From June 18 to October 25 2025, Tor Bella Monaca

Polo ex Fienile, Largo Ferruccio Mengaroni 29, Rome

Anna Basti • BLCKEBY and Horror Vacui • Bosco Marino • CIRCA • Irene Dani and Arianna Scarnecchia / Sonodramma • Daria Deflorian • FOSSICK PROJECT • Daria Greco • mk • Muta Imago • Giovanni Onorato and Noemi Piva • Andrea Pizzalis • Giulia Scotti • Elena Vastano
and more…

Find out more about the final day on October 25 ⟶

In Tor Bella Monaca, there are voices that intertwine and gestures that tell stories even before becoming words. E ti vengo a cercare is a journey made of encounters, lights, sounds, signs, and moving bodies. A shared time to find the center within the peripheries, to inhabit space with questions and attention, care and desire.

From June to October, the Polo Ex Fienile hosts an open experiment of listening and transformation. Artists, children, teenagers, women, residents, and passersby come together to build a collective narrative made of stories and photographs, drawings and dances, performances and poems.

In the end, there will be a celebration. But in the meantime, we walk, we gather, we ignite.

Registrations for the workshops are open: an invitation to take part, from within, in this shared experience.

To participate, send an email to info@index-productions.com including your name, surname, phone number, and a few lines telling us what draws you to the workshop and what connection you have with Tor Bella Monaca.

All activities are free of charge. Places are limited, and registrations will remain open until all available spots are filled.

CIRCA, with interventions by the artistic direction of INDEX

IN UNA QUALUNQUE PARTE DEL PIANETA_LABORATORIO

18, 20, 25 June + 23, 24 October 2025 | 16:00—19:00

Polo ex Fienile, Rome

workshop open to children aged 9 to 14 who take part in the activities of Polo ex Fienile

The workshop will focus on the artistic exploration of the neighbourhood surrounding the Polo Ex Fienile in Tor Bella Monaca. Through a process of listening, observation, and imagination, young participants aged 9 to 14 will be invited to explore the urban and human landscape of the area—a place crossed daily by multiple communities yet often experienced without being truly seen. The aim of the workshop is to broaden one’s gaze and sharpen the ability to listen by taking time to notice what lies around us: the marginal, the unexpected, and the seemingly unimportant. Reflections, memories, and wishes about what happens—or could happen—there will be gathered. A mapping of the geographical and social surroundings of the participants will then be created, generating materials and creative insights that will give shape to new visions of the neighborhood.

The outcomes of the workshop will be integrated into the larger performance project In una qualunque parte del pianeta, which will take place during the final day of the project on October 25.

CIRCA is a collective of filmmakers, photographers, and video editors composed of Laura Accardo, Eleonora Mattozzi, and Maria Giovanna Sodero. They studied together at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and have been working in the field of audiovisual documentation since 2019. They collaborate regularly with several Roman organizations, including the Short Theatre festival, INDEX productions, and PAV. Drawing on their artistic practices and the tools of documentary filmmaking, they lead multimedia workshops of observation and storytelling in various secondary schools in Rome (for example, at Rosa Parks – Carlo Pisacane campus in Torpignattara and the Palombini Comprehensive Institute in Rebibbia).

Anna Basti

GLIMPSES OF STARS

25 June + 9 July + 10 September + 1, 15, 22 October 2025 | 10:00—13:00

Polo ex Fienile, Rome

workshop open to women and people who identify as female and who take part in the activities of Polo ex Fienile

The intention is to nurture awareness of our bodies and their potential, to release tensions by caring for them, and to inhabit all the space our bodies need. Together we will explore different movement and body practices, with the aim of sharing approaches and strategies that can become tools of care available to everyone who takes part in this proposal.

Glimpses of stars takes shape as a multiform and ever-changing container with an elastic and porous perimeter. Starting from the broader research project Carmen_nous sommes toustes des étoiles, it grows from the desire to become a place of intersection — where different lines of research can converge, and where the body continues to be observed through a material lens.

Anna Basti is a dancer, performer, and independent researcher, with a background rooted in classical and contemporary dance. Her current research focuses on the body as a complex and porous organism informed by its surrounding context. This research unfolds through project platforms that employ different formats, primarily aimed at working with and sharing knowledge with bodies not trained in movement techniques. She is currently co-curating Festival Marosi, held on the island of Stromboli, and developing the project platforms Le classique c’est chic! and Indagine sullo stato dei corpi. Her projects have been hosted by various festivals and institutions, including Lavanderia a Vapore (Turin), RicercaX (Turin), Festival Fuori Programma (Rome), and Festival Intersezioni (Rome).

Andrea Pizzalis

L’ERBA DEL MIO VICINO
peeks and gossip to imagine other people’s lives

2—5 + 17—19 October 2025 (participation is also possible in only one of the two modules) | 16:00—19:00

Polo ex Fienile, Rome

workshop open to people interested in storytelling and photography aged 16 and over, with registration through a public call until all available places are filled

Peepholes, shutters, holes cut in newspaper pages. Through hedges, rear-view mirrors, surveillance cameras, posts, stories. The tools change, but the desire remains the same: to look and to imagine.

