An afternoon at the home of Michele Pascarella, a critic and scholar of theatre, dance and the visual arts, to ‘approach – with a gentle yet determined step – the two complementary poles that reshaped the landscape of contemporary dance in the 20th century: the embodied emotion of Pina Bausch and the rigorous abstraction of Merce Cunningham.’
This is the third instalment of a project intended to continue over time, exploring topics ranging from art history to the performing arts and literature, addressed to open glimpses of sensibility:
Michele Pascarella tells us how it came about and how he intends to take it forward:
Michele Pascarella: This small project stems from a simple, genuine desire to share.
And from some sound advice: Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see”.
In a time of barriers, selfishness and soul-crushing loneliness, I believe that opening one’s home to anyone who wishes to come, sharing knowledge with simplicity and depth, and raising funds for a good cause – all at once – is a fine practice that I would very much like to experience.
Unfortunately, I have never come across it. So I am starting myself, following Gandhi’s wise advice.
Ideally, these events will take place monthly, though that will depend on the response: we are surrounded by people who are unhappily rushed off their feet and, like Alice’s rabbit, have no time! no time! no time!
In February, the project ‘At Michele’s. Herbal teas, arts, cultures’ began with ‘OPERE APERTISSIME’. Activating a new perspective on the world through contemporary art.
It was an opportunity to explore some of the most illuminating experiences which, from the historical avant-garde to the present day, have reinvented the way we look at art and, perhaps, the world.
Not a summary of art history, but an invitation to ‘watch oneself watching’, to quote Maurice Merleau-Ponty: to discover how judgement intervenes, often without us realising it, and how aesthetic experience can become a concrete exercise in awareness.
Through numerous images, short stories and a play on the gaze, we explored works and artists who understood art as activation, as a participatory experience: from Marcel Duchamp to Hannah Höch, from Allan Kaprow to Marina Abramović, from Yoko Ono to Erwin Wurm. And beyond.
In March we continued with COLMI DI FIGURE. exercises with Elsa Morante, an accessible dialogue between theatre and literature conceived to mark the creation, between 2025 and 2026, of a Teatro Nucleo production dedicated to Elsa Morante, forty years after her death, for which I served as dramaturg: Elsa Morante. A Song for the Last.
On this occasion, I recounted – through anecdotes, images and short videos – the passions and rough edges of Elsa Morante, Teatro Nucleo’s arrival in Italy to work in the Ferrara asylum in the wake of the anti-psychiatry revolution, and their quixotic journey through the streets of the world, spanning over fifty years.
Regarding the performance, I highlighted the multidisciplinary influences that shaped its creation, the multifaceted, often hidden work and the invisible life that lie behind and within every character, not just the eccentric ones who inhabit the stage.
We listened to excerpts from some of his books, encountering tousled hair and eccentricities, jealousy and tenderness, invective and wonder, utopias and melancholy.
Can you share your upcoming events?
Following this April event featuring Pina Bausch and Merce Cunningham, on 16 May the project will move to Faenza, to the home of two dear friends, for a truly futurist dinner.
In June, I would like to propose my Dadaist Walk.
