The IMMERSIONI Festival is a project on new dramaturgy, the outcome of a process of coexistence, proximity and open exchange between artists, citizens and the community.

The backbone of the Festival is Indagine Milano, an artistic mapping of the city with a specific focus on five of its less central neighborhoods, a true immersion in contact with people and their stories, with the aim of returning five performative studies that compose a heterogeneous and multiform look at the contemporary Milan.

After the first edition in 2022 - which saw the selected artists work with the communities of the Baggio, Calvairate, Niguarda and Lorenteggio/Giambellino neighborhoods - in 2023 we ask the candidates to choose one of the areas among those indicated and to focus specifically on certain portions of that area affected by public housing projects (Aler and MM residences) and/ or social housing projects (social housing, cooperatives, subsidized housing), working on the possible connection between the communities living there and the social and cultural proximity networks.

NEIGHBORHOODS AND CONTEXTS*:
Garibaldi (Municipio 1)
Residenza Pubblica Erp MM – via Bergamini, via Laghetto, Via Statuto

Crescenzago** (Municipio 2)
Urban New Living
Residenza Pubblica via Rizzoli

Lambrate** – Ortica (Municipio 3)
Cohabitat Lambrate – Delta Ecopolis

Rogoredo – Santa Giulia (Municipio 4)
Housing Social Redo Merezzate Residenza Pubblica – via Feltrinelli

Vigentino** (Municipio 5)
Residenza Pubblica MM

Gratosoglio (Municipio 5)
Residenza Pubblica

Stadera (Municipio 5)
Residenza Pubblica (via Barrili 11)
cooperativa La Famiglia (consorzio cooperativa lavoratori)

Barona (Municipio 6)
Residenza Pubblica Aler e MM

Figino (Municipio 7)
Housing Sociale Borgo Sostenibile

Trenno** (Municipio 8)
via Rizzardi 22 MM – via Giorgi (Delta Ecopolis)

Quarto Oggiaro (Municipio 8)
Residenza Pubblica Aler e MM

Affori** (Municipio 9)
Housing Sociale Moneta – cooperativa Abitare

*Any other public and/or social housing projects other than those cited as examples may be identified in the neighborhoods indicated.
** Neighborhoods affected this year by the celebrations of the centenary of their annexation to the city of Milan, the initiative ‘From the boroughs to the city, from the city to the neighborhoods’ launched by the Municipality of Milan.

The results of the performative studies, outcome of the artistic residencies, will be presented from 6 to 10 September 2023 during the IMMERSIONI Festival to be held at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, co-producer together with mare culturale urbano, with the artistic direction of Andrea Capaldi.

Starting in 2023, the IMMERSIONI Festival establishes a strong collaboration with the MiX LGBTQ+ Film Festival, with whom it shares the need and desire to build a view of the world that is increasingly inclusive, multicultural and multi-generational. Thanks to this important partnership, the IMMERSIONI Festival is enriched by the possibility of activating a fifth artistic residency in the Via Padova-Viale Monza-Loreto areas, in order to tackle LGBTQ+ culture issues head-on.

Indagine Milano seeks a direct approach with the communities of the city of Milan in order to give birth to contemporary dramaturgy texts, an expression of our intangible cultural heritage. The aim of the project is for the artist to act as a mediator between the citizens and the artistic process, bringing them closer and putting them in deep connection with each other, so that culture and art become precious tools for metabolizing and reading contemporaneity.

The specific objectives of Indagine Milano are:

• to connect artists with territorial communities
• to promote an interpretation of territories based on the listening to needs, criticalities and opportunities
• to solicit the active cultural participation of communities, in particular those that are generally excluded from it
• to promote the interweaving of dramaturgical languages based on writing, physical action, video/images, music/sound
• to strengthen the presence of a new generation of artists.

PROJECT PROMOTERS AND DRAMATURG TUTORS
Indagine Milano is promoted by mare culturale urbano with Piccolo Teatro di Milano and the collaboration of MIX Festival.
The project also benefits from the participation of four dramaturg tutors who have the task of flanking/supporting the work of the selected artists and of helping the artistic direction in constructing a complex and articulated mapping and narration where, while maintaining the specific identity of each of the five performance studios, a common thread can be read that gives the spectator and the people involved a unique and multiform artistic picture of the whole.

Artistic director and project manager
Andrea Capaldi (founder and director of mare culturale urbano)

Artistic supervisor
Claudio Longhi (director of Piccolo Teatro di Milano)

Tutor dramaturg
Federica Fracassi, Alessio Maria Romano, Nicola Ratti, Collettivo Alterazioni Video