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“I swim.
I seem to find myself and recognize myself when I return to this universal water. […]
Here, the whole body gives itself, recovers, gets to know itself, does its utmost and wants to
exhaust all its possibilities. ”
Paul Valéry, Inspirations Méditerranéennes

The act of swimming, as a moment of encounter and fusion between man and the landscape, accompanies
the entire program of the festival, which will be held this year at the Cozzi and Romano swimming pools.
After the long period of lockdown imposed by the pandemic, we are led to return to places and to
reformulate our relationship with the world. To push us, like the protagonists of Enrique Ramirez’s works,
to deserts and oceans, “deeply devoted to the unconscious cult of three or four indisputable divinities: the
Sea, the Sky, the Sun” (Valéry).

Gigi Masin, composer and first guest of the public program, also seems to pay tribute to these
divinities in his latest recording project: Calypso.
Composed on the island of Gavdos, where the nymph is thought to have imprisoned Odysseus,
the album dialogues with the rhythms and textures of the Mediterranean landscape. Masin lets
himself be carried away by the murmurs of nature and its original elements, reconciling in his
music sensitive image, mythical projection and lógos.

Gigi Masin will respond in the second exhibition to a performance by Sentieri Selvaggi, the contemporary
music ensemble founded in 1997 by Carlo Boccadoro, who will also curate the sonorization of the artwork.


There will be opportunities for the critical discussion of these issues through talks, performances and a special screening program in collaboration with Cinema Beltrade, Filmmaker Festival, Lake Como Film Festival, Il Cinemino and the Milanese production company Rosso Film.
A cycle of poolside screenings, to explore the movement-settlement dialectic from multiple perspectives,
the exploration of the unknown, the need to start a journey. In the pre-Socratic awareness that turning the
camera to the ocean is not just a stimulus to sensitivity, but the beginning of a physical and metaphysical
speculative process. In that ocean, Valéry explains to us again, “the sensitive ingredients are gathered […] within which the most general thought is about to germinate: light and space, freedom and rhythm,
transparency and depth …”

Davide Francalanci

Werner Herzog, left, and Bruce Chatwin, c. 1983

X edition
The Reflecting Pool
16 September – 1 October Romano swimming pool
16 October – 16 November Cozzi swimming pool

With the support of:
Fondazione Cariplo
Regione Lombardia
Directorate of Cultural Affairs of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile (DIRAC)

With the contribution of:
MiBACT

With the patronage of:
Comune di Milano

Partner:
Milanosport
Touring Club Italiano
Galleria Francesca Minini
Associazione Le Belle Arti
Studio Mosae

In collaboration with:
Le Cannibale
Sentieri selvaggi
Cinema Beltrade
Lake Como Film Festival
Filmmaker Festival
Il Cinemino
Rosso film

Discover the X edition