Mont Ventoux.

Presentation

Inspired by Petrarch's Ascent of Mont Ventoux, the KOR'SIA collective seeks answers from the humanist past for the conflicts being proposed to us by a 21st-century paradigm shift: the construction of an individual capable of rebuilding themselves and the planet. “Relentless toil overcomes all difficulties" Francesco Petrarch (1336)

“Relentless toil overcomes all difficulties" Francesco Petrarch (1336)Francesco Petrarch wrote Ascent of Mont Ventoux in 1336. In what appears to be a letter to a friend recounting the ascent of a mountain on a normal April afternoon. It represents the climb towards a new paradigm in which the individual will become the center of the world. Throughout the history of Western thought, human beings have imagined and invented devices that they considered valuable for their survival and development: humanism, modernity, democracy, peace, human rights, ecology, the arts... Machines for the production of meaning that have provided us with a space in which to develop our lives, to be, and to live together. As the KOR'SIA collective sees it, great stories like Mont Ventoux also offer us the possibility of finding past wisdom in their words, making for a better experience of the present. And, above all, the construction of a better future for all. The world understood as an open work, a work in progress in which we are all participants and to which we ourselves want to contribute.

Petrarch did not just summit a mountain in 1336, but he also offered us a change in the evolution of the world: humanism. Through his own reflection, his upward journey, he provides us with an escape from the dark years marked by the Middle Ages. A few years of darkness, like the ones that we too have experienced, seven centuries later and in lesser numbers, but in greater acceleration, since 2019, and that, for the first time, seem to destabilize the structures that sustain us as a community and mark a future that appears too uncertain for us.

Petrarch, as a humanist, warns us: "We must wake up from lethargy, break the molds", climb the mountain, look down from above, live with nature, do a mass philanthropic exercise, and put the human being at the center again, to remedy the future of the planet. And what better way to do it than through dancing bodies.

Artistic Team

The Mont Ventoux project is supported by a unique team of professionals who have been working together for several years and achieving excellent results. Agnés López Río, professor of Performing Arts, will be in charge of dramaturgy. Dramaturgical assistance will be provided by Giuseppe Dagostino. Luca Guarini, creative and founder/editor-in-chief of Dust Magazine, will be in charge of wardrobe and creating links with haute couture houses. Sets and lighting will be created by Amber Vandenhoeck, set and lighting designer, based in Antwerp, Belgium. Alejandro da Rocha will be in charge of music. The KOR'SIA team is rounded out by nine professional and emerging performers. As KOR'SIA collective, we understand that the idea of a univocal "I", conformed or fully configured in a stable and finite way, has ceased to "be" and prevail, transforming the paradigm that shapes the ontology of what we understand by "body" in the twenty-first century, from every field: psychology, philosophy, anthropology, medicine, and science; and this is irremediably transforming that which had been considered as univocal until now, into an amalgam of nomadic subjectivities or identities of flux. Throughout the years, KOR'SIA has received numerous awards for its choreography: International Choreography Competition New York-Burgos; Certamen Coreográfico de Madrid, Madrid; Copenhagen International Choreography Competition, Copenhagen, Danemark, 2015; Concours Chorégraphique Contemporain Jeunes Compagnies, France, Conseil Régional de Bourgogne & Synodales, Sens, France; Bordeaux National Opera’s Ballet; the Malandain Ballet Biarritz with the CCN Ballet de l’Opéra national du Rhin; Tanz Plattform Bern; and Premio Positano.

Co-producing Partners