Livenel Festival Brings Performance Art to Piacenza's Ex-Enel Palace

The collective Placentia—comprising Marta Barbieri, Riccardo Bonini, Paola Bonino, and Michele Cristella—has organized Livenel, a performing art festival in Piacenza. The event will take place at the Palazzo Ex Enel, a vast unrestored open space ideal for live and site-specific performances. The collective aims to develop a contemporary research event free from commercial models, focusing on curatorial practice and disciplinary heterogeneity. Performers were selected through invitation to ensure a coherent mix of disciplines, from net-art to contemporary dance, prioritizing young Italian artists. The festival seeks to engage a local audience traditionally resistant to contemporary art. The venue, owned by the Fondazione di Piacenza e Vigevano, is slated to become a permanent center for contemporary arts. The collective hopes Livenel will become an annual or biennial event and foster a participatory experience for the public.