IO is the final paragraph of RADICAL CHANGE, a visual, cinematic, spatial, and sonic translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, the latest performance project produced by Lenz Rifrazioni, created and directed by Maria Federica Maestri and Francesco Pititto, and musically developed by Andrea Azzali.
IO is played by Sandra Soncini, a historic performer of Lenz Rifrazioni and the extraordinary protagonist of the Faustian trilogy. Since the 1990s, the actress has artistically explored the major dramaturgies explored by the research company, embodying their expressive extremism with the utmost rigor.
The metamorphosis of the nymph Io, the object of Jupiter's amorous attentions and transformed by the god into a heifer to hide her from the eyes of his wife Juno, is recreated through a detailed material reflection on the concept of the mystical body. The identity of the sacred body is defined by the exaltation of a hypertrophic ecstasy, a liturgical-patalogical formosity that is imprinted on the page of mud and sand on which to leave one's bodily imprint. Based on the excess of dynamism (the non-stop race to which Io is forced by Juno's anger), the performative movement is composed of a continuous gastric stress prodded incessantly by the impellency of its opposite.
The seriality of a meat container “Simmenthal”, the cow's identity envelope, iconically visualizes the metamorphic transition from human to animal body. Sinking into a religious ecstasy the cow's tearful mooing aspires to an intimate conversation with a divine who does not appear.
from Ovid's Metamorphoses
creation || Maria Federica Maestri | Francesco Pititto
translation | dramaturgy | imagoturgy || Francesco Pititto
installation | costumes | plastic elements | direction || Maria Federica Maestri
music || Andrea Azzali
performer || Sandra Soncini
production || Lenz Rifrazioni
premiere || Lenz Teatro, Parma, As a Little Phoenix 2, March 14, 2008
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