La Festa dei vivi (Lac o Le Mon), San Cesario di Lecce

40°18'23.1”N, 18°10'26.1"E 

2 novembre 2015, dalle 12 alle 24

La Festa dei vivi (che riflettono sulla morte)

Il 2 novembre 2015, come da tradizione, si celebra La Festa dei vivi (che riflettono sulla morte), giunta alla sua sesta edizione. Vi invitiamo anche quest’anno a seguirci, con la sola certezza che ci accoglierà l’inaspettato.

La vena nomadica pervade ancora il nostro procedere, ma questa volta misureremo l’orizzonte su architetture di pietra e di pensiero.

Le voci delle comunità di visibili e invisibili continueranno a farsi sentire? Accetteranno di condividere con noi l’odore di un agrumeto nero, disegnato dalle geometrie di un hortus conclusus? 

Riecheggeranno da cavità sotterranee, non descritte in alcuna mappa catastale, a indicarci una via, un pertugio segreto o magari a celarlo, ingannandoci?

Assieme ascolteremo l’eco dei sussurri e dei canti di chi ha abitato quelle stanze dalle altissime volte, per rinviarli da un terrazzo, come vapore o fumo, al tramonto.

Emilio Fantin, Luigi Negro, Giancarlo Norese, Cesare Pietroiusti, Luigi Presicce.

The Celebration of the Living (who reflect upon death), 5

San Cesario di Lecce, Italy, Oct. 25 to dawn of Nov. 2, 2014

I am Beatrice who urges you to journey,

Come from a place to which I long to return.

Love moved me to speak my heart to you.

(Inf. II, 70-72)

Let us summon one dear to us, a deceased friend or loved one, and take him or her with us, from the first moment to the end of a journey.
Each person who decides to participate in “The Celebration of the Living (who reflect upon death),” in its fifth edition this year, is invited to bring along someone they have lost, to create a particular and pervasive dimension of accompaniment, starting with the preparations for the departure to reach San Cesario di Lecce.
Each can bring to life this voyage-in-company in the way they deem best, relying on imagination, intuition, storytelling. Will this presence/absence guide our steps and our encounters, in order to speak, like Beatrice, with us and for us?

This year the Celebration of the Living, instead of a single pilgrimage on November 2nd, will extend through a longer period and be enlivened by an unusual form of participation, between the dead who speak through the living, and the living who meet through the dead.
With total freedom, each person can decide if and when to introduce others to the invisible presence that accompanies them: for this to happen, we simply propose a space (Lu Cafausu) and a time (at dawn, every day from October 25th to November 1st).
Across this span of days, the theme of the compresent relationship between the living and the dead will form the backdrop of gestures and conversations, until November 2nd, the final day, in which we will gather by walking, visible and invisible, from dusk towards dawn.

The fifth edition of “The Celebration of the Living (who reflect upon death)” has been realized in the context of Free Home University, with the active participation of Mattia Pellegrini, Davide Ricco, Sara Alberani, Luca Musacchio, Sarah Ciracì, Gianluca Marinelli, Matteo Greco, Roberto Tenace, Carlo Marchetti, Lisa Batacchi and other new friends.

www.lucafausu.tk

The Celebration of the Living 4, Phoenix

The Lu Cafausu headquarters at Combine Studios,
downtown Phoenix, Oct. 2013.

Italian artists plan free public art procession in Downtown Phoenix on Nov. 2

The ASU Art Museum is pleased to announce the arrival of visiting international artists Emilio Fantin and Giancarlo Norese. The artists are part of Lu Cafausu, an Italian collaborative art project by Emilio Fantin, Luigi Negro, Giancarlo Norese, Cesare Pietroiusti and Luigi Presicce.

The public is encouraged to attend “Celebration of the Living (who reflect upon death), 4th edition,” a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to honor loved ones who have passed away and re-envision the past, present and future by walking through the streets of downtown Phoenix. This is the fourth annual occurrence of this project and the first time that it is being held in the United States. The free event is a reconsideration of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) traditions through multi-cultural lenses.

The procession, to be led by the Bad Cactus Brass Band, will kick off on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013 with a pre-procession reception beginning at 3:30 p.m., at the ASU Art Museum International Artist Residency Program at Combine Studios, 821 N. Third St., in downtown Phoenix. The procession starts promptly at 4:30 p.m. and will conclude at Saint Mary’s Basilica with a choir performance. The procession also connects at its conclusion with the Celebración Artística de las Américas (CALA) Alliance Festival at the intersection of First and Adams streets.

The event is produced by the artists and the ASU Art Museum, continuing a tradition of artist-led projects that includes “Feast on the Street” and the Desert Initiative.

