Xenos. Performance Festival - November 15 Program

Giacomo Luci
Being in the Gaze
site-specific performance by and with Giacomo Luci

Chapel of the Manto – IV floor
from 16:00 to 18:00
Duration 2 hours

Sees and is seen, feels and is felt
Today's sensitive device with Giacomo Luci starts again from the previous day's experience with Marta Ciappina and the audience. Here, the performer gathers what was experienced, attempting a synthesis between the gazes to return his own relationship with the photographs of Olivo Barbieri, the Chapel of the Manto, and the facing Cathedral.

Giacomo Luci dancer, performer, and choreographer. Begins as a soloist at the Rome Opera House with the classical repertoire, then continues at the Opéra de Lyon engaging with the contemporary dance of Forsythe, Bausch, Cunningham, Childs, and Brown. Since 2018, he has developed his own choreographic research presented at international festivals, and in 2025 he will work with Millepied, Chamblas, Tanowitz, and the bullyache collective.

Olivo Barbieri is among the most important contemporary Italian photographers. Active since 1978, since 1989 he has traveled regularly to the East, in particular China. In the 1990s, he took part in various editions of the Venice Biennale and numerous international events. In 1996, the Museum Folkwang in Essen dedicated a retrospective to him. Famous for his Site Specific projects, he has transformed the urban landscape into unparalleled visions exhibited in the world’s main museums.

Free admission, continuous flow

Delfina Stella
Two Bodies
Workshop for girls and boys freely inspired by Italo Calvino’s Fan Theatre 
by and with Delfina Stella

Children’s Art Museum - IV  floor
from 16:00 to 17:30
Duration 1 hour 30 min.

Two Bodies is a double meeting to explore, through the body, new ways of seeing, touching, and inventing. Visible and invisible objects will guide the creation of instant dances, in dialogue between the museum and the city. A playful and creative experience between movement and imagination.

Delfina Stella is a dancer and researcher active in the field of arts pedagogy and ecology. Through choreography, movement research, writing, and play, she creates training and performance actions and contexts that intertwine being and doing, seeking—in theory and in practice—how the languages of body and dance can be tools for coexistence and enhancement of cultural and environmental heritage.

14 places available upon reservation - from ages 7 to 10

Alessandra Cristiani & Jacopo Giarda
In Teodora Axente’s Gaze 
active performance by and with  Alessandra Cristiani & Jacopo Giarda 
based on the works of Teodora Axente

Exhibition Halls - VI floor
from 18:00 to 20:00
first performance at 18:00, repeats at 18:30, 19:00, 19:30, and 20:00
Duration 10 min

The gaze that re-looks

Everything is at play in the improvisation that arises from the gaze the performers put into play while observing the works of the Spanish-born Belgian artist. They explore the possibilities of free improvisation as a place of interaction between the body that observes and acts, that is observed and acted upon, for a total synesthesia between human being and work of art.

Costumes Sara Butera

Alessandra Cristiani since 1996, investigates Butō, founding the Lios company and the Trasform’azioni festival. Graduated in Methodology and Critique of Performance Arts, she has worked with Akira Kasai, Roberto Latini, Daria Deflorian, and Silvia Rampelli. With the Habillè d’eau company, she won the Premio Ubu 2018 with Euforia. Best Actress critic for Un appartamento vuoto, directed by Sara Masi and Francesco M. Mortati, Stockholm City Film Festival 2024.

Jacopo Giarda  dancer and performer, graduated from the Ballet School of Teatro alla Scala. Dancer at the Compañia Nacional de Danza in Madrid, then at the Opéra National de Paris and with the Ballet of the Rome Opera House. He has interpreted soloist roles by choreographers such as Forsythe, Kylián, Naharin, Ek, Balanchine, Inger, Bausch, León/Lightfoot, McGregor. Now also freelance, he collaborates with independent artists and choreographers such as Nicosia, Bolognino, Riva-Repele, Kratz, Ferrara.

Free admission until seats are filled

Riccardo Giovinetto
FEMINA | IRIS 
Audio Video Installation by Riccardo Giovinetto

Italo Calvino Hall - VII floor
from 18:20 to 20:30 
first screening at 18:20, repeats at 18:50, 19:20, and 19:50
Duration 9 min.

