PRECISThe historic and the contemporary converge on Mantova in a series of conflictual programmatic elements. Vehicular circulation conflicts with and monopolizes both water and pedestrian passages. By simplifying, and raising or lowering the road and rail beds, alternate methods of movement through the site are possible. A multiplicity of staged and impromptu events become possible by exploiting the theatrical qualities of resulting interstices. Through realignments and imposition of new staged forms, dramatic effect is achieved by framing views into and out of Mantova.
Gavin Keeney/Ken Smith (1999)
"I say that this concrete language, intended for the senses and independent of speech, has first to satisfy the senses, that there is a poetry of language, and that this concrete physical language to which I refer is truly theatrical only to the degree that the thoughts it expresses are beyond the reach of the spoken word." --Antonin Artaud, "Metaphysics and the Mise en Scène", in The Theater and Its Double (1938)
Concorso di Idee Entrando a Mantova - The Brief
IN/ARCH - The Results
Mantova Mise en Scène (full dossier)Milieu(x) and Anti-Milieu(x) (passim)