The Metis Method: choreographies for a gender geography.
The Metis Method is a project that explores themes related to gender geography, a field of study that questions, among other things, how the bodies of women and non-binary people live and relate to urban space.
It is structured into three phases, the lab, the performance, the map, conceived as a unite hub in order that the hosting partner will be able to support each of the three phases.
The project develops starting from the meeting and testimonies from women or non-binary individuals who live or pass through a neighborhood or peripheral area of the examined urban space.
The meeting is managed in a workshop-like, horizontal manner, in collaboration between the two performers and a local artist, as well as in collaboration with the hosting partner organization.
The testimonies are collected and intertwined with the pre-existing soundscape, becoming the narrative chorus that determines the course of the performance on which the actions, gestures, and dynamics of the two performers rely.
The interviews are designed through a series of questions directed at women and non-binary individuals. These questions will also be directed at the audience during the performance in written form on colored post-it notes, which the audience can then attach to a specially designed and drawn billboard.
During the workshop, women and non-binary individuals, the local artist, and the two performers will create a gender geographical map that can be exhibited in an exhibition space adjacent to the performance space.
At the conclusion of the project tour, the map, composed of words, drawings, photographs, quotes, and more, gathered from the different urban areas visited, will be exhibited for one month at Gallery X hosted by Partner X (Women’s House Bologna?).
A digital, interactive version of it, usable by a wider audience for a longer time frame, will be uploaded to the MICCE website.
The Metis Method aims to create a network of collaborations based on socio-political activism and the sharing of values with associations, artistic projects, and other figures that share a similar vision to that of Micce. Together, they want to reaffirm the importance of gender issues in urban spaces.
The concept of touring, understood as the diffusion and promotion of artistic projects, is here reformulated as an opportunity to amplify a collective narrative that focuses on non-dominant bodies. This means that the Metis Method project does not limit itself to promoting only the initiating artists but rather seeks to create a platform of resonance for all those voices that are usually ignored or marginalized.
In the context of European public subsidies, the Metis Method project believes it is crucial to imagine a redistribution of resources towards those places and projects engaged in activist contexts. This is because Micce believes that the future of art and society should be directed towards this type of cultural promotion, which, by supporting activist realities, encourages social change and the redefinition of power dynamics.
Therefore, it is through collaboration with associations, artistic projects, and other figures that share a similar vision that the Metis Method project seeks to fulfill its purpose of promoting a collective narrative that places gender issues and the urban space at its center.
Creative Team
Creation and performance: Francesca Penzo and Mariagiulia Serantoni
Sound composition: Andrea Parolin
Drawings: Mario Serantoni
Photos: Raffaello Rouge Rossini.
A production by MICCE with the support of the Cultural Office of the Municipality of Bologna and Danza Urbana Festival, Bologna.