A digital gaze on grace, between Renaissance and artificial intelligence
FEMINA | IRIS is an immersive dual-screen installation that merges ever-evolving digital images: quadraphonic electronic music and vocal polyphony inspired by Renaissance madrigals. A sensorial and contemplative experience, inviting the audience to reconsider the idea of grace through the lens of contemporary technology. At the heart of the project is the Renaissance gaze on the female figure: the portraits of Piero della Francesca, Ghirlandaio, Leonardo, and Bronzino are evoked as archetypes of beauty and harmony. The golden ratio enters into dialogue with alternative proportions, while ancient voices, digitally manipulated, blend with electronic textures sculpted in the sound space. FEMINA | IRIS imagines an artificial intelligence that learns and reworks the concept of grace: an abstract and sensitive journey exploring the boundaries of contemporary digital figuration.

Project Riccardo Giovinetto; composition and programming Riccardo Giovinetto, Lorenzo Forges Davanzati; A/V installation format | 2ch VIDEO, 4ch AUDIO

Riccardo Giovinetto visual and multimedia artist, physicist and university lecturer, creates audio-video performances, installations, and concert compositions. With FEMINA he debuts at Ars Electronica Festival 2023 and receives the Videocittà Awards 2024 for best AV performance. In 2010 he founded OZMOTIC, an electronic and instrumental music duo, collaborating with orchestras and international artists. He teaches Acoustics, Electroacoustics, and Sound Design at SAE Institute and at the High Musical Specialization of Saluzzo.

Free admission until seats are filled


Arno Schuitemaker
O S C A R 
itinerant performance by Arno Schuitemaker
with Ivan Ugrin, Mark Christoph Klee, Paolo Yao

From the museum entrance to Sala San Pio – IV floor
at 18:30 and repeated at 20:00
Duration 30 min.
With the support of the Embassy and Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

O S C A R an engaging moving portrait, between intimacy, identity, and transformation
O S C A R is a powerful physical reflection on the concept of portrait, not only of the three performers on stage, but also of the audience observing them. In this work, Dutch choreographer Arno Schuitemaker weaves together three consecutive solos in which movement becomes a tool for exploring identity, memory, and personal experience. The performance unfolds as a path to emancipation: intimate, dynamic, and deeply human, O S C A R tells the desire for freedom beyond every imposed limit. The portrait here is not a simple representation: it is a living process, full of meaning, capable of evoking the dialogue between what is visible and invisible, between individual experiences and collective dimensions. A continuous passage between reflection and projection, between self and other. Arno Schuitemaker is known for his hyperphysical stylistic signature, in which dance, visual arts, and club culture merge into immersive, sensorial experiences. His works, presented in over 25 countries, engage audiences on a bodily, emotional, and imaginative level. With The Way You Sound Tonight, he received the prestigious 'Zwaan' award, the highest recognition for dance in the Netherlands.

Music Aart Strootman; costumes Sarah Nixon; production SHARP/ArnoSchuitemaker

Arno Schuitemaker performer, creates hyperphysical works where dance, performance, visual arts, and club culture converge. His layered works investigate the interaction between intimacy and the collective, transforming every performance into an immersive experience that unites body, emotion, and imagination. Presented in more than 25 countries, among his most acclaimed creations: 30 appearances out of darkness, The way you sound tonight (Zwaan award 2019) and I will wait for you.

Free admission until seats are filled

Stefania Ballone, Alice Mariani, Marta Ciappina, Cathedral Choir of Siena “Guido Chigi Saracini”
Invisio
site-specific performance directed by Stefania Ballone 

with Alice Mariani Principal dancer of Teatro alla Scala di Milano 
Marta Ciappina Ubu Award best performer 2023 
and the Cathedral Choir of Siena “Guido Chigi Saracini” conducted by Maestro Lorenzo Donati 
with sopranos Luisa Cipolla, Elisa Grico, Jae Kho Myung and Francesca Panzolini; altos Raissa Appannati, Elisabetta Vuocolo; tenors Alessio Chiuppesi, Luca Lippi, Dario Maddii; basses Barbato Paolo, Martelli Bruno and Jeffrey Scott Shapiro.Pellegrinaio – IV floor
at 20:30
Duration

30 min.An invitation to let yourself be guided by light into the heart of the labyrinth

