Il convegno esplora il legame tra musica, ambiguità e identità nel Mediterraneo, analizzando pratiche, strumenti e gruppi musicali provenienti da diverse aree della regione.
Data: 21 FEBBRAIO 2025 dalle 10:00 alle 19:00
Luogo: DAMSLab/Auditorium (Piazzetta P.P. Pasolini, 5b - Bologna)
Tipo: Soffitta - Bologna crocevia delle culture
Organizzato da: Silvia Bruni
Con: Domenico Staiti, Maisie Sum, Richard Jankowski, Christian Ferlaino, Marco Lutzu, Nicola Renzi, Mohammed Hamdouni, Raquel Jimenez, Rosario Altadonna
The Mediterranean is an area of great interest for many fields of study, thanks to its long history of cultural, social, and economic interactions. It has long served as a social and cultural crossroads, where diverse identities—including musical ones—have intersected, influenced each other, and evolved.
In this context, music is not only a medium of expression but also a tool for affirming, transforming, and negotiating identities, conveying stories, affiliations, and memories while reflecting the tensions, changes, and processes of innovation that shape the Mediterranean area. This region, defined by the ongoing interplay of national, cultural, and religious boundaries, offers a unique terrain for exploring the role of ambiguity.
Ambiguity is generally understood as a concept, state, situation, or feeling encompassing multiple meanings or qualities—provoking puzzlement while simultaneously serving as a space where clarity can arise. Far from being a contradiction to overcome or avoid, ambiguity represents a complex and fertile condition, rich with possibilities.
This symposium approaches ambiguity as a productive and transformative force—deliberately amplified and cultivated through individual and collective musical and cultural practices. In these contexts, ambiguity can emerge in various forms: what seems contradictory or incomplete in one context may appear clear and coherent in another. It may manifest through musical practices that create in-between and experiential spaces, fostering the negotiation of identities, narratives, and belongings. It can also take shape in places and practices where contradictory and multifaceted messages or identities coexist, paving the way for divergent interpretations, or it may reinforce existing categories while simultaneously driving their transformation through cultural redefinition.
The symposium will explore ambiguity through interdisciplinary contributions, incorporating diverse perspectives from history, anthropology, ethnomusicology, organology, and music archaeology. It will focus on how ambiguity emerges and manifests in relation to musical performances, instruments, and identities—personal, collective, or gendered—across the Mediterranean area.
The event will conclude with a concert of traditional music from Southern Italy, showcasing pastoral instruments and sound objects.
