My-Ma’s scientific committee has been appointed: it will include 13 members from 8 countries.
The My-Ma board of partners has appointed 13 members to the project’s scientific committee. Thirteen members from eight different countries will participate in the research activities. The committee’s director is Professor Walter Valeri of the Sartori Mask Center (Italy). The new appointments are as follows…
International Committee Composition and Goals
MYTHS & MASKS OF THE FUTURE
the mask and the myth in the third millennium
2023-2025
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Director
Walter Valeri (IT)
Andrea Brugnera (IT) (assistant director)
Coordinator
Alessio Michelotti (BE)
Secretary
Chiara Lanciotti (IT)
Research Committee
Dr. Magdalena Hasiuk (PL)
Giovanni Kezich (IT)
Laurent Brizzi (FR)
Vito Minoia (IT)
Lucia Picaro (BE)
Sarah Sartori (IT)
Michalis Traitsis (GR)
Jean Trounstine (USA)
Vene Vieitez (SP)
Needs analysis
The first work package that will implement these objectives is indicated in the activity plan as WP2 and will be dedicated to research and dissemination. It will not be a work plan isolated from the rest of the activities, because the research around the mask and the myth will be the very engine of the training, creation and artistic promotion activities. Through this WP, the characteristics of the theatrical and performative innovation path proposed within the project will be defined, and a wide European dissemination of the new artistic and productive approach promoted by MYMA, as well as new theatrical practices that will arise from this research, will be implemented.
An international committee will be established for research and the exchange of practices in the field of creation and circulation of performances that implement the use of the mask, bodily expression and dramaturgy of myth. Scholars from the cooperating countries, both internal and external to the project partnership, can participate in the committee. The research will not only have a historical and philological nature, but will aim at carrying out an investigation into the resources and contemporary practices of the above mentioned languages, especially in the context of popular performing arts (street theatre, contemporary circus and puppetry above all).
Every year, through the official web platform of the project, different surveys will be addressed to artists, creatives, artistic directors, programmers, professionals of the performing arts, to investigate the main critical issues they face in experimenting with the languages promoted by MYMA and foreshadowing adequate solutions, as well as to detect the main goals that the proposed innovative paths will be able to achieve within the sector’s activities.
The results of the surveys and the elaboration of the innovative strategies will be publicly presented in the context of two international symposia that will allow, at the beginning and at the end of the project, to extend the debate around the mask and the dramaturgy of the myth even outside the artistic sectors of reference. A high quality handbook and multimedia product will be the deliverables of this WP.
The expected measurable results include the participation in the scientific committee of at least 10 prominent personalities from the academic world and the professional sectors involved; the creation of at least 3 large-scale studies on masks, urban masking and new myths in European popular theatre, gathered in a final handbook, which will involve at least 100 artistic companies and 50 cultural events from at least 15 EU countries. The two editions of the International Symposium will involve at least 40 experts from various countries. The online reference platform for the project’s activities, at the end of the third year of activity, will see the registration of at least 300 subjects including artistic companies and promotion organizations. The Research Book will be distributed to members of the MYMA network and affiliated circuits in at least 500 copies.
The Project
MYMA foresees a range of different activities but linked together in a project with a strong identity. The whole structure of the project is based on an in-depth historical, semiotic, anthropological and artistic expressive research program around the mask, body and image in the fields of theatre, circus and plastic arts. This line of study also includes an innovative proposal for scenic writing focused on the role of the myth and the identification of the “myths of the future”. All the other activities of the project are closely linked to this theoretical elaboration in a path that through professional training, soft skills training, new creations, festivals and sector events, aims to increase the European dimension of the artistic activities involved, give them new expressive opportunities, develop social inclusion and making a contribution towards building a culture of sustainability.
Each partner will contribute to composing the MYMA Research Committee, inviting well-known scholars, artists and performers from various fields, artistic directors, programmers, experts of inclusion and social workers to participate in the work of this international body. The Centro Maschere Sartori, by virtue of the long experience gained, will have a coordination task in this first Work Package and in the subsequent one focused on professional training. The Research Committee will take office from the first months of the activity plan by first involving a part of the project staff and the scholars closest to the cooperating bodies, month after month it will be enriched by the collaboration of numerous other researchers also outside the cooperating countries. Within the committee there will be a division of tasks in order to achieving the set results. Periodic meetings will be organized (at least every month), of which one per year will be face-to-face. The working group will try to ensure a connection with the educational and creative activities, bringing the contents of the research undertaken within the workshops and artistic production residences, collaborating with trainers and creatives.
In 2023 and 2025 the associated partner Centro Studi di Orvieto and the Project Leader Compagnia dei Folli will each host an international symposium in which the main research outputs will be shared with an even wider circle of researchers, stakeholders in the sectors concerned and political decision-makers who will be able to favour new paths for the promotion and dissemination of the values and contents of the projects.
Part of the research activity will explicitly include the presence of artists, mask creators, set designers and various creatives, to ensure an international exchange of practices on the techniques covered by the research and innovation path. These activities will be hosted on various occasions at the Centro Maschere and at the premises of the other partners to ensure an equal opportunity for all European professionals to participate. Among others, the associated partner Fondazione Centro Studi di Orvieto will be one of the links of this international circuit for research on the myths and masks of the future.
Through the work of the research group, a return of the results will be coordinated in the form of a handbook that will collect interviews, essays, stories of the training and creative experiences carried out, statistics relating to the sector and database for the main European experiences connected to the project activities.
Project teams, staff and outside resources
Project staff involved in the Research Committee activities:
– Carlo Lanciotti (IT)
– Walter Valeri (IT)
– Paola Piizzi (IT)
– Alessio Michelotti (BE)
– Leszek Styś (PL)
– Christine Campion (FR)
– Andrea Brugnera (IT)
Work package and activities
RESEARCH. Create an international study group on the role of the mask in contemporary theatre as a tool for language innovation. Deepen the peculiarities of this medium in allowing soft skills acquisition paths and improving interpersonal skills, also in relation to the world of disability and social unease. To deepen the characteristics of the dramaturgy of the myth in contemporary theatre and to identify the “new myths” that can favour the transition towards an inclusive, resilient and sustainable society. Promote the exchange of good practices between European theatre and circus organizations and disseminate the results of the studies.
Research Committee: To create an international study group on Masks and Myth Theatre with meeting, paper editing, survey in the sector able to interact with all the artists and creatives involved in the project
