Someone with sensitivity and influence must have seen them when they were performing at the RomaEuropa Festival, because shortly thereafter the members of this dance collective received an invitation for an artistic residency at The Watermill Center in New York, the operational headquarters of the legendary Robert Wilson. And that is how Mont Ventoux began to take shape in that US city. Until it premièred, there were residencies and rehearsals, mountain climbs and ascents.
Mattia Russo and Antonio de Rosa, the Italian leaders of the Madrid-based group Kor’sia, always backed by the dramaturgy of Agnès López-Río, are revisiting a principle that has become one of their hallmarks: inquiring into the past as a way to grapple with the problems of the present and imagine the future. They are artists of today who check in with the artists of yesterday; that's why this time why their point of departure is a letter written by the Italian poet Petrarch in 1336, in which he describes his ascent of Mont Ventoux to a friend. It is a simple text, but one that some scholars see as the very seed of the Renaissance, viewing ascent as the quest for the light of the mountain to emerge from the dark, gloomy woods of the Middle Ages.
This image of human beings versus nature, in communion with their environs, made the Kor’sia collective think about the opposite concept: humans who turn their back on the landscape and the climate and ecological crisis that this attitude entails. In this vein of thinking, with the hope that the relationship between humans and nature can improve in the future, and with the unattainable suggestions of Renaissance art in mind, Mont Ventoux seeks to send the message that perhaps this paradigm shift should begin with ourselves.
Co-produced by Centro de Cultura Contemporánea Condeduque, Fedora - Van Cleef & Arpels, Premio de Danza 2023 con el apoyo de Van Cleef & Arpels, Grec 2024 Festival de Barcelona, Festival Roma Europa, Tanzplattform Rhein Main, Hessisches Staatsballet, Festival Bolzano Danza - Fondazione Haydn di Bolzano e Trento, Compañía Tero Saarinen, OperaEstate Festival Veneto, The Watermill Center.
In cooperation with: INAEM-Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte-Gobierno de España, Comunidad de Madrid, Ayuntamiento de Madrid
Directed by: Antonio de Rosa, Mattia Russo. Choreography: Antonio de Rosa, Mattia Russo in collaboration with the performers. Written by: Agnès López-Río. Sound space: Alejandro da Rocha. Set and lighting design: Amber Vandenhoeck. Wardrobe: Luca Guarini. Performed by: Edoardo Brovardi, Benoît Couchot, Angela Demattè, Samuel Dilkes, Emilie Leriche, Helena Olmedo, Andrew Scott, Dovydas Strimaitis, Ana Van Tendeloo. Technical director: Meritxell. Production: Spectare, Gabriel Blanco, Paola Villegas and Andrea Méndez
