ISOLE constitutes one of the core chapters within the broader 2018–2020 creative project Elegìa delle cose perdute.

The action emerged during the period of isolation caused by the international COVID-19 emergency, with the intention of continuing and deepening — despite the difficulties generated by distance — the layered creative work surrounding the construction of the characters inhabiting Elegìa delle cose perdute.

The state of quarantine imposed by the health emergency forced the performers into solitude, into a tangible sense of emptiness and precariousness, bringing their condition closer, in some way, to that of the poor characters in the novel by Raul Brandão from which the creation draws inspiration.

We chose to gather this significant experience, to look at it closely and attentively, and to treasure it by restoring its colours through a carousel of moving images in the form of very short films — telling the small, uninterrupted stories that gradually reveal the absences and desires of the characters inhabiting Elegìa.

DRAMATURGICAL NOTES

curated by Fabio Chiriatti

“It is like entering a house, a room, to steal a glance in secret.

Driven by the curiosity to listen to these men and women — above all to their bodies, instruments of their speaking. Each one carries a desire to confess, a desire so immense that it cannot be expressed in any way other than through the body.

Some desires are joyful; others are irresistibly unhappy, yet none for this reason are less worthy or more dangerous. Is there anything more terrible and dangerous than a desire for happiness?

The narrative is fragmentary: pieces of life revolving on a carousel. The gaze rests now upon one figure, now another, before briefly stepping back to embrace the whole.”