THE MOUNTAIN OF ADVANCED DREAMS
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2022-2023
concept, curation and realization:
Mali Weil
proposed and co-produced by:
Centrale Fies + Mali Weil
with:
Festspillene i Nord-Norge (NO)
Bunker Ljubljana (SL)
in collaboration with:
Hamburger Bahnhof (DE)
Museo Madre Naples (IT)
Museo Nazionale della Montagna (IT)
Art+Château (CH)
Kunstraum Innsbruck (AT)
DAMU Academy of Performing Arts Prague (CZ)
scientific partners:
MUSE-Museo delle Scienze
Centro Uomini e Lupi / Aree Protette delle Alpi Marittime
Life Wolfalps EU
project supported by:
Italian Council X (2021)
Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity,
Italian Ministry of Culture
financed by:
Culture Moves Europe programme
by the European Union actuated by Goethe-Institut
with the support of:
Provincia Autonoma di Trento
Regione Trentino Alto-Adige
Fondazione Caritro
The Mountain of Advanced Dreams is a research based art project, initiated by Mali Weil, which critically focuses on interspecies diplomacies, or on the possibilities we have to imagine different relationships with other beings, living and non-living.
Taking as pivotal a relationship that lies at the heart of the European imagination, that between humans and wolves, the project devises a fictional space which crosses multiple philosophical, legal, biological and narrative directions.
The research is unfolding through a set of dispersed yet converging actions to create a world where humans have changed their ways of living, mythologies, and rituals towards a political and social system based on the art of cultivating cohabitation relationships between different beings and territories, through negotiation and alliances among multispecies political communities. In this world, there exist Interspecies Diplomacies: diplomatic hierarchies spread worldwide through cenacles, which welcome and train diplomats from early childhood.
The work so far integrates film, performance, design, installation, as well as discursive and editorial practices, workshops, curated programs and writing into a unified world-building process.
Currently coexisting in the same universe are a film (Rituals), a tapestry (Divina et Devorator), a series of jewels design (Imago), along with a performance and two publications, but Mali Weil also initiated the School of Interspecies Diplomacies and Werewolfish Studies, as an open and itinerant time/space for training and research on interspecies diplomatic practices.
IT
The Mountain of Advanced Dreams è una ricerca artistica di Mali Weil che si focalizza criticamente sul concetto di diplomazie interspecie, ovvero sulle possibilità che abbiamo di immaginare relazioni diverse con altri esseri, viventi e non viventi.
Prendendo come spunto una relazione situata al centro dell’immaginario dell’Europa, quella tra esseri umani e lupi, il progetto costruisce uno spazio fictional che attraversa molteplici direzioni filosofiche, legali, biologiche e narrative.
La ricerca si sviluppa attraverso un insieme di azioni distribuite e convergenti per creare un mondo dove gli esseri umani hanno cambiato i loro modi di vita, le mitologie e i rituali in favore di un sistema politico e sociale basato sull’arte di coltivare relazioni di coabitazione tra esseri e territori diversi, attraverso processi di negoziazione e alleanze tra comunità politiche multispecie. In questo mondo esistono le Diplomazie Interspecie: gerarchie diplomatiche diffuse in cenacoli sparsi per tutto il globo, che accolgono e formano diplomatici fin dalla primissima infanzia.
Il lavoro integra film, performance, design, installazioni, oltre a pratiche discorsive ed editoriali, workshop, programmi curati e scrittura in un processo unitario di world-building.
Attualmente coesistono nello stesso universo un film (Rituals), un arazzo (Divina et Devorator), due serie di jewel design (Imago), una performance e due pubblicazioni, ma Mali Weil ha anche fondato la Scuola di Diplomazie Interspecie e Studi Licantropici, uno spazio aperto e mobile per la ricerca e la formazione di futurə diplomaticə interspecie.
MYTHOLOGY
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DIVINA ET DEVORATOR
Jacquard tapestry with embroidery (cotton, viscose, metallic thread, pearls)
500×120 cm
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testRITUALS
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RITUALS
2-channel video, 43′, 4k, stereo
Conceived on two channels, the film follows three different rituals articulated around the themes of the body, language, devouring, death, and dreams. Through a fictional narrative structure, it outlines a world in which Interspecies Diplomacies emerge as a radical fact that touches the individual lives of those who choose this profession.
The three rituals belong to distinct Cenacles: two mirror each other and present some trials to enter and exit “by devouring” from the diplomatic career, marking the overcoming of the typically Western idea that sees anthropos at the top of the food chain, as a devourer who cannot be devoured. From the perspective of Interspecies Diplomacies, in fact, devouring is a negotiation ground to forge alliances with a specific territory, to the point of becoming kin with it.
The third is an initiation ritual through the ancient Dionysian ceremony of oscillation which, in the world of Interspecies Diplomacies, allows access to the Mountain of Advanced Dreams, thus a form of knowledge and connection with Otherness that occurs through the practice of a “shared” dream.
For full credits scroll till the end of the page.
