THE CENTRE FOR THE LESS GOOD IDEA: WORKSHOP

1ST - 2ND JULY 2025
SALA PEGASUS - SPOLETO

At the core of the creative approach of The Centre for the Less Good Idea is the enhancement of collaborative and interdisciplinary work, a practice that William Kentridge, Bronwyn Lace, and Neo Muyanga share through workshops and meetings. Thanks to this working method, to date more than 2,000 artists and performers from Africa and all around the world have taken part in the Centre’s artistic projects, generating a collective synergy from which free experimentation and original narratives emerge. In Spoleto as well, this philosophy was shared through two workshops open to artists, performers, writers, and filmmakers, developed using images and footage drawn from the Centre’s archives.

INTRODUCTION TO PEPPER'S GHOST

Intended for artists, curators, and researchers, but also for a non-specialist audience, the workshop Introduction to Pepper’s Ghost drew on the Centre’s rich archive of past projects to explore the possibilities of this Victorian theatrical illusion technique, both in theory and in practice. It delved into some of the key methodologies and creative practices applied at the Centre, namely collective creation, free experimentation, improvisation, and sustained collaboration.

SOUNDING PICTURES

Sounding Pictures - live scores to short silent films was the second workshop in the program. The starting point was: how is the narrative of a silent film influenced when, in a collaborative setting, artists respond live with sound, performance, and improvised texts? The workshop answered by using contemporary silent short films, with which participants interacted telepathically with one another to create spontaneous soundtracks and original narratives, focusing on the dramaturgy of sound. The workshop involved composers, musicians, sound artists, filmmakers, as well as curators, researchers, and students working with film.