Andrea Peña Selected at the Prestigious Biennale Di Venezia

Andrea Peña (Montreal) and Luna Cenere (Italy) are the winners of the calls for new choreographies for international and italian artists under the age of 35. The calls are part of the multi-year project of the Dance Department of La Biennale di Venezia, directed by Wayne McGregor, to support the new generations of artists.

Andrea Peña, a Canadian choreographer originally from Colombia, together with the multidisciplinary company founded in 2014 in Montréal, Andrea Peña & Artists (AP&A), wins the call with Bogota. A project that intends to explore the concepts of death and resurrection, "through my Colombian heritage coloured by the historical nuances of this colonized country, as a source of resilience that is deconstructed from queer, post-industrial and post-human lens", states the choreographer. "A radical and innovative proposal - says McGregor - that is convincing in its brave and raw approach to new movement exploration and evolving hybrid forms. This is high-quality, risk-taking and experimental work that we are thrilled to nurture at Biennale Danza 2023".

Co-produced by La Biennale di Venezia with Danse Danse and L'Agora de la danse, Bogota will be the second large-scale work created by the company, and will involve dancers Francis Richard, Erin O'Loughlin, Jean Benoît Labrecque, Frédérique Rodier, Jontae McCrory, Nicholas Bellefleur, Charlie Prince; the set designer Jonathan Saucier; the composer, electronic musician and 3D sound designer Debbie Doe; the rehearsal director and researcher Helen Simard; the costume designer Polina Boltova; and the film director Bobby Leon.

Dancer, choreographer and performer Luna Cenere, born in 1987, who conceives the body as a landscape, an element of complex architectural compositions in space, also wins the call, with her project Vanishing Place. Co-produced by La Biennale di Venezia together with Körper - National Production Center, CID - Centro internazionale della Danza, Hessishes Staatbnallet and with the support of MIC and the Cultural Institute of Köln, Vanishing Place will involve five performers - Ilaria Quaglia, Marina Bertoni, Francesca La Stella, Luca Zanni, Davide Tagliavini - to music by composer Renato Grieco.

Vanishing Place by Luna Cenere and Bogota by Andrea Pena & Artists will premiere at the 17th International Festival of Contemporary Dance of La Biennale di Venezia in July 2023.