RITUALS
video a 2 canali, 43′, 4k, stereo
Concepito su due canali, il film segue tre diversi rituali articolati intorno ai temi del corpo, del linguaggio, della divorazione e della morte, del sogno. Tramite una struttura narrativa fictional delinea un mondo in cui le Diplomazie Interspecie emergono come un fatto radicale che tocca la vita individuale di chi sceglie questa professione, anche in giovane età.
I tre riti appartengono a Cenacoli distinti: due sono speculari l’uno all’altro e presentano alcune prove per entrare e uscire “per divorazione” dalla carriera diplomatica, sancendo il superamento di quell’idea tipicamente occidentale che vede l’anthropos al vertice della catena alimentare, come un divoratore che non può essere divorato. Dal punto di vista delle Diplomazie interspecie, infatti, divorare è un terreno di negoziazione per stringere alleanze con un determinato territorio fino a imparentarsi con esso.
Il terzo è un rito di iniziazione attraverso l’antico cerimoniale dionisiaco dell’oscillazione, che nel mondo delle Diplomazie Interspecie permette di accedere alla Montagna dei Sogni Avanzati, quindi a una forma di conoscenza e di connessione con l’Alterità che avviene attraverso la pratica di un sogno “condiviso”.
I crediti completi sono riportati sotto, scorrendo a fine pagina.
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Rituals, video stills
IMAGO
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IMAGO (series)
silver with gold electroplating, velvet gillet
170 x 0.8 mm
Created to serve as a global diplomatic passport that does not assign any specific nationality, Imago functions as a legal alphabet comprising a grammar with a nuanced ars combinatoria. Various combinations enable diplomats worldwide to visually indicate the laws they seek to align themselves and their respective assemblages with. Having full legal validity in the international arena and meeting all etiquette-based requirements, Imago take the form of ceremonial pins or daggers made from a range of materials. The official variants often feature combinations of rare metals.
Create con la funzione di passaporto diplomatico planetario pur non riconoscendo nessuna nazionalità, le Imago sono una sorta di alfabeto giuridico la cui grammatica risponde a una complessa ars combinatoria. Le diverse combinazioni permettono a diplomatici e diplomatiche di ogni parte del mondo di segnalare visivamente le leggi sotto la cui protezione intendono porre se stessə e i propri assemblaggi. Dotate di pieno valore legale sul piano internazionale e rispondendo anche alle esigenze imposte dall’etichetta, le Imago sono forgiate come spille/pugnali cerimoniali in diversi materiali. Quelle ufficiali sono solitamente in combinazioni di metalli rari.
EXPERIENCE
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Performance, 65′
The Mountain of Advanced Dreams | Performance is an introductory seminar on advanced dreaming practices offered by the Department of Oneiromancy of the School of Interspecies Diplomacies and Werewolfish Studies.
The seminar explores dreaming as a multispecies knowledge tool and its space as a place of relationship between humans and Others-than-human.
For centuries, dreaming has been a powerful form of knowledge for humans, a political space for social negotiation and a tool for imaginative transformation and resistance. Dreaming could affect an entire community, offer a warning, enact a ban. Thanks to dreams, cities have been founded, alliances made, religions embraced. And animals of all kinds, the dead, spirits, deities, plants, entire ecosystems have found space to speak in dreams. Even if our dreaming is now scarcely inhabited, it is still a meeting place where relationships -which seem lost to us in the waking state- become possible again. Dreaming sharpens our appetite for Otherness.
Mali Weil invites the audience to be part of a fiction as an act of political imagination, because the first step in building the relationships we lack is to shape them through storytelling and dreaming…
The seminar lasts approximately 1 hour, and no specific preparation is required.
Performance, 65′
The Mountain of Advanced Dreams | Performance è un seminario introduttivo alle pratiche di sogno avanzato, proposto dal Dipartimento di Oniromanzia della Scuola di Diplomazie Interspecie e Studi Licantropici.
Il seminario esplora il sogno come strumento di conoscenza interspecie e il suo spazio come luogo di relazione tra umani e oltreumani.
Per secoli, il sogno è stato un’importante forma di conoscenza per gli esseri umani, uno spazio politico per la negoziazione sociale e uno strumento di trasformazione e resistenza immaginativa. Il sogno poteva influenzare un’intera comunità, offrire un avvertimento, emanare un divieto. Grazie ai sogni sono state fondate città, strette alleanze, abbracciate religioni. E animali di ogni tipo, morti, spiriti, divinità, piante, interi ecosistemi hanno trovato spazio per parlare nei sogni.
Anche se il nostro sognare è oggi scarsamente abitato, è ancora un luogo d’incontro in cui relazioni – che ci sembrano perdute nello stato di veglia – diventano di nuovo possibili. Il sogno acuisce il nostro appetito per l’alterità.
Mali Weil propone un atto di immaginazione politica che gli spettatori sono invitati a condividere attraverso la fiction. Perché il primo passo per costruire le relazioni che ci mancano è fingerle, plasmarle attraverso il racconto e il sogno…
La durata del seminario è di ca. 1 ora e non è richiesta alcuna preparazione specifica.
