Trasformatorio is an annual laboratory for performative arts held in Montelbano Elicona, Sicily. International artists participate in workshops and create site-specific performances inspired by the local landscape, history, and culture. The first edition in 2013 involved artists from several countries creating works using elements like cheesemaking, radio signals, and responsive dance. The goal is to enrich cultural exchange while caring for the local environment and traditions. Plans for 2014 include dividing research into themes and continuing to integrate the community.

1. TRASFORMATORIO
Project summary:
Trasformatorio is about settling and developing an annual laboratory for performative arts
in a remote community in Sicily: Montelbano Elicona (province Messina). This laboratory
focuses on development of innovative site-specific performances and theatre installations,
in close connection with the landscape, history and traditions of the people of Montalbano.
A group of international artists, from various disciplines is invited and selected to
participate in workshops and initiate projects within the community and its surrounding
landscape. Main challenge to the artists is to go ‘back’ to the basic questions of
performative arts in this specific place: ‘what can we be aware of here and transform into a
vital work; a work that shares/communicates a pure reflection on what is present for us
here?’ The topic of sustainability, both of natural landscape and cultural life, follows directly
and organically on these basic questions. Awareness of the place and local culture is
artistic starting point. The ‘transformations’ that we seek, are meant to enrich the cultural
exchange of both the local people and the visiting artists. Artistically ‘reading‘ a place
means in our project: taking care of the place. Therefore we explicitly connect research of
sustainability in site-specific performative arts to the artistic research.
Trasformatorio is conceived by the consort of the University of Messina and the cultural
administration of Montelbano Elicona in collaboration with dramaturg and artistic director
Federico Bonelli.
Trasformatorio springs from the local necessity to create via artistic movement an
enhanced cultural sharing, in a region, that is remote, but full of natural, historical and
traditional resources.
Description of the project
The first edition of Trasformatorio, numbered ‘zero’, has taken place, from April 1-14, 2013.
Artists and art students from various countries participated to one week of workshops and
one week of laboratory. Participants were coming from Italy (14; of whom 7 were Sicilians,
3 residents of The Netherlands and 1 resident of the UK), from Austria (4), from the
Netherlands (4), Great Britain (1), Bulgaria (1) and Slovenia (2).
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2. The activities in these two weeks contained:
1. Establishing the basics (gathering food and all other material necessities) on the
locations where we were working and living. This very basic practical activity was
considered and worked out as one of the means of ‘mapping’ the place and to be
immediately involved with the local people.Therefore the participants set up their own
kitchen and prepared two meals a day using mostly local food and seasonal regional
products. Pans and food were offered by locals. Courtesy exchange with the neighbors
became a habit. For example, a man named Antonio, offered carbon for the fire once
and another day fishes he caught in the lake nearby, in exchange of stories and a glass
of wine. This form of ‘mapping’ resulted in being quickly familiar within the community
(instead of being seen as an isolated group of foreign people). It also brought us in good
contact with other cultural associations, who are using the local theatre, the cinema and
various spaces in the restored medieval castle of Montalbano. Hence, an invitation to
cooperate came from both the artistic director of the summer theatre-program and from
a local association organizing a summer school.
2. Workshops and laboratory that were focused on:
a) Application and development of personal artistic skills for theatrical work that is
essentially site-specific. This is a research of dramaturgy that expresses a truly specific
exchange, responding to the specific environment (= people, history, space) of
Montalbano Elicona. This dramaturgical research involves
b) a technical research on sustainability; an exploration of technical tools that can be used
for a site-specific performances, that help create a theatrical transformation with the
most limited damages to the natural environment.
3. Presentation of the research in discussions, speeches, performances and installations.
The explorations of the artists were communicated to different audiences, in different
ways, according to the content, character and state of development of ideas and
performance material.
The following descriptions give some examples of the activities that emerged out of
Trasformatorio nr. 0 :
Cheese: Elles Kiers, a dutch artist that uses knowledge on ways to prepare food as
background research for art installations or performances, adding her view to it, was
involved in a research about cheese making. In a previous trip we met a local cheese
maker, Ezio. He showed us how he makes a cheese called provolone from the milk of his
own cows. It included traditional ways of taking track of important parameters in the
fabrication. For example the old way to decide about the temperature of the milk was the
sound that a stick, made out of a particular type of wood, makes against the border of the
pan. It changes exactly at the right temperature, so that a thermometer was not necessary.