In 1966, writer, painter, and art critic John Berger, together with photographer Jean Mohr, followed for months the work of a country doctor, John Sassall. The result was A Fortunate Man, a work in which words and images intertwine to tell the deep relationship between a man, his work, and the community around him. It is both a poetic and sociological portrait, reminding us how every individual biography is rooted in a collective human landscape.

L’erba del mio vicino draws inspiration from that spirit of attention but reinterprets it in a playful and provocative way, starting from an uncomfortable question: what if our gaze were driven by envy? Not a corrosive envy, but a primal spark — that small tension, sometimes even slightly mischievous, that takes hold of us when we see a life that isn’t ours and feel the urge to understand it, reinvent it, tell it. What do these lives — the ones we don’t know, that brush past us without belonging to us — have to do with us? In times of exasperated individualism and digital solitude, the workshop invites us to look at others again — not only at who we are not, but also at who we do not know at all. The strangers who pass through our existence leaving no trace. How can we tell their stories without invading them? How can we make them present without distorting them? We will observe, write, photograph — alone and in groups, indoors and outdoors. We will collect materials, build portraits, and even allow ourselves the luxury of venting a little, with wicked imagination! Participants will be guided through a process of narrative exploration starting from images that are not their own (archives, found photos, shared snapshots) or from direct documentation of a real person.

The goal? To create a narrative portrait: a visual and textual story that highlights not only the outward appearance of the subject but also their inner landscape, the invisible conflicts, and emotional tensions that run through them. As in A Fortunate Man, we will not seek an objective truth but one that arises from the gaze and the relationship. A way of being in contact, of generating stories from an attentive and responsible look. An opportunity to rediscover, even within and around Tor Bella Monaca, that the grass on the other side — after all — is a garden of delights in which we have already put down roots. And that telling it might mean, finally, learning to truly look.

Andrea Pizzalis, born in Rome, is a director, photographer, and art director. He has worked as an actor with artists such as Emma Dante and ricci/forte. Since 2019, he has collaborated as a dramaturg and assistant director with Daria Deflorian, while continuing to develop his own artistic projects. Since 2010, he has pursued a freelance career as a photographer and art director, which led him in 2011 to be selected by Vogue Italia as one of the 100 Best Photographers for Photovogue 2011, included in the group exhibition It’s all about time. He collaborates with major cultural institutions and organizations, including MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, MAXXI L’Aquila, Museo delle Civiltà in Rome, Fondazione Romaeuropa, Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Palazzo Grassi – Punta della Dogana, and Centrale Fies.

Giulia Scotti

DI COSA PARLIAMO QUANDO PARLIAMO D’AMORE

10—12 + 17—19 October 2025 | 16:00—19:00

Polo ex Fienile, Rome

workshop open to people interested in drawing and illustration aged 15 and over, registration through a public call until all available spots are filled

Raymond Carver has confused ideas on the matter: like all of us, he doesn’t really face the subject but circles around it.

In his book What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, he gathers seventeen short stories that question love without ever really naming it. The lives of his characters — often people who can’t quite make sense of things — touch or brush against each other within ordinary situations where nothing particularly important seems to happen.

Carver’s lesson, among others, is precisely this: to tell something that’s hard to put into words, like love, by seeking it in the everyday, trusting that enchantment can emerge from small things.

This workshop takes its cue from that collection of stories and from the paraphrased question that gives it its title: what do we talk about, today, when we talk about love?

How do young people — like Carver’s characters, people who can’t quite make sense of things — talk about love? Which words do they choose, which places, which objects?

Using the stories as a starting reference, participants will be invited to write, in small groups and/or individually, short scenes that tell what love means to them.

These scenes will then become the basis for drawing a comic story.

Giulia Scotti ⟶

Giovanni Onorato

NON PARLIAMO LA STESSA LINGUA

20—24 October 2025 | 15:00—19:00

Polo ex Fienile, Rome

workshop open to teenagers aged 15 to 20, registration through a public call until all available spots are filled

A workshop for teenagers, this project proposes a journey of exploring authorship through words, images, gestures, and memories. Who are we, really? Are we the conditions we’re born into, or the ones we secretly long for?

Designed for people with no theatrical or stage experience, the activity encourages participants to tell their own stories in an authentic and creative way, overcoming predefined roles and frameworks. Starting from the idea that even the most confused memories or the most embarrassing fragments can reveal deep desires and identities, participants will be invited to bring personal materials — texts, drawings, music, or old diary pages — which will serve as the starting point for creating a shared narrative.

During the workshop, dancer and choreographer Noemi Piva will lead participants through long improvisation sessions. It’s an opportunity to explore one’s own language, experiment with new ways of communicating, and discover the poetic and revolutionary power of words. Everything is writing. The way we choose to tell our stories defines who we are in the world. The way we are taught to tell them can make us bloom or suffocate us. “Words are important!”

