Matteo Fargion
Matteo Fargion è musicista, compositore e performer di origine italiane a Londra. Ha studiato composizione con Kevin Volans all’ Università di Natal in SudAfrica, poi con Howard Skempton a Londra. Ha incontrato nel 1988 il coreografo e performer inglese Jonathan Burrows, e da allora ha composto la musica di molti dei suoi lavori tra cui Dull Morning, Stoics, Very, Our, Hands, Stop Quartet (con Kevin Volans) e Things I Don't Know. In seguito la relazione si stabilizza nel duo Burrows/Fargion con la produzione di una dozzina di duetti che continua ad essere presentata in tutto il mondo, incluse le recenti retrospettive a Lisbona, Porto, Philadelphia, e Bologna (Hysterical Furniture). Il lavoro di Burrows e Fargion, tra musicalità, gesto e parola ritmica, coniuga rigore intellettuale e inaspettato umorismo, e affonda le radici nella passione condivisa per la musica classica, che i due artisti fanno collidere con un approccio performativo aperto alla relazione col pubblico, anarchico e gioioso. Per tutto il 2016 sono stati impegnati nel progetto online lungo un anno 52 Portraits, lanciando ogni lunedì un ritratto gestuale di un danzatore. Fargion ha composto anche per il teatro, principalmente in Germania, per Schaubühne di Berlino, Theaterhaus di Stoccarda, Residenz Theater di Monaco, e tiene seminari di composizione al PARTS di Brussels.
52portraits.co.uk
Matteo Fargion is a composer, musician and performer born Milan and based in London. He began studying classical guitar before entering the University of Natal to continue music studies under the guidance of the composer Kevin Volans. Following the contemporary music scene, centred at that time in Germany, Fargion moved to Europe after graduation and worked for a time under the English experimental composer Howard Skempton.It was at this time that his interest in contemporary dance began, after seeing the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. This experience encouraged him to apply for the International Course for Choreographers and Composers, where he first wrote music for dance, and through which he met the choreographer Jonathan Burrows with whom he has collaborated for more than twenty years. Initially he wrote music for Burrows' choreography, including Dull morning cloudy mild (1989), Stoics (1991), Very (1992), Our (1994), Hands (1995), The Stop Quartet (with Kevin Volans, 1996), Things I Don't Know (1998) and Singing (1999). Over the past years Burrows and Fargion have made a series of duets conceived, choreographed, composed, administrated and performed together, redefining their collaboration on more equal terms and bringing Fargion full-time onto the stage for Both Sitting Duet (2002), The Quiet Dance (2005), Speaking Dance (2006), Cheap Lecture (2009), The Cow Piece (2009), Counting To One Hundred (2011), One Flute Note (2012), Show And Tell (2013), Rebelling Against Limit (2013) and Body Not Fit For Purpose (2014). Their ongoing series of duets go on touring all around the world, with recent retrospectives in Lisbon, Porto, Philadelphia and Bologna (Hysterical Furniture). In 2016 the two men ran a year long online project called 52 Portraits releasing a different gestural portrait of a dancer every Monday throughout the year, and they premiered a new installation as part of the Derra De Moroda Archive exhibition at Salzburg Contemporary Art Gallery. Fargion writes also for theatre, particularly in Germany, where he has worked over a number of years at the Residenz Theater Munich, and at the Berlin Schaubühne under the direction of Thomas Ostermeier. He is a long-time visiting member of faculty at P.A.R.T.S, the school of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker in Brussels, where he has worked on a new approach to teaching composition to young choreographers, within a framework of music practice but built also on his wealth of experience as a performer.
