sunday 27 june
Michele Rizzo
Spooky actions
Spooky actions is a choreographic spin-off unfolding out of the performance Spacewalk (2017), presented at Live Arts Week in Bologna in 2019. The work was developed following a methodology similar to the one that originated Prospect <EVA> (2019), performative installation (also presented at Live Arts Week in 2019) for which Rizzo extrapolated and and expanded one of the choreographic materials of Spacewalk (2017).
In Spooky actions two performers inhabit a vast green lawn. Alternating, one offers his attention to the other, so that the latter can immerse himself in a perceptual practice based on imagination. A performative device, tilted towards itself, is thus established and offered to the public in its intrinsic simplicity. The performers are sometimes close to each other, other times far apart; as spectators, it might happen that being present to one of the performers determines to be unable to see the other. Yet the space onto which everything unfolds embraces the entire scene. By listening carefully, one could notice that the whole space resonates delicately. The actions of the performers, immersed in an infinitely expanded world, appear sometimes as sinister, hallucinating, frightening as they refer to fantastic universes, probably never fully deployed to the public. Even the very action of looking is frightening, frighteningly full of responsibility, in its being an act that dignifies the existence of what the gaze rests on.
Michele Rizzo lives and works in between Amsterdam and Milan. His research operates at the crossover between performance and visual art, merging sculpture, dance and theatre elements. Rizzo considers how dance can facilitate states of flow, totality, and transcendence, and acknowledges the connection between dance and para-religious practices. While deconstructing the experience of raving, his research is also attentive to the important role that nightclubs play as gathering spaces for marginalised groups, and to how clubs fosters public intimacy while providing individuals an environment in which to explore their identities. His performance HIGHER xtn. (2018) was acquired by the Stedelijk museum in Amsterdam, while his performative installation Rest (2020) is currently exhibited at the Quadriennale in Rome and at the same time has become part of the collection of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation in Turin.
Guillermo de Cabanyes, spanish performer based in Italy. After receiving a Master’s Degree in Theatre and Performing Arts at IUAV University of Venice, he has worked as teaching assistant for Arkadi Zaides and El Conde de Torrefiel. Since 2020 has been also enrolled at Master PACS – Performing Arts and Community Spaces at Rome University. In 2018 he worked as a re-performer for Marina Abramovic retrospective in Florence. In 2019 he attended the Advanced Training Course of the Research Institute of Applied Arts Societas. He is currently part of the Mòra Company directed by choreographer Claudia Castellucci.
Alessandro Rilletti, born and raised in Rome, studied philosophy in Venice, trained in dance, mime, theatre and capoeira. He has worked with Madison Bycroft (Venice Biennale, Palais de Tokyo), Amalia Ulman and Michele Rizzo (Rome Quadriennale 2020). Some of his independent works have taken place on the street, in church, in gyms and abandoned places. He is a cofounder of cultural association MetaForte, a heretical community that engages within a war relict tower north of the Venetian lagoon. He teaches capoeira for children. His work is nourished by concepts such us language, gender, memory, power and community.
Andrea Venerus, italian singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, trained in London where he deepened his musical knowledge and began working on personal projects, coming into contact with the musical scenes of Brixton and Notting Hill. Today Venerus lives in Milan, where he launched his first recording project, the EP A che punto è la notte published by Asian Fake. In 2021 he published his first album Magica Musica.
concept and choreography Michele Rizzo
performance Guillermo de Cabanyes and Alessandro Rilletti
sound design Venerus and Michele Rizzo
set design Michele Rizzo
production Xing/Live Arts Week