Invisio is a poetic journey through a labyrinth of light and shadow. The bodies move like suspended presences, following trajectories that intertwine, lose themselves, and find each other, tracing invisible paths through the space. The light becomes both guide and deception, at times revealing, at times concealing, sculpting gestures and architectures in a constant play of appearance and disappearance. Each step is a gateway, each gaze a possible orientation, each shadow a threshold to cross. In this labyrinth, made of memories and resonances, the viewer is called to undertake an inner journey: not so much toward an exit, but toward an invisible center, a place of perception and listening where the tangible and the ephemeral meet. Invisio is an invitation to let oneself be guided by the light into the heart of the labyrinth, where the invisible takes shape through bodies.Musical pieces

Ave Maris Stella, Gregorian chant 11th century, Liber Usualis; ⁠Arvo Pärt (Paide, 1935), Da pacem Domine, Universal 2004; Terry Riley (Colfax, CA, 1935) Olson III, 1966; Lorenzo Donati (Arezzo, 1972), pieces from Cities, 55 fragments inspired by Invisible Cities by I. Calvino; Vittoria Aleotti (Ferrara, 1575 - after 1620), T'amo mia vita, from "Ghirlanda dei madrigali a quattro voci", Vincenti, Venice 1593costumes designed and made by

Matteo TolveStefania Ballone

, dancer with the company of Teatro alla Scala and choreographer, joined in 2000 after graduating from the La Scala Ballet School, also playing soloist roles. Associate artist of MilanoOltre, she has created choreographies such as SoulEtude and Lascaux. She collaborates with Roberto Bolle for Viva la Danza and various galas. In 2024 she debuted with Grimm at Alberta Ballet Company, obtaining great success.Alice Mariani

born in Massa in 1992, trained at the Ballet School of Teatro alla Scala, graduating in both classical and contemporary dance. After her experience at the Semperoper Ballet in Dresden as Principal Dancer, in 2022 she was appointed Principal Dancer of Teatro alla Scala. She has performed the major roles of the classical repertoire and collaborated with internationally renowned choreographers, receiving numerous prestigious awards.Marta Ciappina,

dancer and teacher, trained in New York at the Trisha Brown Studio. As a dancer she has worked alongside Alessandro Sciarroni, Michele Di Stefano, Tiziana Arnaboldi, Marco D’Agostin, Anagoor, Simona Bertozzi, Chiara Bersani, Daniele Albanese, Daniele Ninarello. As a teacher she collaborates with the Luca Ronconi School of Piccolo Teatro di Milano led by Claudio Longhi. In 2022 she received the Danza&Danza Award as performer and in 2023 the Ubu Award as performer.The 

Cathedral Choir of Siena “Guido Chigi Saracini” was founded in September 2016 thanks to the fruitful collaboration between the Accademia Musicale Chigiana and the Opera della Metropolitana di Siena. Formed by singers from all over Italy, it combines liturgical service with high artistic value concerts both a cappella and with orchestra, with a repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the Romantic period, with ample space for twentieth and twenty-first century music. Many world premieres, among them Seven Prayers by T. Mansurian, Six Studies on Dante’s Inferno , and Stabat Mater by G. Sollima, conducted by Riccardo Muti in Lampedusa, primetime Rai Uno.Lorenzo Donati

, composer and conductor, studied in Arezzo, Fiesole, Siena, and Rome, attending advanced courses at Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Guido d’Arezzo Foundation, Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, and the Académie de France. His teachers included R. Clemencic, A. Corghi, P. Dusapin, D. Fasolis, G. Graden, and E. Morricone. He is the most awarded Italian conductor nationally and internationally in the history of choir competitions. Since 2016 he has conducted the Cathedral Choir of Siena “Guido Chigi Saracini”. He teaches choral music and conducting at the Venice Conservatory and since 2017 at the Chigiana Academy of Siena.Admission fee and booking required
Ticket: €5.00 + museum admission
Reduced: €5.00 for residents of the City of Siena and students of Siena universities

The Gaze in Virtual Reality

Italo Calvino Hall – VII floor
from 18:30 to 20:30The second edition of XENOS cannot fail to continue investigating that immersive dimension generated by the encounter between real life and virtual life, between the concrete gaze and the post-organic gaze.

