Prender-si cura

Prender-si cura is the name of an artistic research and production residency programme devised and curated by Ilaria Mancia, held in La Pelanda spaces in Rome’s Mattatoio. The project explores the concept of artistic residency, seeking to expand its modalities and its possibilities. An invitation addressed to artists and collectives on the contemporary scene to develop their research in various spaces; a venue devoted to experimentation and encounter; a time dedicated to creativity, free from the presentation of a final result.

In continuity with what was experimented during 2020, the residencies are conceived to implement new productive strategies suited to a period characterised by constant change. Reflecting on the relationships at play—artists with curators, artists with artists, artists with the public—analysing them and calling them into question is an important element in the project’s development, as well as imagining new strategies for developing work in conjunction with other players and institutions, with the aim to stimulate co-productions. Rome’s Mattatoio, through the residencies of Prender-si cura project, offers itself as a centre devoted to the performing arts, in which the concepts of care, hospitality, research and production remain crucial: the invitations bring together a galaxy of artists who use different artistic languages—dance, video, music, theatre, visual arts—to explore an expanded concept of “performance.” An invitation that aims to meet a real need for support and that seeks to intercept different generations regardless of age.

Prender-si cura tells its story through a diary, a narrative devoted to the development of artistic research during the residency, an in-depth exploration of a work’s construction phase that is not always readily accessible to external gaze.

A diary that aims to record a constantly fleeting present through the stratification of materials: conversations, letters, texts and images shared with artists and external guests in dialogue.

The second edition of Prender-si cura has started with the residency of choreographer Alessandro Sciarroni for the development of a new work devised for museum spaces, while playwright and sound designer Riccardo Fazi, working together with writer Matteo Nucci for the first time, initiated a dialogue on shared themes and practices.

Among the artists who inhabited La Pelanda spaces are: Brutal Casual Magazine (DJ Lady Maru and photographer Jacopo Benassi); visual artist Valentina Furian who explored the relationship between man and nature for a new video selected for Cantica 21; visual artist Roberto Fassone who used the theatre space to probe the relationship between video installation and choreography for the project that wins the Artists Film Italia Recovery Fund at Lo Schermo dell’Arte Festival; actress and performer Silvia Calderoni and performer, activist and independent researcher Ilenia Caleo; dance-maker and performer Aurelio Di Virgilio who used the performance device to investigate the themes inherent in the relationship between the body and the landscape; writer and visual artist Giulia Crispiani for the development of a new work created in conjunction with singer and composer Patrizia Rotonda.

These were followed by the residencies of: MP5, an artist active in the European underground and counterculture scene; collective ZAPRUDER filmmakersgroup for the preparation of a set performance as part of the work Allegory of Public Happiness, supported by the Italian Council; choreographer and dancer Marina Donatone, who returned to the residency to pursue the investigation of her new work entitled Something kind of hit me today; musician and composer Simone Pappalardo; artist, performer and researcher Sara Leghissa, to develop a work on the relationship between the theatre and exterior space, between fiction and reality, co-produced with FOG Triennale Milano Performing Arts; and The Night Is My Favourite Day, a new production by dancer and choreographer Annamaria Ajmone who will be passing through La Pelanda spaces in the coming months.