IN SHORT ⟶ LOCALES and Short Theatre 2024 co-realise The Community Whistling Choir, outcome of a workshop that the artist Aliaskar Abarkas led at the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome, engaging a group of participants in the study of ancient volumes and in collective vocalisation exercises, developing an imaginary language through the body instrument of whistling.
Short Theatre 2024 collaborates again with LOCALES, sharing two new projects with the programming of If Body 2024 – Living Fragments. The first of these projects will be the outcome of The Community Whistling Choir, a workshop led by Iranian artist Aliaskar Abarkas, held on June 18 and 19 at the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome. The workshop, part of a project initiated by the artist in 2022, focused on the library’s largely unexplored collection of Persian and Arabic manuscripts dating back to the 16th century.
Despite the fact that the paths that led to the inclusion of these volumes in the library’s archives are unknown, their presence reflects both the Catholic Church’s intention to know and collect the surrounding reality in order to be able to control, interpret and, if necessary, repress it, and the erudite vocation of the Dominican Order, which founded and managed the library until 1873. Including religious texts – biblical and Koranic -, grammar treatises, classical Persian epics and manuals on numerology, astrology and magic, the manuscripts are used in the workshop as a starting point for the development of an alternative communicative code through the corporeal instrument of the whistle, explored by the artist as a non-verbal form of expression. Through the study of volumes and collective vocalisation exercises, Abarkas and the workshop participants developed an imaginary language, concretising it into an unprecedented musical composition.
Through the study of the volumes and collective vocal exercises, Abarkas and the workshop participants will work together to develop an imaginary language, thus materializing it into a musical composition. On September 6 and 7, the results of the workshop will be presented in the form of a sound installation within the programming of Short Theatre at the Mattatoio in Rome.
Aliaskar Abarkas (Iran, 1994) is an artist and writer committed to alternative and communal art education, he employs a choreographic and sonic approach to facilitate the dynamic interplay between individuals, guiding a transition from isolated experiences to collective expressions. Through strategic engagement with institutional infrastructures, he proposes and tests methodologies that reimagine the open contexts within which his practice evolves and circulates. In projects like The Whistling Choir, Aliaskar collaborates with diverse creative networks and participants, documenting the process leading to musical compositions, visuals, and performances. Abarkas is the recipient of Castro International Fellowship Award, Rome, 2024 and is currently based at Sadler’s Wells London as a fellow of The Rose Choreographic School. Most recently, he was an associate artist at Rupert (Lithuania), Open School East (UK), the Institute of Postnatural Studies (Spain) and previously, Syllabus V (UK), LUX Critical Forum, The Sonic and Somatic Transdisciplinary Research and Practice Programme, Advanced Practices, The Centre for Arts Design & Social Research, The New Centre for Research & Practice, and the Barbican Centre’s Communities and Neighborhoods.
LOCALES is a curatorial platform that aims to inspire a reflection on the public sphere through artistic practices. Through a series of site-specific programs involving commissions of new artworks, explorations of public spaces, educational activities, and performances, LOCALES addresses the complexity of contemporary urgencies starting from the political and social history of symbolic places in the city and their local communities. The current LOCALES team consists of Sara Alberani, Marta Federici, Chiara Siravo (Curator), Chiara Pagano (Curator of Narratives), Giulia Caruso (Project manager), Alice Albanese Ginammi (intern).
conceived by If Body 24 – Living Fragments
public programme curated by LOCALES
in collaboration with Biblioteca Casanatense and CASTRO Projects
co-realised with Short Theatre 2024
presented at Short Theatre 2024 within Eco:frequenze funded by Next Generation EU
ph. Davide Palmieri / courtesy LOCALES
