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Davide Giovanzana

University Lecturer, Teatterityö, näyttelijäntaide

About me

Davide Giovanzana is an Italian and Swiss theatre director, theatre pedagogue and researcher based in Finland. He has a strong background in physical theatre, mask and object theatre. His first education was in painting. His doctoral artistic research, Theatre Enters!, examined the playful manifestation and political application of the play within the play in post-dramatic theatre. His post doc artistic research, The Imagination of Violence, reconsidered the potential and limits of the representation of violence on stage. He is Honorary Professor of the Latvian Culture Academy, he has been visiting professor of artistic research at the Theatre Academy of Helsinki and he is currently university lecturer in acting at the Tampere University.  

Responsibilities

Since September 2022: member of the Tampere University language principles group

Since January 2022: member of the Tampere University Societal Interaction Council 

2021-2024: Member of the Advisory Board Maailma näyttämölle organized by Teatterin tiedotuskeskus TINFO

Since November 2019: Artistic director with David Kozma of New Theatre Helsinki

Since January 2018: Artistic director of Teatteri Metamorfoosi

  

Top achievements

2023: He has curated the New Theatre Helsinki Festival that was organized in collaboration with Svenska Theatre. The festival has been nominated as cultural event of the year.

2022: Jury Member of the 32nd International Festival of Theatre School Setkani/Encounter in BRNO, Czech Republic. 

2020: Award (prize of the public) at the Patriarch Rudens Festival, Riga, for the performance Fun Violence, 10 Postcards from Latvia.

2020: Selected in the IDL (International Dramaturgy Lab) pilot project orgnaized by STOD (Finland), The Fence (UK), LMDA (Mexico, USA, Canada), Danish Dramaturge Netword.

2019: Award at the Festival Encounter in Brno, Czech Republic, for the show Disappearing Future, produced by the Latvian Culture Academy.

2019: Seal of Excellence from the European commission, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, for my his doc artistic research: The Imagination of Violence.

2018: Latvian Theatre Award for the best visuality for the show Romeo And Juliet (directed at the puppet theatre of Riga) 

2014: Selected, as one of the 3 Finnish directors, for the program exchange: Russia-Finland, by the Moscow Art Theatre, Russia, to direct the Finnish play: Mummon saappaassa soi Fox by Sirkku Peltola 

2013-2014: Invited to the Golden Mask Festival, Moscow, to the Rainbow Festival, St. Petersburg, and to Stage Festival, Helsinki with the show Passengers, produced by Periskop. 

2011: 2 awards at the Festival Encounter in Brno, Czech Republic for the show: Anfitrione Divorato, produced by Accademia Teatro Dimitri.

2007: Award at the Festival Encounter in Brno, Czech Republic for the show Cymbeline, produced by the Latvian Culture Academy. 

Selected publications

2022 December: The Two Laughter of Lecoq, The Clown and the Fool, in the anthology Comic Performance and Philosophy: Second Nature. (classification C)

2022 November: Pólvora, paintings by Davide Giovanzana, poems by Prisca Agustoni, ed: Macondo, Brasil (cl. F)

2021 February: dis-CONNECTED, publication of the collective exhibition curated by Till Baumhauer, ed. Ed. Kultur Forum Dresden (cl. E2)

2019 September Violence, Perfume and Symbolic Sacrifice, in the peer-reviewed Journal of Somaesthetic. 

(cl. A) https://somaesthetics.aau.dk/index.php/JOS/article/view/3409

2017 August The Play within the Play; a Journey into Theatricality, in acta scenica webpage (cl. D)

https://actascenica.teak.fi/lectio/davide-giovanzana-lectio/

2017 March publishing the article An idea of cesura for the stage in the book Syncope in Performing and Visual Arts. Ed Le Manuscrit, Paris. (cl. B)

2016 April Commedia dell’arte e riscontri nel nord in the book Convegno commedia dell’arte; fra tradizione e ricerca edited by Dadò editore, Bellinzona, Switzerland. (cl. B)

2016 March The Colonisation of Imagination, power and seduction in Jean Genet’s play Le Balcon, in the Finnish performance journal Esitys, Helsinki. (cl. D)

2015 October Theatre Enters! The Play within the Play as a Means of Disruption. ed. Acta Scenica, Helsinki. (cl. G) https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/157428/Acta_Scenica_43.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Avril 2015 Un ciel provisoir, paintings by Davide Giovanzana, poems by Prisca Augustoni, ed. Samizdat, Geneva, Switzerland. (cl. F)