CENTRO INCONTRI UMANI – ASCONA
Current schedule
2016
International Conference – Techniques of Spiritual Experience: West and East
27 – 29 May 2016
The purpose of this conference is to critically examine the mental and physical techniques performed by ascetics or mystics belonging to different religions, cultural areas, and historical periods. Concomitantly the conference seeks to discuss the spiritual experiences that are allegedly associated with these practices.
Varied techniques will be scrutinized, for example, Kabbalistic meditation and visualization methods, Heychastic prayer and breath control, Sufi dhikr, or Buddhist and Tantric dhyana and visualization practices. Account will be taken of the physical postures and activities (breathing techniques, movements and postures, dance, music, etc.) which often accompany the practices.
A Balinese shadow play will be performed at the Dimitri Teatro in the village Verscio in association with the conference. The puppeteer is a consecrated priest in his community.
Convened by: J.P Brach, A. Hobart and T. Zarcone.
Workshop – Egalitarianism: Forms, Processes, Comparisons
8 – 15 March 2016
A workshop for researchers of the ERC-funded research project “Egalitarianism: Forms, Processes, Comparisons”, hosted by Prof. Angela Hobart (Centro Incontri Umani) and convened by Prof. Bruce Kapferer (University of Bergen)
The concept of Egalitarianism is extraordinarily broad, as is the no less nebulous ideal of equality, having virtually ontological value in modern Euro-American thought, increasingly so globally. While Egalitarianism is conventionally associated with Equality and its opposite Inequality, this project takes Egalitarianism as an expansive term including going beyond these relatively more reductive terms.
The project as a whole is lead by Prof. Kapferer and is hosted by the University of Bergen and has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 340673
www.egalitarianism.no
After the workshop by Prof. Angela Hobart
Workshop experience by Marina Gold, University of Zurich
Lecture – The Virgin of Cancuc and Subcomandante Marcos
8pm, 11 March 2016 – Sala Balint, Monte Verità, Ascona
As part of the ERC-funded research project “Egalitarianism: Forms, Processes, Comparisons”, Dr Alessandro Zagato (University of Bergen) will present ‘The Virgin of Cancuc and Subcomandante Marcos A parallelism between symbolic constructions in past and current indigenous rebellions in Chiapas’
There is free entry to the public.
The project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 340673
11 Settembre 2015:Paesaggi e Interiorità: un viaggio intermediale Concerto ‘son et lumière’. Ying Li e Curt Cacioppo.
2015
Building Bridges through Music – In The Search Of Light
23 – 25 October 2015
Seven accomplished musicians from diverse traditions will be working together as residential artists at the Centro Incontri Umani, Ascona, and will be playing separately in small events, before performing together for the public at Teatro Sociale, Bellinzona (23rd October) and Teatro Dimitri, Verscio (25th October) . There will be also one hour broadcast on radio DRS about the individual musicians and their meeting in Ascona.
The musicians are Sola Akingbola (Nigeria/UK – percussion), Sarah Lauret (France – Cello), Gaurav Mazumdar (India – sitar), Sardor Mirzakhojaev (Uzbekistan – dutar, rubab, tanbur), Kuntal Roy (India – tabla), Ngô Hông Quang (Vietnam – Dàn Nhi, Dan Bao), Helena Rüegg (Switzerland – Bandoneon)
The programme has benefitted from the kind support of the SüdKulturFonds, financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
Concerts:
Friday, 23 October 2015, 1:30 pm Teatro Sociale Bellinzona (educational project for the secondary school in Bellinzona)
Friday, 23 October 2015, 8:45 pm Teatro Sociale Bellinzona
Sunday, 25 October 2015, 6:00 pm Teatro/Fondazione Dimitri Verscio
11 Settembre 2015:Paesaggi e Interiorità: un viaggio intermediale Concerto ‘son et lumière’. Ying Li e Curt Cacioppo.
Venerdì 11 settembre – ore 20:30 Sala Gioia – Monte Verità – Ascona :
Esposizione di dipinti di paesaggi ticinesi con improvvisazioni musicali e video con musiche originali
5-10 September 2015: Understanding Gender Inequality Actions in the Pacific: Ethnographic Case-Studies & Policy Options. Organised by Dr Tony Crook & Prof. Angela Hobart
This workshop will bring together participants in an ethnographic pilot research project taking a new look at gender inequality in the Pacific. Project members include anthropologists, gender and development specialists, legal scholars and a film-maker who are conducting studies in all three regions of the Pacific – Melanesia (Fiji, PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu), Micronesia (FSM, Kiribati, Marshall Islands and Palau) and Polynesia (Samoa and Tuvalu), alongside Pacific men and women’s involvements in globalisation mobility in certain fishing ports in the region. This workshop aims to both enrich our understanding of the social actions involved in gender inequality – discrimination, violence, exploitation, representation – and to inform appropriate and effective future policy actions.
The hope of the workshop is to understand the social relations and actions and changing value systems that enable and constrain gender inequality, through vernacular terms and local exegesis so as to capture, foreground and privilege Pacific people’s own analyses of incidents and issues. By drawing together, discussing and analysing the findings from across the region, and by drawing out significant points and working principles, the workshop hopes to reimagine how researchers and policy-makers can support local peoples in their own efforts to negotiate and resolve social issues in a home-grown manner. The workshop programme will involve opportunities for public participation and presentation.
Link to films relating to the workshop
Rivista Teosofica Svizzera/Ticinese (ADYAR) 