The Gaze in Virtual Reality offers an immersion in the world of virtual reality with the experience WAVE by Bart Hess, with choreography and performance by Sedrig Dimitri Verwoert; and HALF LIFE VR by Robert Connor from the choreographic work of Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar with dancers from the Royal Swedish Ballet. You can immerse yourself in these two worlds by wearing a headset and sitting comfortably in the dedicated area, not by chance that of the Italo Calvino Hall, named after the author who in times ahead of his own explored the complexity of networks, interconnected systems, and multilayered perceptions of reality.Free admission with 20 headsets in continuous rotation

Bart Hess & Sedrig Dimitri Verwoert

WAVE
digital performance by Bart Hess in collaboration with Sedrig Dimitri Verwoert
with Sedrig Dimitri Verwoert & Arad Inbar

Duration 3 min.A solitary dance multiplied, in a dream inspired by La Bayadère

Designer Bart Hess, in collaboration with Sedrig Verwoert, presents WAVE, a psychedelic and immersive dance film in which the body of a dancer is manipulated over time through the use of repetitions, delays, and frame repositioning. This creates a choreography in which the history of a movement generates a new kind of organism. It is a group choreography performed solo, inspired by a scene from the ballet La Bayadère (1877) by choreographer Marius Petipa, where a prince, after taking too much opium, sees a princess a hundred times. director Bart Hess; choreographer Sedrig Verwoert; performers Sedrig Verwoert & Arad Inbar; music:

Thys de Vlieger; created with the support of Nederlands Filmfonds & StimuleringsfondsBart Hess

blends design, fashion, and art, exploring materials, technology, and virtual reality. His work, tactile and intuitive, investigates the human body wrapped in forms that recall performance art and science fiction more than fashion. He produces material studies, videos, animations, and photographs, exploring the tension between attraction and repulsion in the relationship between skin, materials, and technology.Sedrig Dimitri Verwoert,

artist and choreographer, studied Contemporary Jazz at the Amsterdam University of the Arts. Since 2021 he is Young Creative Associate of the Dutch National Ballet. He has collaborated with Nick Verstand on Within Without II and later in the exhibition Spirituele Urgentie. His latest creation, The Ritual, debuted in 2023.

Robert Connor

HALF LIFE VR
digital performance by Robert Connor
from the choreographic work of Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar 
with dancers from the Royal Swedish BalletDuration

11 min. 32 sec.Precise, intense, and sharp in its gaze

Half Life VR is a virtual reality short film directed by Robert Connor that captures the immersive spirit of the dance piece Half Life by choreographer Sharon Eyal performed by the Royal Swedish Ballet. The short film is a coproduction between the Royal Swedish Opera and Robert & Robert Studios. The VR production is inspired by 3D dance films like Pina, with the goal of presenting a unique artistic and immersive experience, a clear projection of language, movement, and soul formulas.director Robert Connor; choreographers Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar; performers

Sarah-Jane Brodbeck, Joakim Adeberg, Frida Hambraeus, Devon Carbone, Daria Ivanova, Dawid Kupinski, Sarah-Jane Medley, Nacho Lopez, Emily Slawski, Ross Martinson, Lea Ved, Johnny McMillan, Amanda Åkesson, Dragos Mihalcea, Anton Valdbauer; music Ori Lichtik; director of photography Robert Jonsson; producers Sebastian Lönberg, Robert Connor, Robert Jonsson; executive producers Catarina Falkenhav, Peter Yngen; VR 360 editing & post-production Robert Jonsson, Robert Connor; VR sound editing and mixing Sebastian LönbergRobert Connor

is a Swedish-American director. During his time at the Stockholm Film School, he was determined to learn the language of cinematic storytelling and convert it into a language for virtual reality. Robert is establishing himself internationally as one of the pioneers of incredible VR film experiences.Sharon Eyal

, co-founder, co-artistic director, and choreographer of L-E-V. She danced with the Batsheva Dance Company (1990-2008) and began choreographing in the Batsheva Dancers Create project. She has created works for international companies and in 2013 founded L-E-V with Gai Behar. In recent years the company has produced over 200 performances in international festivals and theaters such as Joyce Theatre, Sadler's Wells, and Montpellier Danse Festival.The experience

Half Life VR by Robert Connor is distributed by PRO|D|ES Caravan. PRO|D|ES Caravan is an action of the PRO|D|ES Project - Extended Digital Promotion of Dance, a collaboration between Cro.me, COORPI, and Compagnia della Quarta, with the support of MiC.

PRO|D|ES Caravan è un’azione del Progetto PRO|D|ES - Promozione Digitale Estesa della Danza, una collaborazione tra Cro.me, COORPI e Compagnia della Quarta, col Sostegno del MiC.