Dancing in Transit is the third episode of a series of public programs curated by 2050+ with the support of Slam Jam in the context of Circle (circle.slamjam.com), a digital think-tank launched by the two agencies almost two years ago which focuses on the triad bodies–movement–urban settings.
After having looked at the potential of biological bodies to morph and reinvent themselves through various kinds of technological adaptations (Circle – Bodies in Flux), this third public program looked into another kind of fluidity. Namely, that which takes place when the experience of dancing – one that is radically rooted in the physical – dematerializes and subsequently reconstitutes itself in digital realms.
Dancing in Transit took place during Milan Design Week at Passante Ferroviario Lancetti, one of the city’s main rail links and a zone of transition by definition. Gently occupying the space with a non-competitive contest, three communities of Milan-based street dancers were invited to interpret, through their own style, a choreography inspired by the "emotes" (i.e. dance animations) of the characters of Fortnite, the video game produced by Epic Games.
Through this experimental encounter between physical and digital experiences of dance, the three communities – the voguers of Mood-Ha that livens up the Lazzaretto every Wednesday evening; the NTENSE crew that dances Hip-hop and K-pop in Piazza Gae Aulenti; and the Caporales San Simon Milano that brings Bolivian neo-folklore dances to Porta Venezia – had the opportunity to share
something about their relationship with the urban context of Milan.
A relationship not without difficulties, in which street dance is likely to stem from different incentives and motivations – the affirmation and celebration of queer identities; the strenghtening of bonds of solidarity through the members of diasporic communities, just to name a few – but has always to confront itself with
the reality of hacking public urban spaces.
The accompanying installation designed by 2050+ – an interacting video work consisting of a collage of the most iconic Fornite’s emotes – projected the conversation into the digital realm: what happens when “the burden of the corporeal” opens up to the multiplicity of possibilities offered by the transition into the digital? What is lost and what is gained in this transition?
Team:
Circle – Dancing in Transit was curated and designed by 2050+, in partnership with Slam Jam, and hosted by SPRINT.
2050+: Guglielmo Campeggi, Mattia Inselvini, Erica Petrillo, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Massimo Tenan
The text accompanying the public progra, titled Avatar: Dancing in the Digital, was co-authored by Meera Badran and Kyriakos Christofides of 2050+
Photographer: Ilenia Arosio
