MASTERCLASS
Architecture Research Workshop by Francesco Collavino.
This workshop invites architecture students and professionals to explore the relationship between body, space, and time, considering movement not just as a perceptual tool but as an act of design. Moving away from a static idea of architecture, the process focuses on space as a dynamic condition, which emerges and transforms through action and sensory experience.
Through choreographic practices and physical experimentation, participants will investigate the unstable nature of space, exploring emptiness not as mere absence but as a space of possibilities, and time as a key element in shaping architectural experience. The body becomes an agent that continuously redefines the sense of place.
Architecture of Metaphors is not a dance workshop but a research path that explores the body as a tool for spatial and sensory investigation. Through a series of tasks, participants will experiment not only with movement but also with graphic and compositional tools, examining the relationship between space, matter, and perception. The sessions will include observation exercises, physical practices, and sculptural compositions, activating a dialogue between the language of the body and that of visual form.
BEYOND THE SURFACE: body and photography in the narrative of the present
Through a dialogue between photography and movement, this workshop invites participants to explore the narrative potential of photojournalistic images by translating them into physical actions. This process is not merely a visual transposition; rather, it becomes an inquiry into the present, opening new perspectives on reading and interpreting images. We live in an era characterized by a continuous flow of images documenting events, conflicts, social transformations, and global emergencies. These images pass through us daily, evoking reactions, yet they often remain trapped in a superficial dimension—consumed rapidly before being forgotten. Engaging with the present and contemporary historical events through the body means slowing down this process, creating a space for listening and presence, and transforming vision into experience. At a time when the distance between us and the world’s images paradoxically seems to be increasing, this work offers an opportunity to reactivate a direct and sensory connection with the reality around us.
One of the workshop’s objectives is to develop a greater awareness of reading and interpreting images. Selecting a photograph is not a neutral act—it means choosing a point of view, questioning the photographer’s intentions, and reflecting on the reactions of the viewer. For this reason, participants will use their own digital devices to research and select contemporary images, activating critical thinking about a tool that constantly accompanies them. This process becomes a way to question not only what is shown but also what remains invisible—the narratives that emerge and those that are omitted.
A research journey towards a body-logos that resists aesthetic crystallization and constantly reveals itself in statu nascendi — without memory, without method.
We will be invited to witness the shipwreck of the word, to linger on the threshold between acting and reciting. Across different spaces, situations, and conceptual frameworks, we will confront the enigmatic necessity for the word to become flesh.
This course offers the opportunity to trace, through other languages, the path that leads the actor towards action. Embracing dance and a multidisciplinary approach, we will seek ways to respond with personal truth to the questions posed by the text — not to explain it, but to inhabit it.
In the act of translation, nuances will inevitably be lost or transformed. Yet the challenge — even on a social level — is to learn to regard loss as a generative space. A meaningful encounter between languages always requires a mutual renunciation. Likewise, a meaningful interpretation demands the surrender of part of one’s own expressive certainties.
In our practice, we will cultivate a posture of availability — a space where we can relinquish the need to explain or fully understand, and instead allow ourselves to be changed: by the text, by the work, by the language itself.