Elles was inspired by his work to explore cheese making in Montalbano and set to make
her own version of the cheese from the same milk. Ezio gave us 30 liters of milk from
which Elles made 3 kinds of soft cheeses in the shape of eggs. Cheeses were presented
in an installation into the higher of the castle’s towers and fed to the spectators. After this,
in collaboration with participant artist Emanuela Ravida, Elles offered us a “milking”
performance with the left over of the milk.
In response to Elles’ research, a very interesting gathering took place: an afternoon with
the community’s elderly people, where they offered us to teach how to make traditional
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3. pasta. We shared songs, stories, local folklore and the get together ended up in
spontaneous performances by the villagers and the artists alike, sharing of painting, dance
steps, food.
Antenna: Sicilian artists Aldo Cesar Faga and Gabriele Zaverio set themselves up to
transform the castle into a horizontal antenna, to bring to senses invisible and omnipresent
“life signs” that travel the atmosphere’s radio spectrum. They laid a hundred of meters of
wire divided in 9 threads, precisely aligned with psycho geographical lay-lines in the
structure, and tuned them up carefully as an antenna. They proceeded then to listen to the
stratosphere-bounced signals on vintage radio equipment and used the sounds to create
various types of soundscapes, improvise music with other participants and listen to
invisible waves in the area. The installation generated a lot of curiosity in the locals. In a
first stage some data coming in a live streaming from the bottom of the sea in front of
Catania was presented in audiovisual form and explained by Aldo Faga. In a second stage
passers by were mesmerized by the dark corner full of vintage radio gear and apparatus
operated by a silent Gabriele Zaverio and the resulting soundscape. The experiment was
replicated in a different form, in the daytime, in the archeological site of the Argimusco,
with a different antenna design, in a setup completely solar powered.
Body sounds: a collaboration between dancer Federica Dauri, composer and media artist
Alberto Novello and media artist Anton ... The experiment generated and was set up
during the laboratory. The artists got inspired by eachothers work and combined the
approaches to prototype the idea. They explored the possibility of tracking realtime
acceleration and body positions to rule a sound composition. They tried it out in different
environments in the castle and in different atmospheres. What appeared is a synesthetic
soundscape responsive to the dancers improvisation. While moving she generates and
modulates all fragments and sounds; this gives her themes and ideas for further
improvisation, in a mutually and visually surprising feedback loop. The ideas were
documented on the fly by other participants and are expanding in further collaboration
projects spanning from The Netherlands to Austria. The entire installation was battery
powered and the batteries were charged by solar panels. It is therefore conceived as a
highly transportable device for performing in remote areas.
Procession: the days before the start of Trasformatorio the traditional procession of the
Holy Friday took place. The inhabitants of Montalbano told us great marvels about their
tradition of “Venerdi Santo”, and explained to us also that, to their discontent, the actual
priest had forbidden them to do the re-enactment of the sacrifice of Christ. Spontaneously
some participant artists were invited to transport the heavy statues of the saints around the
village. The procession issued with these unlikely carriers was an inspiring success. Many
discussions followed between the artists and the locals.
The night of the first general public presentation (6th of April) the idea of the procession
took a different form in the castle. The artists had gotten used to walk in its rooms in the
darkness of the night, while usually public is not admitted after dark.
The performance started with a seated audience, as in a conference. An explanation of the
work of the first week was given. When a performer enters unexpectedly from a window
and performs with a prepared piano, a different situation arises. A performer, moving like a
bunny, enters in to invite everyone to rise from their chairs and follow him in a walk through
the castle. The audience follows him from the one installation or happening to the other.
The visit is done in the dark, as in a procession, station to station, with stages connected
by simple strategies (lighting, sound, character movement). Very unexpected by
participants, it gave rise to many interesting comments. One of the participants talked
about “walking into a dream state”. It gave a totally different and unexpected experience of
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4. their own well known historical space. We learned later by the elders that before
restoration the castle, then in labyrinthian ruins, had been the favorite location for the
children to play games.
