www.mkonline.it/Grand_Tour.html
Grand Tour is a parasitic performance and a touristic enquiry into the circumscribed world of contemporary performing arts festivals. Its model is the Grand Tour, the traditional travel of Europe undertaken from the second half of XVII century by mainly upper-class European young men of means . The exposure both to the cultural legacy of classical antiquity and the Renaissance, and to the fashionably polite society of the continent was the primary value of the Tour, whose destination par excellence was Italy.
The project starts from the determination of a festival suitable to be transformed into the itinerary of the Tour. Every single performance, theatrical piece or choreography in the program is analyzed for its spatial character and dynamics. The author/director/choreographer of every piece is asked to host the passage, the crossing, the stay or even the camping of an external traveler during the time of the performance. The duration of this interference is negotiated in advance.
The performer, who is always the same person, crosses or visits the different performances hosted by the festival as different stages of his journey; he doesn’t produce relevant or controversial acts, being a mere presence coming from elsewhere to have a look into the wherever. He will come back to his elsewhere without hesitation, eager to reach a new stage.
He is not a “signature” nor an actor nor a witness. He is a collision in time, a coincidence which will transform the formal tension of a performance into an ordinary everywhere, just for a moment. In search of the most exotic spot of all, more than Papua.