From June 12th for three weekends, an anomalous collective ritual occurs at sheds 17 and 18 of Reggiane Innovation ParkIn one of the most evocative places in Reggio Emilia – the Santa Croce district – comes to life SAINT, a site-specific project that intertwines contemporary art, dance, and storytelling in a sensory and immersive experience.

SANTA is the first stage of the three-year Danze dell’Utopia project by the Centro Coreografico Nazionale / Aterballetto , conceived by director Gigi Cristoforetti , which explores the relationship between body, space and imagination in urban regeneration processes.

What it is SAINT, exactly, it's not easy to say. A performance? A liturgical act? An exhibition? A dream?
Maybe all of this, or maybe none of this. SAINT It's above all a crossing. Of a space, of a time, of a thought.

"Contemporary art shouldn't provide answers, but rather raise questions," says SANTA curator Nicolas Ballario . "So we'd like this project to have no formal definition: is it dance? Theater? Music? Visual art? Prayer? It's all of these things together, which is to say it's none of them. Borderlines, no-man's lands: that's what interests us."

As if on a tour, the audience, equipped with silent-disco headphones, is guided by the music and voice of Nicolas Ballario along a path that winds between choreographic actions by Lara Guidetti and the works of Maurizio Cattelan , one of the most internationally renowned and controversial contemporary Italian artists, famous for his provocative and ironic language.

Visitors-spectators are the protagonists of a perceptive game that alternates irony and longing, vision and disorientation.

Nothing is revealed in advance. The destination remains secret. The only compass is trust: those who trust the project will be rewarded with the unexpected.

In this context, the choreographic action becomes an unstable and nomadic sign , a gesture that crosses the margins and redefines them.

"Dance," explains Lara Guidetti , artistic director of the Sanpapié Company (co-producer of SANTA with CCN/Aterballetto ) , "is a moving bridge, a choreographic fabric that traverses spaces, works, and the bodies of spectators without ever settling. In SANTA , the performers' bodies don't narrate but evoke; they don't represent but offer themselves as apparitions: presences that emerge and vanish, bringing with them traces of irony, beauty, cruelty, and virtuosity. It's an unstable ritual, a constantly changing journey that invites you to lose yourself and let the unexpected pass through you."

The choice of Reggiane Innovation Park is no coincidence. It is here that a virtuous example of urban regeneration takes shape, where culture, innovation, and research intertwine. In this context, SANTA is more than an event: it is a symbolic gesture, a way to renew the outlook.

"We propose a new and experimental creative approach," says Gigi Cristoforetti , director of CCN/Aterballetto, "that aims to surprise the viewer, transforming them into visitors to a social, urban, and artistic terrain vague. Thanks to Nicolas Ballario's idea and the inclusion of Cattelan's works, we attempt to place paradox at the center of an unclassifiable artistic experience."

The work of art, here, is not just to be observed: it is a catalyst to reread reality.
"Contemporary art has many levels of interpretation," adds Ballario. "There can be no single interpretation, which is why we want to entrust the "critique" of these powerful works to seemingly very different lexicons and disciplines. In these spaces, which have such an evocative history, we dare to speak of the "unnameable" in a way that is simultaneously ironic and tragic. To exorcise it, to push our imagination a little further."

SANTA is an invitation. To disorient yourself. To look again. To believe that art can still surprise.