MAXXI L'Aquila Launches PERFORMATIVE.01 Festival

The MAXXI L'Aquila museum, housed in the recently inaugurated Palazzo Ardinghelli, will host the first edition of PERFORMATIVE.01, an international festival dedicated to performing arts, from September 16 to 19, 2021. The festival, themed CONTACT(less), responds to over a year of pandemic-induced isolation by exploring performance as a form of care and rehabilitation. Director Bartolomeo Pietromarchi explained that the festival was created in collaboration with the Accademia di Belle Arti dell'Aquila, citing Abruzzo's strong tradition in performing arts, notably Fabio Mauri's 18-year teaching tenure at the academy and his performance 'Che cosa è il fascismo,' as well as Joseph Beuys' work in Bolognano supported by Baroness Lucrezia De Domizio Durini. The program includes performances by Virgilio Sieni, Francesca Grilli, 2501/Jacopo Ceccarelli, Masbedo, and many others. A preview from September 2 to 5 features Sieni's 'Dolce lotta_L'Aquila' as part of 'Il jazz Italiano per le terre del sisma.' The opening on September 16 includes a con-formance by Pietromarchi and Cesare Pietroiusti. On September 17, Tomás Saraceno's augmented reality project 'Aeroglyph' will be viewable via smartphone at the Basilica di Santa Maria di Collemaggio. The festival also involves a partnership between MAXXI L'Aquila and MuNDA – Museo Nazionale d'Abruzzo, with a Masbedo performance in the underground spaces of the 16th-century Castello Spagnolo.