Fare (e disfare) il dialogo interreligioso attraverso i linguaggi artistico-performativi

The paper describes an experience of interreligious dialogue through artistic and performative languages, linked to public live events that has been taking place in Brescia since 2016 with the participation of civil society, institutions and associations (faith communities, religious and cultural centers, artists and citizens). The use of artistic-performance languages as a medium of interreligious dialogue harks back to the concept of performance (Schechner, 1988). The goal is to demonstrate that effective dialogue results from mediation between the participating actors and the institutional network and how its success depends on the actors' own participation in the creative process. The main elements of the creative setting that contribute to foster or hinder dialogue are highlighted. Part 1 (the “making”) reconstructs the start-up stages of the container festival of religious arts and cultures. Part 2 (the “unraveling”) lists the setbacks in the dialogical process, the cross-cultural incidents that occurred due to different interpretations of artistic forms and the constraints placed by a particular religious canon. Part 3 (the “recomposing”) deals with the strategies adopted as a result of awareness and collective elaboration of ways out.