Training course

Poetics of Senses

il Funaro is the Poetics of Senses Italian School. It is strictly linked to Teatro de los Sentidos School in Barcelona directed by ENRIQUE VARGAS in collaboration with Patrizia Menichelli.

Spontaneous affinity, deep friendship and shared artistic goals give life to a creative bond between il Funaro and the maestro Enrique Vargas. His constant presence has made possible for our house and for the city to become the Italian base of the training course on the Poetics of Senses of the prestigious and multicultural company of Teatro de los Sentidos based in Barcelona.
Enrique Vargas has led us since the beginning giving life to an important work on the memory and the imaginary of our house caressing the crumbling and evocative walls of il Funaro, now renowed and enriched also by his constant presence.

The focus on constant research give the chance to deepen the investigation and refine the "tools of work", to rediscover the meaning of the memory of the body, search for the meaning of the poetic experience, develop our own creative skill through the practice of listening. This is the way to start becoming more aware of ourselves in relation to the collectivity. The workshop is a mean of this process of awareness and knowledge and it is based on the art of listening.

Since 2011 the training course on Poetics of Sense is structured in 5 cycles of 24 hours each:

1. Poetics of body
2. Poetics of darkness
3. Poetics of silence
4. Poetics of space
5. Poetics of object

Every cycle is composed of five levels:

1. Introduction
2. Workshop
3. Dramaturgy
4. Poetics
5. Practice

Every cycle consists in an intensive workshop of three days led by Enrique Vargas and Patrizia Menichelli. The introduction level has led by Patrizia Menichelli being assisted by Francesca Giaconi.
In these intensive workshops participants will be given the instruments to develop one's own and collective sensitivity to understand the poetics of listening through an experiencial path which is the result of more than twenty years of research

  • 1° level

    Poetics of Body - Introduction

    21 / 23 ottobre 2011

    max 20 participants
    registration by October,1 - 2011
    TIME: 10.00 - 13.30/15.00 - 19.00
    Cost 200€

  • 2° level

    Poetics of Body - Workshop

    09 / 11 dicembre 2011

    max 20 participants
    registration by November,1 - 2011
    TIME: 10.00 - 13.30/15.00 - 19.00
    Cost 250€

  • 3° level

    Poetics of Body - Dramaturgy

    27 / 29 gennaio 2012

    max 20 participants
    registration by december, 31 - 2011
    TIME: 10.00 - 13.30/15.00 - 19.00
    Cost 250 €

  • 4° level

    Poetics of Body - Poetics

    09 / 11 aprile 2012

    max 20 participants
    registration by
    TIME: 10.00 - 13.30/15.00 - 19.00
    Cost 250€

  • 5° level

    Poetics of Body - Practice

    12 / 15 aprile 2012

    max 20 participants
    registration by
    TIME: 10.00 - 13.30/15.00 - 19.00
    Cost 300 €

International Network of Research on the Poetics of Senses

As a natural development of it' s vocational training, il Funaro has become the operating partner of the International Network that put together the Enrique Vargas' Teatro de los Sentidos, Pro.Ge.AS-Università degli Studi di Firenze, Université Lille III in France and Universidad de Girona in Spain and the Cultural Association Arcadia ARS in Florence. The International Network has as its purpose the study, the research and dissemination of the poetics of the Teatro de los sentidos.

The International Network find at il Funaro hospitality and operational support given by the Senses' Research Group created in the last years of work with Enrique Vargas.

Con il patrocinio di:

Ambasciata di Colombia
ambasciata di colombia

Istituto Italo-Latino Americano
istituto italo-latino americano

Poetics of Senses

ENRIQUE VARGAS, director and anthropologist from Colombia, even at a young age displayed a particular talent for play acting and make-believe. His interest in theatre lead his studies to the Academy of Dramatic Art in Bogotá, and to the University of Michigan, where he graduated in theatre.
Early theatrical experiences include collaborations such as "Bread and Puppet" with Peter Schuman at the prestigious theatre center "LaMama" in New York. 
After obtaining the title of chair of Dramaturgy of the sensory image at the National University of Bogota, Vargas devoted 15 years to the study of games, rituals and myths of the Amazon.
In 1993, he founded Teatro de los Sentidos, which explores the topic of sensory poetry, understood as the expressive relation between body and memory, plasticity of the space between stage and the observers theatre-sensory experience.
His research has led to the trilogy "Under the sign of the labyrinth."
He has received several international prestigious awards, included: First prize at the XXIV National Exhibition of artists of Bogota (Colombia)
Prize for best opera (public and critics) at the International Festival of Theater of Nations, Santiago, Chile
He received the Premio Tucàn d'Oro at the VII Latin American Festival of Theatre of Cadiz.
UNESCO recognition for his work at the Latin American Theater Festival of Bogota. The National Award for "Drammaturgia di Bogotà." among others.

PATRIZIA MENICHELLI, designer, performer, director, researcher and educator at the Teatro de los Sentidos. In 1983 she began her theatrical career as a designer starting an intensive research on the construction of the character through mask and costume. Gradually, this research has shifted to a reconsideration of the "stage area" and its capacity for deepening the dramaturgical dimension.

Since 1996 she has been researcher at the Teatro de los Sentidos, investigating the concept of "living" an imaginary space. She also works with the director and playwright Enrique Vargas conducting training workshops on the poetry of the Sensory Image in Italy and abroad. Patrizia Menichelli is part of the group's world tour as performer and designer as well as assistant to director Enrique Vargas in the groups latest efforts. She also carries out interdisciplinary projects in Italy and works for the education of adults with private and public institutions: Museo Pecci (Education Department) Prato, Museo Ideale Leonardo Da Vinci in Vinci and Florence, Sovrintendenza Scolastica per la Toscana in Florence, Teatro Metastasio in Prato, Seminarte and Centro Culturale il Funaro-Pistoia.

She is also artistic director of Arcadia ARS In - Florence.