Lavanderia a Vapore hosted a 4-day exchange of artistic practices, led by disabled artists collective Al.Di.Qua in Collegno (Turin), Italy, from 22 to 25 May 2023.
Artists, choreographers and other dance professionals were invited to join a 4-day collective and collaborative exploration of disabling conditions and systemic barriers set by prevailing ableism in contemporary dance.
The EDN Carte Blanche Artist Exchange was mediated and facilitated by disabled artists collective Al.Di.Qua and hosted by Lavanderia a Vapore in Collegno (Turin), Italy, from 22 to 25 May 2023.
Inspired by Al.Di.Qua's manifesto, the participants were invited to open a space of possibilities and sow new visions, expand the imaginary relating to disability, grow new skills and raise awareness to generate structural changes and promote greater leadership by people with disabilities and a greater equity for all:
“Our body is not the problem, nor our physical, motor, sensory, neurological, cognitive abilities. We can no longer accept that our bodies, our histories, our changing identities are reported and flattened under a single convenient medical-scientific term. We are not talking about disabilities, but about Disabling Experiences imposed by a society built on a model that only benefits the western, male, white, able, healthy, cisgender and straight human being.”
The discussions on access curated and presented by Stefania Di Paolo | TalkwithDance were published as a follow-up to the Artist Exchange by Lavanderia a Vapore.
Interviews with participating artists Elia Zeno Covolan, Marta Olivieri, Diana Anselmo, Daniel Bongioanni and Nikita Lymar were conducted in Italian, with the collaboration of sign language translators and transcriptions supervisors Cesare Benedetti and Sara Pranovi.
You can enable automatically translated captions in the video settings or download a transcript in English.
We tried to combine the recent experiences and temporarily answer the question “What makes you disabled?” The desire was to formulate new policies for enabling conditions, without claiming to be exhaustive.
All the sessions took place at dance residency center Lavanderia a Vapore, Corso Pastrengo 51, 10093 Collegno (Torino), Italy.
Please note the activity has passed and registrations are now closed
EDN reimbursed up to a fixed amount of travel contribution, 5 per diems at 30€ per day, book and cover up to 5 nights of accommodation for up to 10 participants. Priority was given to EDN members and their associated artists. The participation fee of 150€ was invoiced to the participant or their dancehouse/organisation.
EDN members were invited to respond to the Travel Bursaries Open Call on behalf of their associated artists and other freelance professionals.
Participants could join the Carte Blanche Artist Exchange without receiving travel support from EDN. These participants needed to book and cover travel and accommodation individually.
We were collecting registrations until 13 April 2023
For any questions or concerns, you can reach out to Christoph Bovermann at christoph@ednetwork.eu