Aim And Objective

The Myth of Europa is the interdisciplinary project of artistic, social and anthropological formation, research and production, whose aim is to develop a debate concerning the issue of transculturality. The cultural and artistic reality of the Mediterranean area of Europe is related to North Europe allowing in this way the exchange of experiences between young artists and researchers as they engage themselves in the process of creation of new intercultural communication systems. The new systems of expression are to be defined in relation to the traditional paradigm of communication

They can be transformed through an experience made of exchanges and confrontations not having to be homologated to systems of productions that reduce cultural differences to the minimal terms. Starting from the awareness of the social relation within both the North European countries and the Mediterranean's, and their not developing cultural acknowledgement, the Associazione Carovana S.M.I., with the close collaboration of the French, English, Duch and German partners, intends to work against the real issue of cultural and artistic isolation, which is what characterises minor cultures such as the Sardinian. The close relationship between the languages of art (dance, music and multimedia arts), the folk traditions and the social- anthropological research, on the basis of our work which have been taken place both in cities and small communities, supports the strong innovative character of the project here proposed. In our opinion on the basis of the problematic attempt to integrate traditional arts forms with contemporary ones, particularly dance, there is a two faces conflict. On one side is the issue of elitism that makes certain arts expressions, as contemporary dance in Europe, inaccessible. On the other side is the lack of an individual cultural and artistic identity which is what characterises the quality of the cultural exchanges within both the Mediterranean area and the European Community.

The problematic, not yet resolved, allows the devastating phenomena the homologation towards the North American and North European cultural stereotypes to take place. These imported models suppress the cultural diversities and often tend to paralyse the internal cultural mobility as it developed from different models.
Under the name The Myth of Europa: Itinerary between Sacral and Profane in the contemporary artistic research, we present the research-production programme consisting of workshops, performances, conferences, audio-visual events. The artistic process is proposed as cognitive experience, through the exploration of the artistic symbologies and the ritual manifestations of devotion toward the sacred and profane love. These manifestations will be observed in relation to the traditional cultures as well as to the urban-metropolitan dimension. The codes and symbols on the basis of the experience of what is sacred and love, reach the highest boarders of every culture's evolution or decadence. In any time artists have been inspired by these symbologies either to renovating or to discuss them. The value of the concept of sacral within nowadays cultures will be the subject of our discussion. What is the relation between the sacral and the aesthetic dimension?

The title of this project recalls the mythological character of Europa: the Phoenician princess daughter of the king of Persia. Europa was rapt by Zeus who appeared to her as Taurus, he brought her to the island of Crete were they procreated three children: Sarpedonte, Radamanto and Minosse; the latest is the one who wanted the labyrinth to be constructed. Europa's brothers decided to go to find her and to bring her back, they never returned to their land. Each of them went into a different direction exploring those land that are today known as Europe.

The reference, emerging from the strong symbolism around the mythological legend, conduces us to main issue of the research which concerns the sphere of popular European memory. Myth, rituality, memory, playfulness, these are some of the semiotic structures that will be explored in order to identify the process of cultural embodiment, looking at the relation between cultural habits and body languages.

The issues that will be explored are:

• the formation of new cultural identities with in both small communities and European cities exposed to the phenomena of migration.
• the documentation of the conditions of the young generation within traditional communities and the need for new mythologies to be found.
• · Europe, is it only a myth or is it possible to trace its identity allowing in this way to open a sincere communication background for artists coming from very different cultures?

The Myth of Europe is a process of research which follows an itinerary through the cultures, from the urban to the rural dimension, all characterised by a strong sense of identity.

The places will be investigated through the languages of dance, theatre, music and audio video technology.

These are the aims of the project that will be based in Italy, particularly in Bologna and Sardinia. The city of Bologna has been chosen to be one of the nine cultural capitals in the year 2000 and the island of Sardinia is characterised by an overall attitude of resistance toward the development both in the cultural and in the economical area. The international artists and researchers are invited to the two contexts in which it will be created a collaborative working situation.

The close collaboration with the French, English and German partners during both the organisational and the realisation of the project, will allow us to elaborate the adequate form of communication and structuralisation of the proposal. The project will be able to satisfy the aesthetic and cultural requirements and underline those artists and researchers that will positively respond to the issue that practically and theoretically will be debated. A group of participants will be selected in each partner country and asked to develop their own project concerning the topic.Artistic-cultural event (performances taking paces in different cultural contexts, conferences, interviews, seminars) will be proposed in order to involve the local audience and to create meeting situation within the cultures involved. This stage which will be followed by the program taking place in Italy in 1999, is an important moment that will guarantee the research and production European artistic dimension. The results of the artistic and anthropological research will be expressed in the form of theatre performances, conferences and stages and will be presented outside Italy, in the partners' countries in order to confront the research with audiences belonging to different cultural backgrounds.