In the stratified and complex scenario of the Reggiane Parco Innovazione, Reggio Emilia, we are witnessing the first stage of the project Danze dell’Utopia, which presents a preview of the work SANTA, 2025, a site-specific project emerging from transversal synergies between dance, art and architecture with the aim of enhancing the site through strategies of urban regeneration. Conceived by Gigi Cristoforetti with the curatorship of the Centro Coreografico Nazionale/Aterballetto, which has always been interested in taking dance beyond its canonical boundaries by suggesting new policies of fruition, the project counts on the artistic and critical curatorship of Nicolas Ballario and the choreographic actions of Lara Guidetti who, by thinking of dance in virtue of the possibility of creating a bridge between languages, compares her practice with the works of the artist Maurizio Cattelan, here donated by his archive.
Maurizio Cattelan, “Junho”, LEEUM Museum, Seoul, 2023, photo Kim Kyoungtae
SANTA, whose title – in Ballario’s words – does not claim to exhaust a single meaning or definition, is a work that sensitively and expertly touches the nerve of the Reggiane’s architecture to reflect on the future of memory. In fact, it is well known how this industrial archaeology historically hosting the Officine Meccaniche Reggiane, reflects an important historical and social memory still at the present time: we may want to think for example how since its foundation, in 1901, this architecture has become the scene of important political, economic and social reforms in the 1950s, seeing the affirmation of excellence in the field of mechanics and mechatronics. It is then soon palpable how these affective memories are projected into the transversal visions of SANTA, leveraging research moments that are seen outside the mainstream and taking a site-specific posture which pours into the social fabric of the place.
“SANTA”, 2025, ph Luca Del Pia Santa, courtesy Aterballetto
According to this vision, SANTA aims to create bridges. It is an itinerant work that creates visionary drifts, promptly insinuating itself into the skin and body of architecture. This exploration is urged by the guide text of the curator Nicolas Ballario which alternates different registers and immerses the spectator in a historical, social and poetic narration, accompanied by important experimental sounds by sound designer Marcello Gori. It is from these premises that the choreographic project of SANTA takes place, eradicating itself between the folds of the architecture and embodying the fragments of a historical and affective memory. Soon this narration will be sublimated, metaphorically alluding to the fate of the Bremen Town Musicians, thus assuming a fairytale and phantasmagorical tone. In this sense, it is not only important to note the experimental approach pursued between dance and architecture in terms of presences/absences, but it is also interesting to foreground the new policy of involvement addressed by the project according to which the dancer-user relationship seems to disappear at times to reflect on immersion.
“SANTA”, 2025, ph Luca Del Pia Santa, courtesy Aterballetto
But it is also here that the powerful contrast established between body and sculpture, soon comes into play: this is the case of the encounter between choreography and the work of Maurizio Cattelan, who presents HOMELESS: Daniel, 2025; Elina, 2025, a hyper-realistic sculpture figuring the silhouette of a homeless person, as already happened for the previous versions of 1996 and 1998, and assuming here new artistic and social connotations in relation to the urban and architectural context of the Reggiane. A series of actions follow one another punctually touching the architecture in its heart and performing a new community spirit that, while it is attentive to the fringes of the social, simultaneously wants to translate into a modern representation by reflecting on the relationship between man and machine through the language of geometry and abstraction.
“SANTA”, 2025, (in primo piano l’opera “L.O.V.E.” di Maurizio Cattelan). Ph Alice Vacondio, courtesy Aterballetto
But the bridge that the SANTA project intends to suggest goes further: the traditional distance between the stage backdrop and the audience seems to disappear to immerse oneself in the city. This is the task of the subsequent urban choreographic actions in contact with the sculptural work L.O.V.E., 2010, by Cattelan, presenting here a 3-meter version of his notable sculpture transported by an ape car. Not without humour, his work intends to subvert the logic of power in favor of an autonomy of thought and action. Back to a theatrical backdrop at the Reggiane, the SANTA performance ends in front of the glimpse of the work Untitled, 2001, by Cattelan, a famous sculpture already presented in 2002 at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, in which the wax cast of the artist’s face suddenly bursts onto the scene, emerging from a chasm that finds distant roots in time and memory, reflecting on anachronisms and avant-garde. A shift in registers and languages distinguishes SANTA, stylistic shifts that fuel contrasts and suggestive conceptual synergies, drifting estrangements that, in touching the social fabric, narrate the future of memory.
Info:
From June 12, 2025 | Reggio Emilia – Reggiane Parco Innovazione
First stage of the project Danze dell’Utopia
Created by Gigi Cristoforetti
Curated by the Centro Choreografico Nazionale/Aterballetto
A project by Nicolas Ballario with choreographic actions by Lara Guidetti
With works by Maurizio Cattelan
She is interested in the visual, verbal and textual aspects of the Modern Contemporary Arts. From historical-artistic studies at the Cà Foscari University, Venice, she has specialized in teaching and curatorial practice at the IED, Rome, and Christie’s London. The field of her research activity focuses on the theme of Light from the 1950s to current times, ontologically considering artistic, phenomenological and visual innovation aspects.
NO COMMENT