MAPPING.
A map on the aesthetics of performing arts for early years

Mapping is a large-scale cooperation project supported by the EU programme Creative Europe for the period December 2018 – November 2023. Visioni 2023 is the last event of the project.
An artistic research project focused on creating a sensorybased relationship between artists and very young children (from 0 to 6 years) during a performing act: a show, a concert, a performance.
Mapping is based on the shared idea that, since their birth, children have the right to be viewed as complete human beings, and not just as human becomings. They are citizens and spectators of today who have the right to be offered, since their earliest age, high-quality artistic products and to be
acknowledged a full cultural citizenship.
Mapping’s research work was carried out by TYA artists and researchers, and it can be described as a process full of questions that generated other questions, through which they started to “map” the youngest children’s aesthetic dimension.
The Map includes 24 questions on the sensory-based relationship between young children and artists, developed by reflecting upon the meaningful elements of this relationship and the basics of performing arts.

Visioni 2023 is a Mapping Festival, with a programme reflecting the aims of the European project.
In particular, during our five-year research work, we have reached three important results.

• Mapping co-productions
Mapping productions will be presented at the Festival:
Abaco by La Baracca – Testoni Ragazzi, FrÜh Stuck by Helios Theater (Germany), Hangmadar by Kolibri Theatre (Hungary), Let’s Build! di Polka Theatre (UK), Rothar by Branar in collaboration con Baboró International Arts Festival for Children (Ireland), Ventanas by Teatro Paraiso (Spain).

• Mapping Exhibition
Five exhibitions exploring the interactions between illustration and performing arts for early years: The
illustrated Map (34 original illustrations by four worldfamous artists, freely inspired by the 24  questions of the Map) and four exhibitions presented over the four editions of Children Spectators, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, (totalling 140 illustrations created by 129 international illustrators).

• Presentation of Mapping publications
As an open research project, Mapping left traces to be shared: seven publications about the Research on the Map, with focuses on Audience Development, Direction and Dramaturgy in performing arts for early years, as well as on experiences and the work shared with the illustrators, that brough to the exhibitions.

Mapping Exhibition

21 > 28 october
Biblioteca Salaborsa – Piazza del Nettuno, 3
Monday h. 14.30 – 19.00
from Tuesday to Saturday h. 10.00 – 19.00
Sunday h. 10.00 – 18.00
In the framework of the 20th edition of Visioni, one of the most extraordinary events is the Mapping Exhibition, which will be displayed in Salaborsa. The exhibition will retrace Mapping’s investigation, focused on the relationship between illustration, children’s literature, and performing arts for early years, trying to detect common points beyond all stereotypes and banalisations, with the awareness
that every language has its own expressive qualities, and therefore it is not always easy or possible to translate a picturebook into a theatre show or a piece of narration into a literary work for children.

The exhibition brings together two paths:
• Children Spectators – Exhibitions 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, for which we received 2,364 tables by illustrators from 72 countries. Of all these, we selected 140 (by 129 artists, of which 36 from Italy and 93 from 34 countries worldwide).
• The illustrated Map which involved four world-famous illustrators, Katsumi Komagata (Japan), Manuel Marsol (Spain), Fabian Negrin (Argentina/Italy), and Klaas Verplancke (Belgium). During the project, they could interact with the artists and researchers to create 34 original illustrations, inspired by the 24 questions forming the Map.

The Mapping partnership is spread across the entire territory of the European Union, involving 18 partners from 17 European countries

La Baracca – Testoni Ragazzi (coordinator) and Bologna Children’s Book Fair-BolognaFiere, Italy / Artika Theatre Company, Greece / Auraco, Finland / Baboró International Arts Festival for Children, Ireland / HELIOS Theater, Germany/ Kolibri Színház, Hungary / Lutkovno Gledališče Ljubljana, Slovenia / Theatre Madam Bach, Denmark / Polka Theatre, UK / Stichting de Stilte, Netherlands / Teater Tre, Sweden / Teatr Animacji w Poznaniu, Poland / Teatro Paraíso, Spain / Teatrul Ion Creangă, Romania / Théâtre de la Guimbarde, Belgium / Toihaus Theater, Austria / Ville de Limoges, France.