Which words will the different participants choose? Will their languages manage to communicate? Will their collective narrative need a manifesto? Will they be able to spark a small revolution?

Giovanni Onorato ⟶

Noemi Piva is an author, dancer, and visual artist with an approach that integrates these languages. She is currently involved in several projects as a performer and is developing her third work settembre non arriverà mai (UMIDA). In recent years, she has been awarded several residency grants, including KOMM TANZ, Alloggiando, and Permutazioni. She has been hosted in spaces such as Villa Nappi, S’ALA, Supercinema di Tuscania, and NOD. Since 2018 she has collaborated as a dancer with artists from the national and international scene.

Elena Vastano

LA LUCE, L’OCCHIO, L’ARCHITETTURA

20—24 October 2025 | 15:00—19:00

Polo ex Fienile, Rome

in collaboration with the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma

workshop open to university students and people interested in light aged 18 and over, registration through a public call until all available spots are filled

The workshop explores the relationship between natural and artificial light, delving into its role in architecture, space, and human perception—both visual and emotional. The theoretical part will analyze the main characteristics of lighting bodies (color temperature, lumens, etc.) and the criteria for their placement within spaces. The practical part includes a collaboration with a lighting service company to directly test tools and lighting techniques.

The process will culminate in a field exercise, such as the lighting design of the Polo ex Fienile and the exhibitions presented during the project’s final event.

Elena Vastano, born in 1989, is a theatre lighting designer. After earning a degree in architecture from the University of Florence, she deepened her expertise in lighting design by attending a Lighting Design workshop at the Politecnico di Milano focused on the enhancement of cultural heritage. She has worked in lighting design studios, developing aesthetic and functional solutions with particular attention to the impact of light on environments and people. Since 2015, she has been working as a lighting technician and theatre lighting designer, combining technical knowledge with daily practice and artistic creativity, bringing her lighting designs to stages across Italy.

a project by INDEX, conceived and curated by Irene Dani and Arianna Scarnecchia / Sonodramma

TOR BELLA MONACA TALES

from 15 July to 25 October 2025 | Tor Bella Monaca, Rome

Tor Bella Monaca Tales is born from an act of listening. Irene Dani and Arianna Scarnecchia walk alongside voices, collecting small gestures, full silences, and words, building relationships with those who inhabit the neighborhood in their daily lives.

The interviews do not seek characters, but presences: men and women, boys and girls, stories that emerge like veins in stone. These voices become sound — a podcast, and then vinyl records, tangible objects that remain. A small “discotheque of memory” will come to life at the Polo ex Fienile: not for dancing, but for listening. To stop for a moment and truly hear what flows beneath the surface.

It is a living, imperfect, and human archive. A place where the voice of a neighborhood becomes echo, becomes story, becomes future.

Irene Dani. Active in the field of sound production, with a background in Literature and Critical Theory, she experiments with the interaction of sounds and voices as an independent producer. She has collaborated with Usmaradio (RI) and, since 2023, co-curates “Sonodramma”, a project dedicated to sound narration and listening for Teatro del Lido di Ostia. She collaborates with Radio Papesse and works on workshops and training in the field of radio art. She is a researcher at the Archivio Diaristico Nazionale (AR) and, since 2024, a member of the sound production collective “Panothi”.

Arianna Scarnecchia is a documentary maker and reporter. MPhil in European Identities and Cultures. She has written about social and cultural issues for il manifesto, Alias, Altreconomia, Domani, and il Giornale della Musica. She is the author of podcasts and audio documentaries for Rai Radio 3, RSI, and Altreconomia. She has collaborated with the editorial teams of Prima Pagina and Tutta la città ne parla on Rai Radio 3. A member of the Italian Oral History Association, she works on projects dedicated to memory and its narration in audio form. In 2025, she co-curated the listening series “Sonodramma” for Teatro del Lido di Ostia. Since 2024, she has been part of the sound production collective “Panothi”.

E TI VENGO A CERCARE

25 October 2025 | Tor Bella Monaca, Rome

E ti vengo a cercare concludes with an entire day spent together, in the slow rhythm of care, play, and listening.

From the morning, the Polo ex Fienile and the surrounding spaces come alive with lights, images, words, and drawings exploring what love is — telling stories and letting ourselves be surprised by a gaze that looks beyond the hedge, that imagines without invading, that observes and turns into imagination. Bodies move together, guided by the vibrations of sound and by the voices gathered throughout the neighbourhood. Lunch is shared, weaving together recipes, memories, and origins, savouring the simple pleasure of being together. The afternoon is filled with inventions, fantastic creatures, dances, and games. As darkness falls, façades turn into visual stories: images emerge like dreams, revealing the wonder hidden in everyday life. The night arrives with music, still carrying the moving bodies along.

A whole day to come and find each other.

Find out more about the final day on October 25 ⟶