For six consecutive days, Formenti met in Torino, Italy six citizens of African origin:
from refugees to people living in Italy since many years.
The meetings were individual, intimate and on a one-on-one basis,
a full day with an unknown person, from morning to the night.
Protected and animated by the performance frame, these meetings become
advanced “studies of communication and musicianship”.
During the performances the two “strangers” get to deeply deal with each other,
and to question what music can be, beyond any difference of biography and of cultural identity.
“I’m not your Italiano” is an insolent/deferent bow to African-American writer James Baldwin, to his
“I’m not your Negro”.
“A rather desperate way to deal with your own white-European background”, so Formenti.
After the daily performances, the seven individuals met again and again and created together,
and on a eye level, a collective music performance.
performances @ Festival Umlaut, Torino 2018
marino formenti 