PerAspera Festival 2019: Virtual and Performance Art in Bologna

The PerAspera Festival in Bologna, curated by Ennio Ruffolo, blends performance, virtual reality, theater, and urban art. The festival integrates with the city's daily life, emphasizing participation and the role of art in questioning experience. At Giardini Margherita, Simon Wilkinson and Myra Appannah's 'BriGHTBLACK' invites spectators to follow a script, engaging with strangers in a Fluxus-inspired performance that measures time away from work. At Galleria Adiacenze, Wilkinson's 'CIRCA69 The Third Day' combines a novel displayed on walls, virtual reality of an ideal Renaissance city, and visitor testimonials that become new chapters. Wilkinson envisions virtuality as an infrastructure for ethical inquiry, noting that true artificial intelligences are the animals (dolphins and swallows) in the VR space. The festival also references the empty cages at Giardini Margherita, once housing lions and monkeys, now prompting a return to the search for humanity.