14 February 2025

10:00 – 1700h

WAITING WARS | Research Workshop Session by Maria Luigia Gioffre

As part of Contested Desires, Constructive Dialogues, artist-scholar Maria Luigia Gioffre has been selected for a residency in the Netherlands, hosted by H401, CreativeCourt and Kunstfort Vijfhuizen.

Her workshop is inspired by the idea of soldiers waiting for the unknown. It consists of two parts: a discussion on how we prepare for possible catastrophe—whether environmental collapse or the consequences of capitalism—and an active theatrical exercise translating these reflections into performance. Objects, such as Kunstfort’s field beds, may serve as symbolic elements in the staging.

A small group of volunteer participants is invited to reflect on contemporary echoes of wartime anticipation. In a judgment-free space of care, the workshop explores urgent existential concerns, both personal and collective, linked to the failures of Western capitalism and the unfolding global environmental crisis.

Using art as a tool for world-making and affective writing as an aesthetic practice, participants will navigate speculative imaginaries that touch on themes of displacement, vanishing, homelessness, rising sea levels, and life-threatening environmental conditions. The process aims to reimagine possible futures and interrogate how we define war in today’s context.

Set at Kunstfort, a UNESCO World Heritage site, this dialogue connects historical wartime structures with present fears, fostering new interpretations of conflict, survival, and resilience in an era of profound global uncertainty.

20 February 2025
Performance & Artist Talks
TBA.

As part of Contested Desires, Constructive Dialogues, artists Maria Luigia Gioffrè and Carlos Noronha Feio have been selected for a residency in the Netherlands, hosted by H401, CreativeCourt, and Kunstfort Vijfhuizen.

On February 20th, they will present insights from their residency, with Maria Luigia Gioffrè hosting a performance and Carlos Noronha Feio delivering an artist talk.

Maria Luigia’s performance “Waiting Wars” is a site-specific intervention responding to the historical heritage of Fort bij Vijfhuizen—a UNESCO World Heritage Site originally designed as part of Amsterdam’s defense line against an enemy that never arrived. The piece explores emotional landscapes tied to the anticipation of war, expanding on the concept from a contemporary perspective. Within the broader discourse on Europe’s colonial past, the performance examines chants and spontaneous dance movements as forms of resistance. It features a ritual song from Calabria’s Mediterranean tradition, placing it in dialogue with the historical setting of the Amsterdam Defence Line.

Carlos’s talk will focus on creolisation and the concept of otherness, which takes shape in a site-specific installation he will discuss on that day.

For more information about Contested Desires, Constructive Dialogue click here.