As evening falls

 
As evening falls is a video work created by the artists Mattia Costa and Chiara Ligi from the Film-Live Association collective, together with the young people from the Barona neighborhood. The video work was born out of the participatory art and cultural inclusion project Cenacolo Live!, promoted by Connecting Cultures and the Museo del Cenacolo Vinciano in collaboration with Comunità Nuova Onlus and Barrio’s, with the support of Fondazione Cariplo.
 

As evening falls is the result of a journey that, from March to September 2023, led a group of young aspiring actors to engage with and connect to The Last Supper through theatrical action and cinematic language. The artists Mattia Costa and Chiara Ligi, with the collaboration of Elisabetta Carosio, invited the young participants to “step into” the moment captured by Leonardo on the wall of the Refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Starting from the gestures and expressions of the apostles, the youth were encouraged to explore the emotions depicted in the painting, relating them to their own personal experiences. The participants performed in a show where their reinterpretation, mediated through the lens of Film-Live Association, and accompanied by the live music of Federica Maglioni and Franco Naddei, was directly juxtaposed with the artwork that inspired it.
 
The result is a visual and auditory narrative that draws a parallel between Barrio’s and The Last Supper. Starting, in an ideal sense, from outside the windows of The Last Supper on a late spring afternoon, it leads the audience to “enter” the moment depicted by Leonardo and to see the fresco in a new light, enriched by the unique perspectives of the young protagonists.