Romaeuropa Festival 2024

Once again this year, the 38th edition of the Romaeuropa Festival—with over two months of programming—aims to make Italy and its capital a place of dialogue and exchange between the national performing arts culture and international creativity.

We express our deep gratitude for the invaluable support we receive from the Ministry of Culture, Roma Capitale, the Lazio Region, and the Rome Chamber of Commerce. Their support is essential for us to continue our work—alongside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Fondazione Musica per Roma, Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, Teatro di Roma, and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia—focused on nurturing new generations of national and international creators and fostering encounters that, as nearly four decades of our history attest, affirm the centrality of the human being and reject all forms of violence and war, such as those that threaten our future today.

This work also rests on building an important geography of international collaborations. The partnership with Van Cleef & Arpels continues within the framework of the Dance Reflections program; a three-year agreement has begun with Flanders State of the Art; collaborations continue with the Fonds Podiumkunsten and the Embassy of the Netherlands for the Kids & Family section, along with the support of the Embassy of Spain and the ACE PICE program during the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Institut Français and the Embassy of France with the Fondazione Nuovi Mecenati, the Embassy of Germany and the Goethe-Institut, the Canton and City of Geneva, and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw with the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

This network of international relationships expands further through collaborations with the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici, the German Academy Rome – Villa Massimo, the Cervantes Institute, the Swiss Institute, and the Polish Institute in Rome.

The past three years have represented an exceptional and demanding challenge for the REF team—a challenge we have decidedly met, as demonstrated by the remarkable resurgence of last year. That is where we begin again. With the intention to do even better.

Guido Fabiani – President, Romaeuropa Foundation

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The 38th edition of the Romaeuropa Festival captures the geography of the arts and their ability to transcend physical and temporal boundaries. It is a journey between tradition and the contemporary, exploring a multiplicity of perspectives offered by the sensibilities of artists and their narratives of the “floating world” that is our present.

The dialogue between artistic disciplines intersects with the dialogue between the different generations that bring the festival to life—featuring some of the icons of the international scene alongside the most original names in today’s artistic landscape. These artists weave together stories and journeys, virtual aesthetics, and the construction of subjectivity in the contemporary age.

At the heart of REF’s co-productions and initiatives is the promotion and support of new creativity, which continues to forge original paths in Italian music, theatre, and choreography, with close attention to interdisciplinary intersections—between major comebacks and a renewed attentiveness to the present. Contemporary Italian repertoire, a focus on international electronic music, and spaces for experimentation in musical theatre form our musical horizon; sounds, dramaturgies, and choreographies broaden our geographic and mental perspectives: Japanese taiko, ceremonial songs, shamanic traditions and virtual rituals, afrobeat in hip-hop and electro styles, and new interpretations of Western myths.

At the center of this map—intersecting with and collaborating across Rome’s historic performance venues—the festival places La Pelanda at the Mattatoio, its hub and nerve center. This space is the crossroads for REF’s most experimental offerings, hosting four performance halls, an installation and meeting area, reception and ticketing services, and a food court.

With its plural vision—shaped by the curatorial voices of Maura Teofili, Stefania Lo Giudice, Francesca Manica, Federica Patti, Giulia Di Giovanni, and Matteo Antonaci, who animate the Anni Luce, Kids & Family, Dancing Days, Digitalive, and LineUp! programs—Romaeuropa presents itself as a space of dialogue and encounter, a space to tell the stories of the present, celebrating the richness of contemporary artistic creation.

Fabrizio Grifasi – General and Artistic Director, Romaeuropa Foundation