“Mimesis” project was born among the banks and mists of Ticino river, from an simple idea. In ancient poetry the Muses, who, as we know, oversee the different artistic virtues, always appear together. Only later, when the genres will be more defined, the women will appear individually to inspire the poet.
Hence the idea of a project that brings together artists from different fields, and entrusts them with this mission: try on a theme, and dialogue with other disciplines, to enhance the interpretation of the individual, but at the same time find out if there are points of contact. Always “go beyond” appearance.
The term “Mimesis” is usually associated with imitation, to mime. Actually, it’s a reduction. Mimesis means re-create and re-submit reality. Always refers to something that does not show as is, but that is represented on the “world stage”: it’s a representation of an absent.
It was Mimesis when our ancestors dressed in the skins of hunted animals, and painted hunting scenes on the walls of a cave. It was Mimesis when in first villages, shepherds and farmers assumed the guise of men, gods or animals, to tell a story or perform a ritual. It was Mimesis when elders and bards, around a fire, kept traditions alive in fairy tales, myths and history.
Mimesis is an act of magic. It’s like an evocation of something that does not appear before the eyes. We are all artists when we are creative, we are all little wizards, each with our own personal magic wand: and when we create something good or beautiful, we and the world around us are better than before.
Mimesis is not imitation of the world since the world, represented in a certain way, can become as it was represented. Art works do not copy reality at all: they are the result of this representation, so that reality can start its own transformation in the direction of the possibility that the Mimesis has suggested.