Music and art get together hand in hand to draw attention to the issues of migrants and integration. An artistic-social venture which will be celebrated from 18th to 20th October, at the Ariston Theatre in Sanremo, which will host the Tenco Award 2018. The Tenco Club, organizing the event, has in fact chosen “Migrans – Men, ideas, music” as the motto/theme on which the Festival and its initiatives are centred. The guests selected to participate all have a strong link to “migrations” in the broadest sense of the term. The scenography itself is in reference to the theme: Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Venus of the Rags will be on stage on every evening of the Festival, as an “active” background to the performances and collateral events.
The protagonists
To further stress the theme of the Festival, different musical genres and styles will alternate on stage, with classical songwriting as their common denominator. Here are some of the names of the protagonists: Zucchero, Simone Cristicchi, Tosca, Adamo, Elisa, Willie Peyote, Lo Stato Sociale, Neri Marcorè and Edoardo De Angelis (please click here for the detailed programme); presenting will be Antonio Silva e Marco Castoldi, better known as Morgan. Among the guests there will be Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini (please click here for an interview with the sociologist), who will receive the “Tenco Award for cultural operator”. Adamo and Zucchero will be presented with the “International Tenco Award” and the “Italian Tenco Award” respectively.
The Venus of the Rags on the road
With its presence at the 42nd Songwriting Festival, the work by the artist from Biella continues its special socio-cultural journey (please click here, here and here for more info) which has brought Pistoletto’s installation to numerous Italian cities: from Biella to Rome, from Lampedusa to Ventimiglia, from Bolzano to Sanremo. The choice of cities is not random: in each place the work has left an artistic and social trace on the theme of bodies and borders. Besides Pistoletto’s home town, where the work was created, the Venus of the Rags has visited different “border zones”, where the migratory phenomenon is a hot topic. All the transfers and relative installations of the work have been managed by Michelangelo Pistoletto’s and Cittadellarte’s staff and the coordinators of the Third Paradise project.
The opening events
This afternoon, the Venus of the Rags will be presented at the Tenco Club, in the course of a conference in which Anna Pironti (Head of the Educational Department Castello di Rivoli) and Paola Zanini (project manager of the same museum) will talk about the peculiarities of Michelangelo Pistoletto’s work, followed by a speech by Don Rito Alvarez, a key figure in the project of the Venus at Ventimiglia (please click here for info). The programme of the Tenco Award doesn’t in fact only include evening music performances, but also afternoon events related to the themes of the Festival.
The comment of the artistic director
“The title Migrans – explained Sergio Secondiano Sacchi, artistic director of the Tenco Club – doesn’t only refer to the theme of migratory fluxes, which are the main topic of the afternoon talks and of Pistoletto’s work as a scenographic device, but to everything related to the crossing of boundaries, which can be temporary, geographical, linguistic, cultural, musical. Hence men, ideas, music”.
An interview with Steven Forti
We talked to Steven Forti, member of Club Tenco’s board of directors, about the contents of the event, and he said to us: “In the last few years, the Tenco Award has organized themed festivals, as the initiative doesn’t only include musical shows, but a whole programme of activities carried out throughout the year. This edition, besides the evening performances, will in fact also feature a series of books, afternoon conferences, a masterclass called “At School with Gaber” and much more”. A series of initiatives dedicated to this year’s theme, as Forti explains: “We will highlight a current social phenomenon through the history of songwriting, so as to provoke a wide spectrum of reflections on the macro-theme of the Festival. The issue of migrants is in fact at the centre of a European and Italian socio-political debate”. The organizers are approaching the theme of the Festival with a positive outlook: “The title ‘Migrans – Men, ideas, music’ conveys the message we want to communicate. In this regards, the Venus of the Rags will be at the centre of the event because it mirrors the hospitality we want to promote and support”.
A strong and well-defined position leading to Forti’s comments about the events in Riace (please see our previous article for further info): “What happened in the Calabrian city – concludes Forti – is extremely emblematic. It’s madness not to allow Mimmo Lucano to set foot in his city, let alone the circular letter issued by the Ministry of the Interior: our new government wants to destroy an exemplary model for the whole world. And to think that we would have liked to invite Lucano as a guest to our event…”
The Songwriting Festival (Tenco Award 2018), organized by the Tenco Club with the contribution of the City of Sanremo, SIAE (the Italian copyright collecting agency), Casinò di Sanremo, Regione Liguria, the Chamber of Commerce of the Liguria Rivieras, Coop Liguria and the Royal Hotel, will run from 18th to 20th October at the Ariston Theatre in Sanremo.
Please see www.clubtenco.it, www.premiotenco.it and www.aristonsanremo.com for further info.
