In Dro, in northern Italy, there is a cultural research center that for over forty years has carried out hybrid and experimental research on contemporary performing arts, making it a vehicle for important issues within public discourse.
The research center for contemporary performative practices Centrale Fies holds an important record in Italy: it is the first example of the recovery of industrial archaeology for artistic and cultural purposes. Nestled in a natural landscape of great value between the Sarca river and the Marocche – a majestic post-glacial landslide -, in the heart of the Valle dei Laghi in Trentino Alto Adige, Centrale di Fies is located in a Habsburg hydroelectric plant from 1911, partly still active and under the aegis of Hydro Dolomiti Energia. The restoration and recovery project of the original architecture was led by architect Sergio Dellanna. The first design approach therefore had a “minimalist” character, aimed at ensuring versatility and flexibility of use. Over time and with the increase in cultural activities carried out within the site, the architectural interventions have moved in the direction of diversification and specialization, while maintaining the spirit of the place that lives on in the original architectural details and features: the ribbed concrete slabs with large through holes, the squared windows, the stone stairs, the steel lattice girders, the overhead cranes with still functioning winches.
In this unique context, a team of art and culture professionals guarantees a vast and intense cultural program dedicated to the promotion of the performing arts, a branch of contemporary art that is often overlooked, but extremely important as it is able to communicate the complexities and distortions of contemporary times with great effectiveness. The project was started in 1999 by Barbara Boninsegna and Dino Sommadossi with the Cooperativa il Gaviale continuing the experience of the Drodesera festival, born in 1980. Today Centrale di Fies hosts professionals from all over the world, international Academies of performing arts that open and close the academic years, a continuous production of performances and shows, artistic residence projects and exhibitions of visual arts related to performance. Artists who cross the threshold of this hybrid and fluid place enter a structured artistic circuit, where they have the opportunity to delve into their research and expand their practice. Inside the center they receive all the support they need, both from a curatorial and productive point of view, through residences, equipped rooms, technical assistance, coworking areas, fundraising and administration, national and international networking.
Among the key words around which the project revolves is “acceptance”: an inclusive approach aimed at listening and respecting others. Over the years, behavioral and language awareness guidelines have been drawn up and printed on posters and flyers scattered throughout all workspaces. This vision also applies to day-to-day activities through the work models adopted by the staff alternative to the hierarchical and pyramidal ones, that too often turn into power dynamics and toxic environments to which not even the creative sectors are strangers. In 2022 Centrale di Fies was selected within the European network apap-Feminst Futures, the program dedicated to the current four-year project of apap_advancing performing art project, the longest-running European network of performing art centers and festivals.
Feminist Futures has among its main objectives that of experimenting with practices aimed at countering inequalities in contemporary performing arts, drawing inspiration from Intersectional Feminism to find concrete structural answers and raise public awareness.
This year, the Feminist Futures program, curated by Barbara Boninsegna and Filippo Andreatta, included two intense days (July 26-27) dedicated to performance art in which music and sound design were an integral part of the experience offered to the public, often transforming it into a multisensory journey into the world of clubbing. Among the participating artists, were the singer Sofia Jernberg, the choreographer Erna Ómarsdóttir and the performer Anne Lise Le Gac. In addition, Chiara Bersani further delved into the exploration of the different ways of reactivating the works through performance by physically activating her visual artwork – selected for the Material Self exhibition – and charging the object with a new hybrid power. Feminist Futures was part of the Centrale di Fies’ large summer program that every year animates the creative scene in Trentino. From July 18 to September 21, 2024, the center proposed a series of exhibitions, events, and workshops aimed at bringing out the submerged values and preciousness of art, that is, the processes, research phases, and experiments that the public is usually unaware of. “To tell what Centrale Fies is, this summer, we chose the form of Desire par excellence, that of being together, of celebrating something or someone”, says Barbara Boninsegna. The rich, ephemeral, and sensual cakes of the artist and pastry chef Hana Betakova become manifestos of a free and alternative way of thinking, embodying queer bodies, and any other body far from the most consolidated imagery of beauty.
The performative group exhibition Material Self featured artists such as Julien Creuzet, Caroline Achaintre, and Sonia Kacem, among others. Material Self is the second in a series of group exhibitions dedicated to concepts formulated by neo-materialist feminist thinker Stacy Alaimo, this year focusing on the materiality of the self, or the reactions of our bodies to the external world and its continuous modifications. Decolonialism and racial issues were the central themes of Live Works Summit 2024, the annual moment of opening to the public of the homonymous project in the form of a Free School dedicated to the practical and theoretical exploration of the boundaries of the performing arts. The summer program closes with Evolving Love: love that changes, transforms, grows, and diminishes through the movements, words, and gestures of some of the most interesting voices of the contemporary Italian performance scene who share a deep relationship and a common artistic path with the Italian research center. Rooted among the rocky mountains and steep valleys of Trentino Alto Adige, since its foundation, Centrale di Fies has been able to be a point of reference and catalyst for the territory and aims to increasingly become a landing place for many international creative minds.
LINK
- Ninety Percent of Everything: Interview with the curator Maria Pina Usai - October 2, 2026
- Christina Nakou: the fragility of matter as a metaphor for the human condition - July 3, 2026
- The Island: Hito Steyerl at Osservatorio Fondazione Prada in Milan - December 19, 2025
