Set amid the wild beauty of Stromboli, the fifth edition of annual arts festival In Favor of a Total Eclipse harnessed the raw power of the Italian island’s natural energy, inviting artists and musicians to create site-specific work in a number of locations, including on a remote beach, a sea cave, and on top of Mt. Stromboli – a live volcano. Below, curator Stella Bottai offers insight into the event’s collaborations with artists including Adriano Costa, Goshka Macuga and Raphael Hefti, plus a special music program from Afro/cosmic DJ legend Daniele Baldelli and The Vinyl Factory. 

How collaborative was the creative process?
Stella Bottai: Collaboration and improvisation are key elements of the festival’s activities, so during the development and production process the artists naturally began to collaborate on each other’s projects. For instance, Fiorucci Art Trust Director Milovan Farronato, myself, Thomas Zipp, and others, were included in Kembra Pfahler’s performance, and some of us dressed up as ‘Girls of Karen Black’ [Pfahler’s alter ego]. Kembra, in turn, was the leading voice of Thomas’s parade performance. 

How did the wild setting influence the artists’ output?
SB: Mathilde Rosier, a French artist already fascinated with rites and rituals, used the dancers’ bodies to represent darkness and light: these performances were done on the volcano and timed to capture the sun setting on one side while the moon was rising on the other.

Can you tell us about the meteor shower?
SB: The program began with the new moon and ended at the peak of the Delta Aquarid meteor shower. So the whole thing was conceived to be in tune with astronomy and the movement of the celestial bodies – the works were influenced by this vision since the very beginning.

Ananda Pellerin is an editor and writer based in London.