PANCIA
DELLA
“a”
— 2007
—
Performance.
A harpist, sitting as in presence of her instrument, plays. In silence. In fact there isn’t a harp, but its mass is perceived by the musician, that feels its ritual presence in her embrace.
The woman does the exact gestures of the instrumental practice: she has her back straight but her neck is shifted on her left side, she has her elbows simmetrically suspended but her feet are unbalanced on her heels. It is this way because through the repeated and reiterated practice, the body assimilates the movements. The memorized gestures constitute a vocabulary to communicate.
The performance is for two bodies, one is human and the other one is mechanic: a harpist and a harp. In the anatomy of both, some parts are tecnically indicated with the same names: feet, column, neck. When they act together, their vibrating stomachs talk to each other from close up. The stomach (in Italian, “pancia”) of the title is the stomach of the harp, of the harpist, of the audience, of the sorroundings, of the air and, considering the morphology of typographic design, of the letter «a».
The relation between sounding body and music, placed in a public space, builds a conversation that moves itself on a thread fragile and strong at the same time. Context and audience and fundamental elements of the work, they are musical material, in their turn.
Silence sets in a state of listening. What those present feel is the sound of their own listening and the responsability of the produced music is given to every single listener.
In this way, music is not only cultural production, but becomes a groundwork for a critical reflection.
This work represents the body suspended between the inner impulses and the streams of the surroundings, like a membrane with fluctuations of movement and tension that express theirself disguised as creative negotiation between inside and outside, like forces of the dialogue, or abrasions and signs to be read through numerous imaginable possibilities.
Selected works that fascinated me while I was thinking about this project:
— Jonathan Burrows, Time, motion, symbol, line, in Eye, n. 37, vol. 10, Autumn 2000, pp. 30- 37.
— Christoph Cox, Alvin Lucier. Positive Feedback, in The Wire, n. 245, July 2004, pp. 40- 47.
— Albert Maysles, Kristen Nutile, Sally Gross. The Pleasure of Stillness, USA, 2007, colour, Betacam SP, 56’.
— Raymond Murray Schafer, The thinking ear, Toronto, Arcana, 1986.