of a solo by Megumi Eda, former historic dancer of Karole Armitage and interpreter with sharp and expressive neoclassic elements. A body therefore in a vital impetus in an attempt to open other levels of memory and reconnect with its own stories. There is always a certain delicacy in dealing with the solitude of a body, despite the quantitative solidification it is possible to understand that matter is not stupid, nor blind, nor mechanical, but that it has a rhythm, a language, an internal movement and its own organization: a feeling.
The work debuted in the theatrical version at Torinodanza Festival and in the site-specific version at the Masi Museum of Contemporary Art in Lugano and was then a guest in the Domus Aurea in Rome and at PAC / Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea in Milan.
The Monumentum project started in 2022 and has already seen the creation of Monumentum the second sleep/second part the quartet, an ensemble creation and winning project of the Abitante call supported by Centro Nazionale di produzione della Danza Virgilio Sieni and Fondazione CR Firenze and in 2023 the creation of Monumentum DA with the bilingual deaf performer in Italian and LIS Diana Anselmo, produced by MilanOltre Festival.
Cristina Kristal Rizzo, dancemaker, has been active on the Live Arts scene since the early 90s. Based in Florence, she trained in New York at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, and attended the studios of Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown. She is one of the founders of Kinkaleri, a company with which she has actively collaborated crossing the international contemporary choreographic scene and receiving numerous awards. Since 2008 she has undertaken an independent path of choreographic production, directing her research towards a theoretical reflection with a strong dynamic impact aimed at regenerating the act of creation itself and opening up reflections on the present time. Currently one of the main Italian choreographic realities, she is hosted in the most important festivals of the new international scene. The circulation of shows is accompanied by an intense activity of experimental proposals, conferences, workshops, advanced training and theoretical writing. Among her latest creations: ECHOES, TOCCARE the white dance (Danza&Danza contemporary choreography award 2020), ULTRAS sleeping dances, VN Serenade, Prélude, ikea, BoleroEffect. As a guest choreographer she has created choreographies for the main Italian and foreign opera companies and institutions, including the Teatro Comunale di Firenze – Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Aterballetto, Balletto di Toscana Junior, LAC Lugano, MACRO Roma, MUSEION Bolzano, Pecci Museum in Prato, Museo Novecento in Florence, Masi Museum in Lugano. She collaborated in the creation of the special project La Piattaforma della Danza Balinese for Santarcangelo Festival 14 and 15 and in the 21st edition of Live Arts Week with Xing. Since 2019 she has played an active part in the Sup de Sub project aimed at very young non-professionals from the suburbs of Marseille and Paris. In October 2021 she was a guest artist for the Juntarte project in Havana, Cuba, curating the Cuba>>Firenze 2032 project for Fabbrica Europa Festival. She is currently involved as a mentor in the Creative Campus project curated by Sardegna Teatro.
Megumi Eda is a dancer and a filmmaker. Her career began with the Hamburg Ballet when she was 17, and over the next 15 years she joined the Dutch National Ballet and the Rambert Dance Company, where she appeared in most of the classical ballet repertoire and worked with many contemporary choreographers including John Neumeier, Christpher Bruce, Jiri Kylian, Lindsey Kemp, William Forsythe, Twyla Tharp and David Dawson. In 2004 she moved to New York as a founding member of Armitage Gone! Dance and participated in the creation of over a dozen new works as a principal dancer. In 2004, she won the Bessie Award for Best Performer of the Year. She has been living in Berlin since 2019, where she currently focuses on creating her multimedia works across theatre, dance and film.
conception, choreography, staging, costumes: Cristina Kristal Rizzo
dance: Megumi Eda
live sound processing: Cristina Kristal Rizzo on music by Gesualdo da Venosa and Lamin Fofana
cinematographic reference: “Dreams” by Akira Kurosawa (1990)
production: TIR Danza
co-production: Torinodanza Festival
with the support of Lugano Dance Project
photo: LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura – Foto Studio Pagi