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testSCHOOL OF INTERSPECIES DIPLOMACIES AND WEREWOLFISH STUDIES
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The School of Interspecies Diplomacy and Werewolfish Studies is a real and fictional institution founded in 2022 by Mali Weil, to foster the training of future diplomats, but it operates as well as a research centre on Werewolfish Studies.
Its programmes are open in a site-specific manner, at the invitation of cultural institutions, festivals, museums, etc.
Its mission is to devise and disseminate practices and research dedicated to nurturing relationships between the inhabitants of planet earth, with the aim of facilitating the transition from a high-impact, extractivist modus vivendi towards social, cultural and political forms marked by balance and coexistence. Systems where no component of the relational network of an ecosystem can be considered as a mere resource.
To date, it has organised intensive master classes, lectures and workshops, produced publications and performances. The School collaborates with museums and cultural institutions in Italy and abroad. It is currently resident at the National Mountain Museum in Turin, where it is conducting research on proto-diplomatic practices in mountain areas and recipient of the Tilling Roots&Seeds research grant from the European project of the same name.
In 2024 he will curate his first exhibition for MUSE-Museo di Scienze in Trento.
More information on the School can be found on the dedicated page.
La Scuola di Diplomazie Interspecie e Studi Licantropici è un’isitituzione reale e fictional fondata da Mali Weil nel 2022, per favorire la formazione di futuri diplomatici e operare come centro di ricerca sugli Studi Licantropici.
I propri programmi sono aperti in maniera site specific, su invito di istituzioni culturali, festival, musei, etc.
La sua mission è ideare e diffondere pratiche e ricerche dedicate alla cura delle relazioni tra abitanti del pianeta terra, nell’ottica di facilitare il passaggio da un modus vivendi improntato all’estrattivismo e ad alto impatto verso forme sociali, culturali e politiche improntate all’equilibrio e alla coesistenza. Sistemi dove nessuna componente della rete relazionale di un ecosistema possa essere considerata come semplice risorsa.
Fino ad oggi ha organizzato masterclass intensivi, lezioni e workshop, prodotto pubblicazioni e performance. Collabora con musei e istituzioni culturali in Italia e all’estero. Attualmente è residente al Museo Nazionale della Montagna di Torino dove sta curando una ricerca sulle pratiche proto-diplomatiche in aree montane e destinatario della grant di ricerca Tilling Roots&Seeds del progetto Europeo con lo stesso nome.
Nel 2024 curerà la sua prima mostra per MUSE-Museo di Scienze di Trento.
Per maggiori informazioni sulla Scuola si rimanda alla pagina dedicata.
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THEORY
The Mountain of Advanced Dreams understands the term “dream” as a relational space and an imaginative tool to create possible worlds where various forms of interspecies diplomacies, laws and politics are already established and performed.
“The purpose of our dreams,” says the philosopher Sorr-dja of Farfrit, a strong dreamer of the ancient Deyu Retreat, “is to enlarge our souls by letting us imagine all that can be imagined: to release us from the tyranny and bigotry of the individual self by letting us feel the fears, desires, and delights of every mind in every living body near us.”
RITUALS Credits
written, directed and edited by Mali Weil
photography Roberta Segata and Mali Weil
costumes Filippo Soffiati
musics Nicola Segatta
production Centrale Fies and Mali Weil
with Festspillene I Nord Norge
executive production Francesca Venezia
executive production Norway Eirin Lindtner Storesund, Mona Steffensen
soloist countertenor Raffaele Pe
food artist Lorenzo Barbasetti di Prun
with Egle Simenaite Valtteri Alanen, Leon Fisicaro, Grete Sommadossi Loner, Joseph Sommadossi Loner, Kåre Solheim, Johan-olai Solsem, Maja Seljebu, Adele Robertsen Berg, Aurora Nordahl, Helene Fagerheim, Nikoline KS Eilertsen, Duncan Kennedy
sound postproduction Giacomo Plotegher
extra operator Santiago Torresagasti
boom Marco Troiano
music recordist, mixing and postproduction Giacomo Plotegher
colorist Aaron Dorn
administration Vania Lorenzi, Roberta Savian
musics Mundus Patet and Rituals
text by Mali Weil
soloist countertenor Raffaele Pe
drums/tombak Alessandro Darsinos
double bass Massimo Riscoperto
cello Nicola Segatta
piano Geoff Westley
recorded at Società Filarmonica Trento
special thanks Barbara Boninsegna, Giulia Busetti, Emanuele Coccia, Andrea Lerda, Valentina Locatelli, Ragnheiður Skúladóttir, Michele Spanò, Dino Sommadossi, Kathryn Weir
Mali Weil © 2023
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photo credits:
Mali Weil
Roberta Segata and Alessandro Sala per Centrale Fies
Archivio MUSE – Museo delle Scienze, ph. Matteo De Stefano
stills from Rituals by Mali Weil, 2023