Rural territories are acquiring increasing importance in the context of the planetary economic, social, political and cultural processes of the contemporary era. This phenomenon is changing the perception of rural areas themselves, which from territories of abandonment and isolation are now being re-evaluated as a possible new achievement for development and anthropization that is alternative to global metropolitan capitalism.

Ruralism now opens up to new perspectives, in which it finds space for the definition of a specific political position, regardless of the geographical position or cultural differentiations, finding in its own territorial ecosystem the definition of a new position in tension with the urban element.

In this context art, listening practices, technocultures become critical and analytical devices with respect to this transformation process that offers unexpected relief to rural areas in the Anthropocene.

EIR is a project focused on two specific rural areas located in distant points of the globe, but united to be part of this ongoing process of territorial transformation. The region of Aomori, in Japan, and the area of Fortore beneventano, in Southern Italy, thus become places of experimentation through the languages of contemporary art, sound practices, new technologies, to open up the space for critical reflection on changes in rurality on a local and global scale. EIR aims specifically at investigating invisible forces that operate in impacting and transforming ecosystems and communities, such as energy: earth sounds, earth signals, human and non human corporeal energies.

This project, developed over a period of three years, will include a series of cultural actions on both territories: artistic micro-residences, workshops, meetings, publications, also experimenting hybrid formats between virtual and in presence practices, implementing an emergency strategy due to the limitations caused by the pandemic.

EIR is a project produced by ACAC Aomori and Liminaria, supervised by a board of three curators: Yukiko Shikata, Aya Murakami and Leandro Pisano.

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