Talks, participatory performance and training for art in public space, curated by FNAS – National Federation of Street Arts – and Il Cinghiale e la Balena APS, with the support of the Civic Museum of Castelbuono, the F. Minà Palumbo Naturalistic Museum, and the Municipality of Castelbuono, and with funding from the Ministry of Culture, Directorate-General for Performing Arts.

7–11 October 2024
Online training for participants in the programme
Programme and registration: https://www.outdoorarts.it/it/event/fnas-lab-2024-3/register

13–19 October 2024
Artist residency with public presentation and free events
Palazzo Failla, Via Garibaldi 67, Castelbuono

For the third consecutive year, FNAS Lab returns to Castelbuono: a training programme aimed at artists from diverse backgrounds who are interested in developing projects in public space and in unconventional contexts through participatory practices.

It is an immersive, practice-based and theoretical training laboratory embedded within the community of Castelbuono, including moments of public engagement. The in-person training is open to a maximum of 10 participants. The programme opens on 13 October with a rich schedule of talks and free performances, followed by an intensive residency from 14 to 19 October.

This year’s tutor is Adrian Schvarzstein, an eclectic artist whose work spans street theatre, contemporary circus, opera, and baroque music.

The Nomadic Alternative
A workshop by Adrian Schvarzstein

This year, FNAS Lab Castelbuono shifts location, changing its working area while maintaining a focus on decentralisation and the active participation of local residents. The main activities will take place in the gardens of Palazzo Failla—public gardens currently disused and hidden within the palace courtyard.

The “abandoned” garden becomes a source of vitality, a symbol of freedom, expression, and life beyond contemporary values of performance, efficiency, and productivity. The garden is conceived as a new way of thinking about our relationship with space, and consequently about a renewed role for human beings on earth—closer to that of caretaker, guardian, and custodian of the spaces we inhabit.

The central theme of this year’s programme is therefore the relationship between performing arts and nature. Throughout the residency, participants will work within this garden around the idea of a “paradise on earth”, seeking to create a non-conventional space that transcends restrictive boundaries—not only physical but also ideological.

A temporary set-up, a relational infrastructure for inhabiting places that sometimes exist and sometimes do not, will place at its core a reflection on the cultural parameters that define contemporaneity: mobility, flexibility, adaptability, and dynamism.

A “paradisiacal camp” will evoke the idea of a fluid city, where spaces of dwelling alternate with spaces of movement. During the day, artists will explore and inhabit the local area; in the evening, within the garden, they will develop and share their experiences both internally and with the residents of the neighbourhoods involved.

Unlike the 2023 edition of FNAS Lab, in which participating artists entered the homes of residents in the Vetriera district, this year’s aim is to invite the people of Castelbuono into this “Paradise”, transforming it into a place of gathering and cultural exchange over the course of a dynamic week, attentive to the interplay of languages and the cross-fertilisation of disciplines and genres.

Nomadism, in this sense, reflects the working methodology of the association Il Cinghiale e la Balena: identifying a non-central area of the town, revitalising it artistically and socially, and then moving on once again.