Can we be a superorganism again? A vast body free to stay or detach itself and then return?
Mixtures, attractions, slips, collective and intimate agreements: MERENDEXSHORT is back to softly invade the internal and external spaces of the Angelo Mai to celebrate the last evening of Short Theatre 2023—Radical Sympathy.
Covered with carpets, cloths, fabrics and symbols, MERENDE is the temporary occupation of a space and time. The principles of sharing, offering and hospitality shape artistic practice and being together. What is offered at Merende is a safe zone that opens to elsewhere. A public place to take off your shoes, stop, recognize yourself, get confused, start transformations. A party where escape becomes an act of resistance.
During Merende it is possible to get tattooed, get lost in DJ and live sets, receive advice for uncomfortable messages or impossible projects, transform oneself, learn different types of divination.
In this new edition conceived for Short Theatre 2023, MERENDEXSHORT is ready to embrace you in a non-stop flow of sounds, offerings and intensity where, in addition to residents of the MERENDE, there are extra-ordinary presences including Louisa Yousfi author of Restare barbari. I selvaggi all’assalto dell’impero (DeriveApprodi 2023) and hip-hop queer star Cakes da Killa.
h 7 pm
Restare barbari. I selvaggi all’assalto dell’impero (Remaining Barbarian. The savages assaulting the empire), published by Derive Approdi, 2023
Louisa Yousfi presents her book in dialogue with Malek Bahri, Ilenia Caleo and Maddalena Fragnito, in convergence with the Arts Module of the Master in Gender Studies and Policies at Roma Tre, Sarah Di Nella translates from French.
Line up:
∴ CAKES DA KILLA (live)
∴ LILLHEE
∴ PLAYGIRLS FROM CARACAS
∴ QURSARINA
∴ BUNNY DAKOTA feat EGEENO
∴ SANDRA MASON
∴ MARY GEHNYEI
Industria Indipendente is a visual and performing arts collective founded by Erika Z. Galli and Martina Ruggeri. Over the years they experimented with various languages and practises: from the creation of performances to long-running happenings, from installations to writing for theatres, museums, independent and unconventional venues. Their works reflect on the relationship between humans and nature, the dimension of unproductive time, the construction of alternative and fictional worlds where communities and alliances can be created, and the constant overturning and recreating of individual and collective identities. Their latest work, Klub Taiga (Dear Darkness) debuted at the 48th edition of Biennale Teatro (Venice, September 2020) and became a concert and a record (NERO edizioni, 2022), a movie (by visual artist Rä Di Martino) and an installation for exhibition venues (Fondazione Sandretto, Torino-Palazzo Guarene, May-July 2022).
MERENDE is a resident project at Angelo Mai since 2018 and has traveled through places and contexts – ITZ/Berlin, Nobody/Milan, Fondamenta/Matera, etc. – manifesting itself in different forms, ready to overturn one into the other.
MERENDE hosted, among the others: Moor Mother, Jack Halberstam, Lina Pallotta, Front De Cadeaux, Eva Geist, BNSSR, Steve Pepe, Yva &Toy George, Deux Control, OpaOpa aka Invasioni Balcaniche, Hugo Sanchez, Salvo Lombardo, Matteo Islandezu, JA, TOMBOYS DON’T CRY, Baby Dee, Lady Maru, Capibara, Karima 2G, Bosco Marino, Qursarina, Tropicantesimo, Luwei, Laura Marongiu, La Diferencia, Sandra Mason, Mary Gehnyei, ecc.
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Louisa Yousfi is a journalist and animates the political blog ‘Paroles d’honneur‘. Born from Algerian parents who immigrated to France, with this book she denounces the assimilationist conflict that the policies of French institutions have not ceased to fuel for at least half a century.
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Cakes Da Killa is a leading figure of the queer hip-hop explosion in New York that took place in 2011. His witty flow and unapologetic delivery helped push him to the forefront of discussion as the media’s interest in LGBTQ+ visibility and themes in hip-hop heightened. He remains a staple for alternative voices in music, promoting black excellence as well as LGBTQ+ visibility garnering the MC praise from the likes of Red Bull, Afropunk and The Fader. Mixing 90’s grit with high energy club beats Cakes’ unique persona quickly cemented him as one of the most dynamic lyricists to hit airwaves fusing hip-hop, electronic and dance. On October 28th 2022 Cakes Da Killa released his long-awaited second album Svengali, available via the TOKiMONSTA-owned label Young Art Records. Always a brutally (and hilariously) unfiltered voice, the album sees Cakes bringing a new layer of vulnerability and depth to his writing, charting the vicissitudes of love in and out of the club. Svengali dials back the manic, rave-till-dawn energy in favor of beats by producer Sam Katz that offer more subtle moods, as well as a jazz influence that connects Cakes to the early days of queer culture that bubbled up out of New York jazz clubs and the sonically ambitious jazz lovers who pioneered house music.
ph. Carolina Farina
