A The return of the Artist-in-Residence Program, after an interruption of eight years, brings choreographer Luiz Fernando Bongiovanni, a prominent name in the area of ​​contemporary dance, to Unicamp. Selected from three names of great professionals in the field, the artist signs a list of more than 13 choreographic creations, presented both in Brazil and abroad. The artist will perform among undergraduate and postgraduate students from the Department of Dance at the Institute of Arts from August to December this year.

Among the personalities from the dance world with whom he worked are choreographers Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe and Nacho Duato. From 2001 to 2003, the dancer dedicated himself to the Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm, Sweden, one of the main European companies. In the same country, he participated in the Gothenburg Opera Ballet from 1999 to 2001. In Europe, he coordinated improvisation and composition workshops, based on the technique developed by William Forsythe and his career experience.

In addition to continuing dancing, since returning to Brazil he has worked on coordinating and executing improvisation and composition workshops with the companies in which he performed choreographic work, including the Balé da Cidade de São Paulo, the Balé Guaíra, the Ballet do Teatro Castro Alves, in the Choreographic Residency that he coordinated at the Oswald de Andrade Workshop and at the Centro Cultural São Paulo, in the Improvisation and Composition Workshop. The artist also coordinated the improvisation modality of the Corpos Distintos event, presentations that concluded the Espaço Aberto (editions 1 and 2) of the São Paulo City Ballet. In the academic area, Bongiovanni taught the extension course at the Anhembi-Morumbi University, in the first semester of 2006, and gave improvisation and composition classes as a guest at Unicamp in 2005 and 2006.

The Unicamp Artist-in-Residence Program has already brought names such as Fernando Morais, Ruy Castro and Lélia Abramo to the University. Its relaunch is part of activities celebrating Unicamp's Year 40 and reinforces the University's contribution to promoting Brazilian artistic and intellectual production. “The relaunch of the program brings to our University the possibility of maintaining particular contact with current artistic production and at the same time places Unicamp at the forefront of actions related to the relationship between academic life and the arts in general. This will have the consequence of deepening the qualification of our work in this area and the consequent projection of our students involved in the arts”, highlights the coordinator of the Artist-in-Residence Commission, professor Eduardo Guimarães.

For the rector of Unicamp, José Tadeu Jorge, the program provides, within the institution, an academic space for reflection on the creative process and encourages the practice of art among members of the community. “In its new format, the Artist-in-Residence Program is integrated with other initiatives that amplify its potential, which allows for more effective and intense participation by the community in the activities that will be carried out with the participation of the artist. It also allows the university to be provided with yet another instrument of cultural policy, making it a reference and linking it to society’s desires.”

Professor Júlia Ziviani, head of the Dance Department at IA, declared that the program is of fundamental importance both for the activities of undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as for the dance research work carried out in the Department of Body Arts. “It is a vehicle that can combine creative experiences outside the university with those we carry out here”, she added. In the following interview, Luiz Bongiovanni talks about the proposed work to be developed at the University.

The proposal - Luiz Bongiovanni states that the purpose of his project is to disseminate a type of theoretical and practical knowledge resulting from years of work in a national and international career. “I worked for 15 years as a professional dancer, most of them in Europe, in large, official companies, and with that I accumulated diverse experiences that were my training as a choreographer and teacher. In recent years, in Europe and since returning to Brazil, I have worked mainly as a choreographer and teacher with recognized institutions in our country. The core of the project is an improvisation and composition course that I have developed over the years, heavily influenced by William Forsythe's way of working,” he explains.

Bongiovanni adds that the work deals with a constant transition between theory and practice: the artist feeds on a series of information and concepts that, after investigation and experimentation, serve as raw material for creating scenic material. “In short, I could say that the theoretical part works on the interaction between anatomy and body geometry, initially in visualization capacity, and then with the awareness of various body parts, describing elements of flat and spatial geometry. In this process, we seek simultaneous work on bodily interaction, relating the role of memory to the space-time involved”, he states.

The project is primarily aimed at students at the Institute of Arts, especially those in the dance area, undergraduate and postgraduate, but activities are planned for any student in the community who is interested, lectures and masterclasses. According to Luiz Bongiovanni, the Artist-in-Residence Program deserves praise for giving the university the chance to be permeable to everyday artistic life. “When I studied at the USP School of Communications and Arts, our biggest problem in the Department of Public Relations and Advertising was the lack of contact with the market. I was part of a group of restless students who formed and founded the first USP junior agency to be able to bridge the gap between the market and academia. I think the Program is an initiative that is certainly worth the investment and I hope it has the momentum to be repeated many times, with several artists”.