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Aug 31 2015 - 15:00

Giardino della danza

Between Art and Biodiversity

ROBIN CRISTOFARI, PACO DÈCINA AND MICHELE LANZINGER

Robin Cristofari, PhD student in biology, Paco Dècina, choreographer, and Michele Lanziger, Italian representative on the board of ECSITE.

What happens when a choreographer meets a scientist? And what if this meeting takes place on an island in Antarctica? The encounter at a scientific station between Robin Cristofari and Paco Dècina has led to a fertile opening in the daily life of studies. The choreographer, unlike the scholar, advocates for an approach based on sensation and feeling, which is in stark contrast to scientific rationalism, thus forcing a rethinking of the framework and limits of scientific research. The meeting took place while Robin Cristofari was on Possession Island, in the Crozet archipelago, to monitor the penguin colonies.

Event organized in collaboration with MUSE - Museum of Sciences.

Robin Cristofari, born in 1987, dedicated himself to biology after studying the humanities, first focusing on paleontology in Pittsburgh (USA) and then on marine ecology and genetics in Oslo. He is currently engaged in a doctoral research program supported by the Oceanographic Center of Monaco, the University of Strasbourg, and the Center for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (University of Oslo). His research focus is centered on diversity: the current research project concentrates on the presence of penguins in Antarctica and the Sub-Antarctic in relation to climate changes, with a perspective that combines science, ethics, and philosophy through various levels of inquiry.

Paco Dècina, born in Naples, after his studies and collaborations with various companies in Italy, moved to Paris, where in 1986 he began teaching dance at the Conservatoire Municipal de Champigny-sur-Marne and simultaneously founded the Compagnie Post-Retroguardia. From a stay in the Crozet archipelago, where he met Robin Cristofari, he returned with numerous sound and video recordings that form the basis for the creation of La douceur perméable de la rosée, scheduled to be performed at the Oriente Occidente Festival. The festival will also host, in collaboration with MUSE and as a national premiere, the show La Promenade, at the museum itself.

Michele Lanzinger, a graduate in geological sciences and a PhD in anthropological sciences, was appointed curator of the Section of Geology and Human Paleontology at the Museum of Sciences in 1988. Since 1992, he has directed MUSE, during which time he has developed an extensive program of temporary exhibitions and promoted the educational activities of the Museum. From 1997 to 2004, he served as president of ANMS, the National Association of Scientific Museums. Since 2011, he has been the sole Italian representative on the board of ECSITE, the European network of science museums and centers.