MAMbo invites Amir Parsa as Artist-in-Residence at the Sandra Natali Residency for two ten-day periods, at the end of June 2015 and at the end of June 2016.

MAMbo will host Amir Parsa for a residency project in order to activate a dynamic process involving the students of the Academy of Fine Arts and a selected group of artists, writers and curators.
Mr. Parsa will lead a seminar and workshop, in collaboration with MAMbo Educational Department, and will involve students from the FAAB, where he will develop with participants fragments of his literary work, specifically two new cantos of his work The New Definitely Post/Transnational and Mostly Portable Open Epic as Rendered by the Elastic Circus of the Revolution. Cantos and fragments constitute this on-going multilingual, multigeneric and multiformal open epic. These poetic fragments unfold over time on multiple platforms, in different arenas and spaces (private and public), and through various scriptural strategies—from the traditional (handwritten sheets and books) to the new (electronic, web). Narrative conventions are challenged, and poetic, stylistic and performative operations exploit possibilities unique to different languages and mediums. The overall experience is orchestrated through the creation of lasting artifacts as well as ephemeral events and monumental constructs.

The participants will be all engaged in the realization of these two new cantos, both of which have an intertextual relationship with the Inferno of Dante (specifically, the first and last canto of the Inferno), using different languages and media, as writing, performing, video making and net working are fused in innovative ways to create a new genre and possible new directions in literature. The starting point will be a common reflection on Dante's Divina Commedia, seen and analysed from different points of view and cultural backgrounds. Emilia – Romagna is the region where Dante Alighieri died—his grave is situated in Ravenna. Dante himself lived in Bologna for one year (1286-1287), and he himself writes about the Garisenda tower, symbol of the city, in the canto XXXI of the Inferno "Quel pare a riguardar la garisenda / sotto 'l chinato, quando un nuvol vada / sovr'essa sì, che ella incontro penda; / tal parve Anteo a me che stava a bada / di vederlo chinare, e fu tal ora ch'i' avrei voluto ir per altra strada".

Amir Parsa will introduce us to his literary and artistic practices, will lead our activities, and will coordinate, with us, the group of participants for the duration of the project, with the aim of finishing and publishing/performing the final work in June 2016 and beyond. His innovative literary practice, his expertise in museums as well as his extensive experience in teaching will be a great asset to our students and to MAMbo, and will be very intriguing and provocative for the community, city and the region.

Amir Parsa Biography

Workshop 2015
MAMbo, June 23, 25, 27
Registration fee: free
Info: MAMbo Educational Department
Veronica Ceruti, tel. 051 6496626, email veronica.ceruti@comune.bologna.it