Special Opening 2018
The Imaginaria festival opens on August 20th with a special preview evening during which the program will be presented and all the spaces and exhibitions will be open.
The completely free evening will feature a concert with Guappecartò and a live painting performance by Matthew Watkins.
Along with artistic director Luigi Iovane, the following will be present to offer institutional greetings: Dr. Aldo Patruno (Director of the Puglia Region Department of Culture), Antonio Parente (Director of the Apulia Film Commission), Pasquale Loiacono (Mayor of Conversano), and Francesco Magistà (Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Conversano).
Guappecartò was founded in Perugia as street musicians in 2004. During one of their performances, the famous actress Madeleine Fischer—who collaborated with Antonioni, Sordi, Anna Magnani, and Bergman, among many others—fell in love with them and asked them to compose a soundtrack for her upcoming film.
The creation of those songs led the young artists to believe completely in their abilities.
They left for Paris, intent on reaching the streets and squares of Europe more easily, driven by the sole desire to play their instruments and share their music with as many people as possible. From the very beginning, Guappecartò earned the love not only of their audiences, but also of critics and musicians, who recognized in them a profound sense of stylistic freedom and profound musical poetics. To date, 12 years after their founding, Guappecartò have released four albums and performed over 1,500 concerts across Europe. Their most recent album, ROCKAMBOLES, produced by Stefano Piro, is now in its third reissue and has been performed in 70 concerts throughout
Italy. Acclaimed by critics, it was chosen as album of the week by Radio Rai3’s “Fahrenheit.”
In 2013, director Alessandro Rak decided to enrich the soundtrack of his smash hit, The Art of Happiness, with three Guappecartò songs, and then in 2017 with two more songs for the soundtrack of the animated film Cinderella the Cat.
Guappecartò is a surprising and balanced blend of many genres and cultures, which the ensemble has discovered and absorbed over the years during its incessant travels, through the streets, squares, theaters, and among people throughout Europe. They move you, make you smile, dance, imagine… live.
Matthew Watkins was born in Manchester, raised in Toronto, and has lived in Italy for 20 years. A graduate of the Ontario College of Art with a degree in Communication and Design, he has worked in advertising, communications, and marketing and currently works as a business consultant, serving national and international companies.
Recognized as one of the most influential figures in the new mobile digital art movement, he has exhibited in solo and group shows in many cities, including New York, San Francisco, London, Leeds, Verona (Museum of Natural History), Bari, Milan, and Hamburg (Museum of Art and Craft). He has been featured in prestigious magazines and newspapers such as Monsieur, Wired, the Washington Post, the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph, Wired, and GQ. His work has been the subject of
national and international television programs, including “Art News” and “Neapolis” for RAI, and a documentary on SBS Korea. Matthew lectures on master’s and postgraduate courses and has recently returned from three months in China teaching art, design, and technology.
