A REVIEW OF TWIS SUMMER RETREAT 2018
Exploring the Human Voice in Motion in the Nature
with Irena Z. Tomažin and Alessio Castellacci
June 12-21, 2018
Casina Settarte (Ostuni, Puglia, Italy)
The first TWIS Summer Retreat has been a full blast of sounds, encounters, emotions, soul food, and immersion in the nature.
The retreat has been hosted by Casina Settarte in Valle D' Itria / Puglia (South Italy), which has become our home, research lab and meditation hub for 10 intense days. The group of 11 participants was comprised mostly (but not only) by movement and sound artists who felt the call to deepen their relationship between voice and body, sound vibration and flesh, working in a more natural environment.
Living and working together has been an immensely inspiring experience and has brought the artistic and human practice to a new level, with many hours of classes everyday day in the spacious outdoor studio surrounded by the natural soundscape, as well moments of leisure and culinary bliss with fresh local food prepared for us everyday. Living in the countryside has also posed its challenges, with some logistics to be rearranged after two unexpected early Summer thunder storms (yes, climate change is real). Few raids have been organised to the close typical villages of Cisternino and Ostuni, and an excursion to the abandoned Monastery of San Biagio, silently hidden inside a small wild wood. At the end of the Retreat, leaving Casina and the group has been an emotional experience for all!
TWIS Summer Retreat 2018 participants are: Parashar Kulkarni, Nicole Nigro, Mariana Barbosa Camacho, Matteo D'Ercole, Hadi Boustani, Florance Freitag, Lisa Stewart, Katarina Juvančič, Daimde Rijke, Donata Kramarz, Luisa Oxoa.
*Special thanks to Germana Siciliani and Francesco Zita from Casina Settarte for their warmest hospitality, and to Florence Freitag and Katarina Juvančič for being the group's third eye, documenting so skilfully some of the sweetest moments.
photo credits: Katarina Juvančič