The “SCARTO/SCRAP The Value of What is Left” project is a interdisciplinary artistic journey on the relationship between dance, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and sustainability.

It addresses intergenerational injustice and eco-anxiety, which disproportionately affect the physical and mental health of the young generation across the globe. Using dance practices as a transformative way to understand Just Transition’s implications for ecological sustainability, the project encourages critical and imaginative thinking in students from 11 to 15 years old from schools in Bergamo (IT) and Helsinki (FI).

The project draws its coordinates from artists Masako Matsushita and Matteo Maffesanti’s SCARTO performance, which unravels the different implications of ‘waste’ when applied to machine learning, movement, and the environment. The three concepts are brought to the performative space to interact with each other, generating content and images that mimic and transcend reality.
Along the path of finding common ground for positive environmental, physical, and digital regeneration, a futuristic creature is born. The dancer turns into a mermaid swimming through a sea of digital content, looking for allies to shape a better future. The body on stage is driven into a flux of questions and answers, where lines are blurred until we hear the sound of nature.

The performance promotes an open dialogue, especially among the young generations, who are the unintentional protagonists of the complexity of these liminal times. By mixing dance, theatre, and visual art techniques, the performance promotes a conversation on human resilience while encouraging a more sensitive behavior towards our bodies and the environment.

Free of charge, booking necessary: annantalo.fi, from. 12.1.

SCARTO/SCRAP is a project by 23/C ART Bergamo and Annantalo Art Center Helsinki

It is funded by the Culture of Solidarity Fund of the European Cultural Foundation in collaboration with the Cariplo Foundation, the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, the CRC Foundation, and the CRT Foundation.
With the support of the European Union through the Culture Moves Europe program
With the contribution of Linificio e Canapificio Nazionale srl Benefit Society and the Italian Cultural Institute of Helsinki.
Media partnership with Italia che Cambia