A DRUM IS A WOMAN
first step
The inspiration and subject of this multi-media interpretation is again Afro-American modernism, especially the vision of graphic designer and engraver Aaron Douglas, pivotal artist of the Harlem Renaissance.
Research territory is the relationship between sound body, virtual body and physical body, where the abstract power of movement is measured in relation to iconography, sign, gesture and its untranslatable semantics: research continues towards the symbolic, two-dimensional, abstract body through an interactive software.
Drum is a Woman is also at the centre of investigation into the artistic handmade product. The means used in body painting are at the origin of research, here replaced by an organic trace that becomes painting thanks to the efficacy of the materials and technology used (a plexiglass support and light emitting diodes on the thickness of the plexiglass sheet.
What becomes visible is nothing but the shadow of the representation, the vision through the diaphragm: here it is the support itself which is the diaphragm and frame of a body that performs an action.
What remains is the remnant of the gesture, the shade of the shadow: what we see is not the shadow of the representation (Plato) and it is not the “trace of the body on another body” (Spinoza). It is the body itself that turns into shadow in representing itself; and what is seen is the trace of that gesture.
Between being and representing, between differing and assimilating, the eternal dilemma of the different.
Lastly, the cross-references to monochrome painting and to study in colours are evoked by the chromatic shift of the RGB light emitting diodes, in an on-going dialogue between tradition and research.
(“…you are saved! What has cast such a shadow upon you? – The Negro.. the Negro!”) (Herman Melville, Benito Cereno, 1855
Concept, creation, direction, sound: Letizia Renzini
Creation, Choreography, interpretation: Marina Giovannini
Technical stage production Matteo Menduni
Software: Riccardo Canalicchio
Creative residency CanGo Cantieri Goldonetta
Organization and executive production: Luisa Zuffo
GALLERY