The event will highlight numerous threads connecting past, present and future, including visual arts, historic preservation, new shade trees, modern dance and live music. Featured elements will include:

— Chicago artist Deborah Boardman will investigate traces from the past at the intersection of Third and Roosevelt streets;
— One of the first public opportunities to view the newly restored DeSoto Building, at the intersection of Central Avenue and Roosevelt Street;
— Original choreography and music interpreting a classic element of Kurosawa’s Dreams;
— Invited guests readers Merced Maldonado from Guadalupe, Ariz.; Canadian Shawn Van Sluys from the Musagetes Foundation, Arizona artist Marie Navarre and author Kristina Lee Podesva, from San Francisco, Calif., will read short passages from diverse cultural traditions and literature reflecting upon death

The procession will feature the work of ASU School of Film, Dance and Theatre students with choreography by faculty member Elizabeth Johnson and ASU School of Art students working with faculty member Gregory Sale. The pre-procession reception is organized by students from the ASU Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation.
Learn more about Lu Cafausu at www.lucafausu.tk and view additional details about the event at facebook.com/events/1457056714520021/

The ASU Art Museum International Artist Residency at Combine Studios is located in downtown Phoenix, at 821 N. Third St. For additional information please call the ASU Art Museum at 480.965.2787 or visit http://www.facebook.com/ASUAM.Combine. The ASU Art Museum International Artist Residency is generously supported in part by the Windgate Charitable Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The ASU Art Museum, named “the single most impressive venue for contemporary art in Arizona” by Art in America, is part of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. The museum is located on the southeast corner of Mill Avenue and 10th Street in Tempe and admission is free. Hours are 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. on Tuesdays (during the academic year), 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and closed on Sundays and Mondays. Public hours for the International Artist Residency Gallery are Tuesday through Friday from 1–5 p.m. and by appointment. To learn more about the museum, call 480.965.2787or visit asuartmuseum.asu.edu or asuartmuseum.wordpress.com.


Media Contact
Greg Esser
ASU Art Museum
480.965.2875
greg.esser (at) asu.edu

La Festa dei Vivi 3, San Cesario di Lecce

First of all we would like to sincerely thank all those who have sent their words relative to the encounter of November 2nd. We have received hundreds of contributions as well as the feeling of an experience that has been strongly shared. An experience that evokes the limitlessness of a space that belongs to all of us, as well as those that are no longer with us.

Over the day of December 1st, we recorded all the words and sentences sent by the participants, using the old "fresco" technique, on the walls of "Lu Cafausu". It was a moment of celebration and reflection, as well as an attempt to create a physical space where all the individual stories, references and affects can compose a whole. It also functioned as a homage to "Lu Cafausu", an "imaginary place that really exists".

We met on December 1st, 2012, from noon to the sunset, around "Lu Cafausu".

In early November, people from across the world celebrate the Day of the Dead, remembering those who passed away and often visiting their graves. In one way or another, we all try to establish contact with our loved ones, and sometimes we consider our own common and mortal destiny, therefore reflecting upon death in general.

On occasion of the 3rd edition of “The Celebration of the Living (who reflect upon death)”, we have proposed a collective action, open to everyone, which has been held in different places at the same time. Each participant has met his/her loved ones, friends and relatives who passed away. Everyone has tried to imagine and configure the right way to get in touch with the dead either through ritual, gesture, or thought.

A plurality of people was in contact, at exactly the same moment, with others who are no longer with us. This created a shared space of life and death. A space between they, the dead, and we, the living, who share their destiny of finitude.

All contributions sent by participants can be found at www.lucafausu.tk.

Thanks to Marsèlleria for its support and for making this event possible.
Community partner: UnDo.Net

Combine Studios, Phoenix

On the way to the Guadalupe Cemetery.

A meeting organized in the context of “The Celebration of the Living (who reflect upon death)”, 3rd edition, took place in Arizona.

As a part of their stay at the Arizona State University Art Museum’s International Artist Residency Program, on Nov. 8th, 2012 Emilio Fantin and Giancarlo Norese introduced the project at Combine Studios on Roosevelt Row in Phoenix.

Since 2010, every Nov. 2nd, they consider the relationship between the living and the dead by organizing a public art event. 
This was the first of a series of meetings that will help develop a collaborative process for the realization of the 4th edition that will be taking place in Phoenix in the Fall of 2013.
In Phoenix, there is new creative energy developing constantly. The diverse cultural and artistic scenes present in the city make it fertile ground for the success of this project.
With the local community help and valued participation the project can continue and become more dynamic.

Some discussions on different notions of life and death have been organized, as well as interviews, visits and explorations of the area.

Thanks to Premio NCTM e l'Arte, 2012.

Thu. Nov 8th, 2012

6:00 pm

The Celebration

of the Living

Public Meeting and Dinner

Combine Studios

821 N 3rd St.

Phoenix, AZ 85004