Wúmíng Shì, Mario Rossi, John Doe,
Erika Mustermann, Nanashi-Gonbee
a project by
Luigi Coppola, Isak Immanuel, Yuko Kaseki
within MOVING_movimento 2008
a project by Fabbrica Europa; Festival Santarcangelo dei Teatri; Giardino Chiuso / Teatro dei Leggieri, San Gimignano; Officina Giovani - Cantieri Culturali ex Macelli, Prato; Assessorato alla Cultura e alle Politiche Giovanili del Comune di Prato
Untitled Portraits springs from collaboration among three artists, Luigi Coppola, Italian director and performer; Yuko Kaseki, Japanese dancer and choreographer living in Berlin; and Isak Immanuel, American dancer and choreographer.
The theme of exploration is invisibility and anonymity in ambiences with no formal identity, no relationality and historicity, in various places round the world and in three continents.
The spaces of anonymity into which more and more often we crowd - alone but together with many other individuals similar to ourselves - are the context in which the project develops and the places where the artists are acting - and will act - directly.
The sub-title chosen for the project, Wúmíng Shì, Mario Rossi, John Doe, Hans Mustermann, Nanashi-Gonbee, is made up of the most common names, or non-names, of each country to host the project, with the clear intent of indicating a form of non-identity.
The videos presented in this first stage of the work, with the collaboration of the performers Yingmei Duan (China/Germany) and Sunwei Liou (Taiwan), were shot in Taiwan and Japan (in Hualien, Taipei and Tokyo), where the first stage of the project took place. Further stages of the project will be in San Francisco (May 2008), Florence (September/October 2008) and Berlin (October 2008).
Luigi Coppola
Performer and director of physical theatrical, he has scientific training in engineering and artistic training in the performing arts and multimedia. He has directed the Blusuolo group and is at present head of the LOSS research group on the performing arts - Sensitive Systems Operative Laboratory, with whom he has produced theatrical pièces, performances and videos that have appeared in numerous festivals and reviews, among others the San Francisco International Arts Festival, Wunder der Prärie (Mannheim), Unidram Festival (Potsdam) and the Athens Biennial of Young Artists.
He has also been artist in residence at various international institutions such as Hweilan International Artists Residence of Taiwan, Taipei Artists Village of Taipei, PAF (Performing Arts Forum of Saint Erme in France, CESTA Cultural Exchange Station of Tábor (Czech Republic).
Isak Immanuel
Dancer, choreographer and photographer from the United States, he lives and works mainly in the San Francisco area. In his work he investigates the distances between myth and reality. His last project Floor of Sky (Clothes x sun) was presented in Berlin, Paris, Seoul, San Francisco and Taiwan.
His research is a mix of influences based on sociological studies, multicultural collaboration, dance-theatre, Butho dance, mime, Qigong, martial arts and body acrobatics/balancing.
He has won many international prizes in the field of photography.
Yuko Kaseky
Japanese dancer and choreographer, she has lived in Berlin since 1995. She studied Butho dance and performing arts at the HBK of Braunschweig with Anzu Furukawa and has danced, among others, with the Dance Butter Company of Tokyo. In 1995 with Marc Ates she founded the Cokaseki Group with whom she produced projects presented in Europe, Japan, the United States and Canada. Her choreographical research based on Butho dance and contemporary dance features her particular personal aesthetics.
Her creations have obtained numerous awards, among which the Isadora Duncan Dance Award 2004 for the best composition and the best visual design and, again in 2004, the Toyota Choreography Award of Tokyo.
