This project investigates the various expressions of non-verbal 'paralanguage' in European countries in a search for possible intercultural communication models. It proceeds from the conviction that, in seeking a 'European Identity' and a common heritage for European citizens, the gesture, as the primary form of human communication (although deeply influenced by the specificity of each local context) can be considered to be at the core of this identity.

The project's starting point is that the language of gesture is natural and common to all people – and therefore to all nations. This language contains some expressions whose meaning is universal. However, local context and a country's 'culture' deeply influence all aspects of everyday life, including non-verbal communication. On this basis, art can help to uncover a 'European identity' and create new forms of communication and languages, which are urgently needed in contemporary European society.

The project enables young artists from different European countries and artistic fields (dance, theatre, visual arts) to focus on the theme of gesture (as influenced by by their personal sensibilities and artistic and cultural backgrounds) in an exploration of new forms of intercultural communication. Coordinated by some major artists, they propose exhibitions, meetings, performances and work: these are collected and shared on a Web platform that is constantly enriched by contributions from other interested European artists.

The result is the creation of a network of artists who can share their experiences and knowledge through an interactive medium. An additional outcome is a Web platform that helps artists to keep in touch and communicate in spite of cultural differences and geographical distance.

How did it all start?

The initiative started in May 2004 at the Festival Fabbrica Europa. This hosted the first informal meeting of the partners of the project 'The gesture in the cultural heritage of Europe', which originated in Procida and Florence in September 2003 from an idea shared by Maria Gloria Conti Bicocchi, Maurizia Settembri and Paolo Atzori. The first proposal for specific projects were outlined: dance, visual arts, theatre, documentary video research. The project was supported by an innovative working methodology that used an online collaborative platform.

In order to define a 'European cultural identity', it is important to define also the notion of cultural diversity in its social and political aspects. Focusing on the theme of the gesture, the project considers the theoretical debate on this topic, from its origins to the present day. The main question posed is: Is the gestural code part of human nature and therefore common to all societies, or does it depend on the specifics of environment (thereby being a codified behavioural form)?

Answering this basic question involves theoretical studies as well as artistic research and performances.

Aims of the project

The main aim of the project is to understand the role of the gesture as a common heritage of the peoples of Europe.

From a theoretical point of view, the project analyses the development of studies on the gesture, presenting the results of this analysis in a series of studies, meetings and conferences. The active field research involved creates a 'catalogue' of gestures - with examples collected from different countries - organised in a 'visual library in movement' (to use the name of a particular exhibit).

Workshops, work-in-progress and productions developed within the project promote the creativity of young artists, working in different artistic fields (theatre, cinema, visual arts), in relation to the theme of gesture. The fact that artists come from different European countries assists the transnational diffusion of culture through the creation of collaborative networks. Moreover, the online collaboration platform enables project partners and artists to share their contributions in any digital form, update materials and keep constantly informed. The network and the digital medium chosen also make dialogue with cultures from outside Europe easier, thereby enriching the cultural exchange.

Last but not least, the involvement of different cultural fields and the interchange between media arts and scientific research contributes to the creation of new forms of entertainment.

Organisational methods

Each project partner takes charge of a phase's concept and development:

Studies, meetings and conferences: coordination by Artefactory 41.14, in collaboration with Adam Kendon, University of Naples and Giovanni Manetti, University of Siena;

Genealogy: coordinated by Artefactory 41.14, directed by Maria Gloria Conti Bicocchi;

Interface: coordinated by Fabbrica Europa and Artefactory 41.14, under the direction of Paolo Atzori, and realised by the Open Lab/Florence;

Visual Arts: coordinated by Fabbrica Europa, in collaboration with Oxymoron (Athens), in association with Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (Thessaloniki) and Quarter (Florence);

Dance: coordinated by the Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, directed by James Tyson, in association with Le Fresnoy Studio National des Arts Contemporaines (France);

Cinema and Theater: coordinated by Mercat de les Flors, Barcelona, directed by Andres Morte Teres, in collaboration with Escuela de Cine de Cataluña, Artefactory 41.14, Procida, Nuovo Teatro Nuovo, Naples;

Dissemination: coordinated by Muzeum, Ljubljana, in collaboration with Fabbrica Europa/Florence and the participation of all the co-organisers.

Trans-border cooperation issues

The project begins from the principle that the quality of knowledge depends on the mobility and accessibility of ideas. This is why there is a common – virtual – 'place' for discussion and comparison between the artists involved, as well as a 'real' place for cultural production on the Island of Procida, where the centre that belongs to the Italian partner Artefactory 41.14 studies new forms of spectacle and hosts workshop cycles.

The aim is to create a network among structures, groups and theatres which allows those involved to compare their experiences and create new ones, show new ideas and productions, and build active collaboration and exchange.

Research areas

The genealogy of gesture

The first part of the project focuses on the genealogy of gesture, presented from an anthropological point of view and involving artists who belong to different fields (sculpture, video art, theatre). The city of Naples is taken as the point of reference for this research, for in Naples elaborate gestural expression has long been a part of cultural heritage (this has been systematically studied in the past).

Actors' performances and video works provide illustrations of Neapolitan gestural expression, which are contrasted with gestural expressions from other places, remote both geographically and culturally. This shows unexpected differences, but also surprising similarities.

link: http://www.gestureineurope.net/25.page

Interface

The collaborative platform favours interdisciplinary activity, offering an extendable and flexible working environment that provides a personalised workspace.

