Performing heritage: Boris Charmatz [terrain] at the Museo delle Civiltà
Along the pathway leading to a multispecies museum, the Museo delle Civiltà has recently undertaken a progressive musealization of the litho-mineralogy and historical collections of the Geological Survey of Italy, on multiannual free loan from the ISPRA (Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research). The exhibition The ISPRA geo-paleontology and litho-mineralogy collections. Animals, Plants, Rocks and Minerals > Steps to a Multispecies Museum (Collezioni ISPRA - Museo delle Civiltà (cultura.gov.it)), which opened on 14th December 2022, is the first chapter in this process.
Conceived as a taxonomy and an introduction to the history and research methods, the exhibition launches a historical and critical review of these collections, which are interpreted
«as a possible premise of a multi-species anthropological museum, i.e. one that documents the forms of co-existence between animal, mineral, and vegetable species to contribute to a resetting of our relationship with the ecosystem in which human beings may coexist with other species» (source: Press release)
On the occasion of the opening, a performative evening took place with Boris Charmatz [terrain]’s Extracts from “20 Dancers for the XX Century and even more”.
Boris Charmatz’s famous piece was
performed in Rome for the first time, in a rearranged version for the spaces of
the Museum. The performance represents a living archive of dance, mixing styles
and genres from the last century to the present day. In Boris Charmatz own
words, «each performer presents their own museum;
the body is the ultimate space for a dance museum. More than heritage, this
project is about a kind of archaeology; it seeks to extract gestures from the
past, gestures that are restored, reinterpreted by the dancers in the present.
It is research, an investigation, a museological approach of a new kind».
In the Museo delle Civiltà five dancers appropriated and reinterpreted famous, acclaimed or forgotten solos by modern or post-modern artists. Their personal “archives” were shared with the public who was engaged in the exploration, even construction, of a multisided relationship with the dancers, the ISPRA collections, the Museum’s halls.
The event not only celebrated the history of dance, but also outlined an ideal taxonomy of human gestures and expressions, thus integrating with the conceptualization of the ISPRA collections and those of the Museum. Within the process of progressive yet radical revision that the Museo delle Civiltà has started, this interplay of different disciplines aims to rediscuss the hierarchy that legimitises dominant categories, in favor of coexistence and dialogue.
Extracts from “20 Dancers for the XX Century and even more” was perfomed by Boglárka Börcsök, Néstor García Díaz, Fabrice Mazliah, Benjamin Pech, Julie Anne Stanzak
