From Reggio Emilia to Lisbon: Ariele’s journey through artistic residencies
Just to start, a few words about me: I am Ariele Celeste Soresina, I am an actress who graduated from the Nico Pepe Academy in Udine, and I am currently on the board of the company and cultural association Dimore Creative.
My experience began in 2022 when I was selected by E35 Foundation and Centro Teatrale Mamimò to participate in the first Theatre in Palm residency in Reggio Emilia. I liked the idea of the residency straight away since I was particularly interested in the themes proposed, namely climate change and environmental crisis, and I did not want to miss the opportunity of approaching a theatre made up of many languages and cultures. This kind of context would allow the use of different art forms in a multi-handed creation, and could become a perfect place where to contaminate and be contaminated.
Throughout the project I have found an extremely fertile environment, where the aim of the participants, curious and eager to get to know each other, is to learn and create a national and European artistic network. Theatre in Palm presented us with truly enriching challenges: from collective creation with colleagues we had just met to the phase of connecting online with participants from other countries, and continuing with them what we had started in presence. The support of Fabio Banfo and Marco Maccieri of the Centro MaMiMò has been essential in the process of transforming the technological medium from obstacle (how can I actually work with someone who is not physically with me?) to opportunity.
My participation in the project continued in April 2023, within the Tip Academy of the Jà Festival in Lisbon—an opportunity to discover a diverse, Portuguese and international, artistic scene in a festive atmosphere. I attended dance performances, experimentations that combined theatre with online communication platforms, and experimental DJ sets, but also the Academy workshops, held in the setting of the Teatro do Bairro.
In this context, I chose to follow three workshops: the first of movement and dance, led by Elena Vertegel; the second of puppetry with Maiju Tainio, to whom I owe a lot, since she was able to generate a truly stimulating environment for creativity. Indeed, I reworked some of her practices for my own artistic process and for workshops I ran. Among the various experiences I had, I remember improvising with everyday objects or those we do not pay particular attention to: bottle caps, wooden sticks, colored feathers are some examples. The third workshop I attended was Poetry film with Janet Lees (prize-winning British filmmaker). The watchwords were: freedom and creativity. Janet led us in experimenting with the poetic word with great sensitivity; we wrote poems inspired by Pessoa, childhood memories, sound, visual, and olfactory stimuli. At the end of this Portuguese experience, I came back home full of serenity and rich in inspiration.
My artistic journey continued with the 2023 residency. This time, the hybrid experience was used in the most effective way: as in the first residency, we worked in presence with the Italian group, and online with the group of (in my case) German nationality. At the end of the first week, we all met in Dublin, at the Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality. The purpose of the residency was the same as in the first year, and I found in all the participants a great desire to learn about other people’s cultures and to learn new ways of working. We managed to create a great group harmony, thanks in part to the guidance of our mentor, Micheal McCabe. He was able to leave enough space for everyone without giving up a choral vision of the addressed theme.
The result was “Anti – gone,” a performance in which we played with the natural element of leaves and phrases from Anouilh’s Antigone. We realized that there was an urgency in us to feel closeness, between people seemingly distant yet similar, and the final creation was our cry for peace and freedom.
The project allowed me to meet several artists, including Rita, a PhD student in Gender Studies and film director; together we developed a theatre project that will be in residency in 2026. Being able to participate in the project several times allowed me to develop a fundamental skill for an artist—the ability to establish relationships and turn them into art, as well as to recognize the potential of teamwork and joining forces.
Article by Ariele Celeste Soresina