Ulysses: following the experience made during a workshop on instant composition and
bodyworks, choreographer Maria Eugenia De Meglio and director Francesco Piotti set
themselves into using all available artists to set up a performance in the castle open air
theatrical space. The dramaturgy has been proposed by Francesco. A transposition of the
history of Ulysses to “modern time and sensibility”. The story is set into images and actions
and presented all around the audience. As themes of the play unemployment and social
struggle are expressed in a symbolic form. For example when “the rich man” feeds the
young people of Ithaca with food they are not allowed to eat, and then with the leftovers of
their food, thrown to them as if they are dogs.
Some elements of the two weeks research re-emerge in the play: real time translation in
sounds of actions, collective movements, text and props. Lighting of the play and
costumes are improvised with what is found in the castle and adapted with the local
neighbors help. At the end of the performance the audience are moved into getting on
stage and dancing with the actors. An unlikely action for an audience that is used to
theatre that keeps spectators and actors in separate spaces.
A summary of the artistic activities of Trasformatorio ‘zero’:
- 2 presentation days in the castle of Montalbano open to the public (6 and 13th of april)
- a 20’ performance presented to local audience,
- documented experiments in projection mapping,
- interactive performance design,
- ambient installation,
- ritual theater,
- radio installation,
- video installation,
- painting,
- photography and digital compositing,
- food installation and presentation,
- storytelling,
- musical and dance improvisation and composition.
- solar power experiments
Tasformatorio number one 2014
At the end of Trasformatorio number zero we were invited by the major and the inviting
bodies to repeat the event in 2014.
Documentation and evaluation of the work followed, taking place mainly on our group list,
in one on one chats and personal talks and on the website. General satisfaction about the
flow of the event and it’s content has been expressed by most of the guests and
participants alike, together with suggestions and propositive criticism.
The pool of international artists that are connected to the inner circle of trasformatorio grew
up to 54 units (April 2013). this group includes the artists that have participated to the
number zero.
We intend to divide our research for number one into 4 general areas of interest and, with
the help of external founding, to be able to offer within a international call for proposal the
chance to participate with their own research topics to trasformatorio.
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5. Proposal should contribute to the planned activity of focus groups and for a subset of
participants shall be open the possibility to be part of any interest groups within their own
research in the lab. In the preparation to the events we shall promote also study groups
and workshops and bring our experience into the next residency in Montalbano.
The trajectory seen for trasformatorio in the next years will treasure on the experience of
it’s first group of artists and on some lessons learned.
a) The environment and the community has the strongest and most important appeal on
makers and invited artists work, so the formalized learning part loses it’s importance in the
context of trasformatorio. Technical workshops on site should be replaced with thematic
meetings in the form of groups of work and study, to be organized before the main event
and whose resulting output can be part of the backpack of experiences and tools that
artists carry with them on site.
b) Sustainability as evolved from being a general technical aspect of the research to a
multi layered approach that includes production guidelines, founding strategies, technical
givens with specifications and future research themes, surprisingly even more in a
dramaturgical context than in a technical one.
c) The integration and mutual recognizance with the local culture and its landscape will
continue in different forms.
d) Stories of local folklore had been collected by first hand accounts and from independent
researchers busy with the location that we encountered in the first trip, and most of the
discussions have been recorded in audio by Gabriele Zaverio.
Trasformatorio number one shall approach the local “space of stories”, experimenting with
a guest group of writers and storytellers as participants of next trasformatorio number one.
This space could transform in many ways and become part of other stories, a event that is
of great interest.
As an example some elements of this activity could be part of radio transmissions both in
FM and streaming, and other audible transformation prone work. A mini FM radio
broadcast over the area could be one of the themes of the “sensing the invisible” sessions,
as it has been TTY transmission for number zero’s activities.
e) The archeo-astronomical data collected about the close by locations, the presences of
clear and suggestive star alignments is in my opinion of great interest and inspirational
value to explore many different kind of structures. From patterns of recurrence that can be
investigated from algorithms for generative compositions to dramaturgical analysis alike.