An intuitive interface, which hides complexity while providing access to sophisticated functionality, enables the European partners to build, deploy and update an information environment on the Internet and improve the process of browsing, searching, modelling, and publishing online.
link: http://www.gestureineurope.net/32.page

Visual arts

The outcome of exploration in this field is an exhibition on the gesture in the visual arts: an exhibition-in-progress which brings together a fluid mix of physical, emotional, personal, political and social gestures made by artists from the 1960s to the present day.

Assembled in a non-linear way, the various 'documents' are presented in the form of a visual library which provides a site of exchange, pleasure and investigation, challenging the conventional codes of visual art history. The final concept of the exhibition 'The Gesture: A visual library in progress' is a critical presentation intended to provoke a physical and mental 'displacement'. Here the public can find paradigms of gesture that cross geographical and cultural borders.

link: http://www.gestureineurope.net/40.page#

Dance

Movement - a sequence of gestures - is the language in which the body expresses itself. Workshop activities will examine the influence that outside space (both the urban dimension and the virtual world) has on the gestural heritage of this art form.

Using contemporary European dance (workshops, work in progress, performances, the production of new shows), the research sets out to analyse the coincidences and contrasts of body gesture.

link: http://www.gestureineurope.net/47.page

Between cinema and theatre

Although an interchange exists between new technologies (cinema, audiovisual) and the live performance, no real means of 'intertwining' the two disciplines has yet been found. The stage and the cinema must co-exist, 'stealing' from one another, feeding off reciprocal experiences to pinpoint the expression of a gesture, word, sensation, and to occupy a space that has the potential for new dimensions.

This research aims to create a strong synergy between cinema directors and players (actors and dancers), so that identities representing separate and differing concepts of the artistic event may learn to work together.

link: http://www.gestureineurope.net/54.page

Dissemination

Throughout the project, monitoring and a series of meetings ensure continuous collaboration between partners and guarantee the communication and dissemination of research results.

The aim is to communicate the theoretical and practical results achieved during all the actions planned within the project, with the participation of all the partners and artists who have taken part, as well as international experts.

link:
http://www.gestureineurope.net/61.page

CREATING A NETWORK (by Maurizia Settembri)

'We really worked to create a true network; in fact, each phase of the work had a reference structure and a manager who was an expert of that field. If this person was not suitable for the work, somebody else could be chosen instead (and this has happened). So all the people involved gave their best because they believed in what they were doing. Everything was done for a precise reason.

The network among the participants to the project is still working and is active, also because it collected institutions and professionals who really wanted to work together on a common project, and knew each other for some time. And this is still going on. We often meet, write, try to work together again on other projects.

A spin-off of this project was the "Rete del contemporaneo di Firenze" (Florence network of the contemporary), which brought together Fabbrica Europa, Quarter, Cantieri Goldonetta, Tempo Reale and Comune di Firenze – Archivio dei giovani artisti. Concerning dance, co-productions involving Fabbrica Europa and Charter-Cardiff are ongoing; concerning theatre, an Italian-Spanish network was created; concerning the visual arts, we are thinking about new co-productions with Slovenia and Greece.

The two-year project Gesture in Europe has contributed to the creation of a real network, so that in 2006 the EU recognised Fabbrica Europa for Contemporary Arts as an institution promoting European culture.'

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

About the project:

The platform was built to facilitate the work of the artists and other participants (coordinators, experts, students), and also to collect all the data (texts, pictures, etc.) and make it available to everyone.

Building the platform took quite some time, for several reasons: the project manager (Paolo Atzori) requested a number of adaptations from Open Lab in order to attain a product as perfect as possible. This meant that the platform was ready only a few months before the project's end. The ever-busy operators need time to learn how to use new technological instruments.

The communication platform proved to be a very useful tool for collecting, promoting and documenting work, and made it easier to find data and information.

About partners’ expectations:

Dialogue between the different partners proved quite difficult at first, but improved as the project developed and opportunities to meet in person arose.

About funding:

The project was very ambitious in terms of funding, and so it was hard to find sufficient funds.

Local co-funding was especially hard to achieve in countries such as Italy, Greece and Slovenia: in the end, some new partners joined the project: Teatro Nuovo (helping the young association, Artefactory of Procida), CanGo-Cantieri Goldonetta (providing spaces and practical assistance for dance, together with Quarter for the visual arts), the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Arts of Thessaloniki (which gave more visibility to the exhibition, working with Oximoron – Athens).

Synergies and cost reduction were achieved in other practical ways too, such as printing the catalogue in Greece.

The interactive platform

The interactive platform is available online at http://www.gestureineurope.net. A new one, better fitted to the activities of Fabbrica Europa Foundation, is currently in development. The new platform, which will be called http://www.ffeac.org, should allow the Foundation to maintain an archive and manage information in a more efficient way. It will be linked to the Fabbrica Europa web-site (http://www.fabbricaeuropa.net): this already contains all information concerning workshops, meetings, projects and events in Italy and in Europe.

The platform's visitors are above all artists, cultural operators, students and professionals. It is a platform that is useful for practical work and for documentation.

Beyond the idea… (by Maria Gloria Conti Bicocchi)

'What can I say about the intuition of making the gesture the topic for a European project? I have always been fascinated by the wide range of possibilities offered by the gesture: from its communicating function – a pre-linguistic function, I should say – and its almost universal possibility of reading, to the sophistication of the artistic gesture, to the utility of some elementary gestures, to the pure aesthetic of others… so from the sharing of some “primary” gestures to the individualism of others related only to a specific tradition, to a culture.

I have great interest in reading a posteriori the materials we collected, with structuralist criteria: a stripe where it is possible to spotlight the semantic switch of some “common” gestures according to the places where they have been registered, a sort of anthropologic study which, beyond the word, might put into evidence the cultural and geographical diversities of the same expressive movement.'