La più piccola distanza. 2008

La più piccola distanza (2008)

With Daniel Blanga Gubbay, Paola Villani
And with Danilo Morbidoni, Alberto Napoli, Francesca Quadrelli
produced by Pathosformel/Fies Factory One
co-produced by Centrale Fies, con il sostegno di Santarcangelo Festival 2008 / 38° edizione; L’arboreto – Teatro Dimora di Mondaino
Special prize Ubu 2008
First performance: Modena, VIE festival Modena, Teatro delle Passioni, 17 ottobre 2008
Encore performances: Cracovia, Materia prima Festival, 17-18 novembre 2010
Drodesera, Apap Lab, 7 settembre 2012
Drodesera, SkillBuilding – Drodesera 2014, 24 luglio 2014

Pathosformel, La più piccola distanza (2008) – presentation

by Lorenzo Guerrieri
On an empty stage, at different heights and regular distances, sixteen fine steel cables are stretched between one wing and another. In the wings, unseen by the audience during the performance, the performers (Daniel Blanga Gubbay, Paola Villani, Danilo Morbidoni, Alberto Napoli, Francesca Quadrelli), by pulling the cables, can make them slide along special pulleys.
The cables form eight parallel trajectories. When the performance begins, these trajectories begin to be crossed by one, two, three red squares, which appear on one side, run along their paths and disappear on the other side. The bright, solemn music produced by a harmonium and a violin, creates, together with the movement of the squares, the atmosphere of the performance. The red squares, a total of eight, move from one side to the other at different speeds, along the eight parallel lines, like medieval musical notations that come alive between the lines of a pentagram.
The performance completely excludes human presence, focusing on the slide along their fixed trajectories of these pure square forms. The spectators are encouraged to imagine, behind the crowded passage of the squares, the plots of possible stories, of possible biological or social mechanisms, such as the motions of molecules or the flux of a crowded city.