This could be one of the themes for further research on witch to design our future “call for
artists”.
f) It is of interest to arrange our communication to allow participation to artists of the
southern side of the mediterranean, including the Magreb nations and the arab talking
cultures. We wish to propose our laboratory in Sicily also as a open space of encounter
and investigation to different types of artists. A gate for north-south collaborations and also
for south-south and east-west alike.
g) Already in trasformatorio number zero has been absorbing a great deal of attention to
integrate as many as possible artists and circuits from the region, and to establish
connection with curators and theaters of the area. Both to be able to propose them our
type of performance and to get to know better the type of art sicilian artists make the best.
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6. This activity shall be continued and potentiated and some small founding dedicated also to
this exploration.
h) Observations generated by the movement in day and night and various weather
conditions inside the castle or in the open areas around the Argimusco suggested many
themes of research: low intensity lighting and sound is one of the most promising for our
performative purposes. Observers that instead of getting into a dark artificial space from
light, goes thought the experience of walking at night in the open, have time to adapt their
senses to the environment. Small movements in the background of a landscape in the
moonlight can become gigantic. Very low intensity light still retain the qualities of a big
effect, and same goes for localized sound that uses the structure of the natural
resonances of the space. These observation defines a field of study and application that
asks for invention, new design and unconventional approaches. Is our intention to prepare
some of these to be put on test in trasformatorio number one.
Trasformatorio as a lab is for production and collective investigation has always to include
presentation and performance. Number zero contains in itself many works that will
continue into collaboration works. It would be interesting to be able to follow these
collaborations and be part of their development. Forms to facilitate it should be a theme of
discussion in the months ahead.
Some notes about the production of trasformatorio zero:
Trasformatorio number zero has been produced totally by voluntary work, a total
disponibility by the city of Montalbano Elicona to reduce to the maximum the cost of our
permanence on site and resources freely made available by participating artists. Money for
general expenses, workshops materials and simply to buy the food and gasoline for
transportation was used as a last resource and was overall very scarce.
We proved to our surprise that we could feed in Montalbano 25 people with less than 3
euros per persona per day with a variety and abundance of food simply improvising a
kitchen. All participants happily volunteered in tasks for the community, from driving the car
to pick up people at the airport to washing dishes, to cook dinner or simply to help one
each other to realize their piece or performance.
Two guidelines were issued by me about our chances to succeed, right before the
beginning of the trasformatorio:
The first is that money, like sugar, tends to speed up processes, generates a fast
metabolism, but is not always the best solution neither the healthier one.
The second, to remind us of the way to sustain the effort, was to think about the story of
the soups with stones.
Some poor “artists in flee” get to a village in the middle of winter, and they have nothing to
eat. The villagers look to them with suspect and no one approaches them. So the leader of
the artists sets up a big pot full of water, lights a fire, and start making soup putting in the
water only a pocket of white stones. The paisans curious come out and one of them ask:
“what is this soup?”
“A soup made of stones” answers the man. “Well, the recipe includes a bit of cabbage and
other ingredients, but we have none, we will eat it as it is”...
So the paisan, curious about the soup of stones, brings some cabbage, and another one a
onion, and a third one a piece of sausage and some potatoes. When the soup is ready the
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7. “artist” takes out the stones and puts them back in the pocket and everyone is too busy
eating that good soup together to mind a bit about the trick.
They eat, and another artist takes out a violin, and a big party follows in the winter night...
This is exactly the way we managed to produce such a beautiful and inspiring
trasformatorio number zero.
WHAT SHALL COME AFTER?
a) Trasformatorio will grow into a stichting (a no profit foundation) based in The Nederland
and continue it’s main activity to grow as a laboratory.
b) It’s technical outcomes will be released on open content licenses and in the form of
innovative site specific performances and art projects.
c) will look for partnerships in performance, design and cultural institutions
d) will apply for public founding that will be used to sustain it’s activities
e) will search for endorsement from local government, private local business and other
form of micro financing of activities.
f) It will not use sponsoring as a form of sustainable founding.
g) will improve exchange through it’s network of friends and fellow researchers
h) will propagate it’s artistic work through the available channels and support the works
that are fruits of collaborations vorn and documented in trasformatorio
i) will refine it’s vision through field work, study and trial and error
Written in Vejano (VT) end of April 2013
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