IN CORSO
STEFANO MAZZOTTA
// ZEROGRAMMI
INRI
]
UNO SPETTACOLO, UN PROGETTO FOTOGRAFICO
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*INRI* is a choreographic and theatrical research project that explores, through an ironic and grotesque lens, the relationship between the believer and the divine figure.
Through an essential and visionary physical language, the work constructs a landscape suspended between ritual, dependency, and absurdity, questioning the human need to believe, obey, and belong.
The project takes shape from the symbolic imagery connected to the Christian Passion, observed not through a religious or narrative lens, but as a universal archetype of pain, sacrifice, and collective responsibility.
INRI explores themes such as love, guilt, vulnerability, and the possibility of forgiveness, constructing a reflection on the relationship between individual and community, between violence and compassion.
The scenic imagery moves between essentiality and emotional tension, allowing exposed bodies, fragile relationships, and inner landscapes marked by the desire for salvation and belonging to emerge. The body becomes a space of resistance and testimony, a place where memory, wound, and the longing for proximity are inscribed.
Over time, the project has become one of the company’s longest-running creations, continuing to question the present through the symbolic and universal strength of the themes it engages with.
INRI originates from a research process focused on the relationship between religious rituality, popular imagery, and dynamics of dependency between human beings and the divine. The creative process intertwines scenic writing, physical composition, and the construction of grotesque imagery, developing a language suspended between devotion, irony, and absurdity.
Co-produced by Oriente Occidente Festival, where it premiered in 2008, the project took shape through a research path that also crossed symbolic places of contemporary popular devotion. During the creation process, the company developed independent artistic residencies in Lourdes and Fátima, engaging directly with ritual practices, collective dynamics of faith, and human landscapes connected to pilgrimage.
Among the materials accompanying the work is also an original text by Fabio Chiriatti, capable of evoking a sacred universe that is deeply bodily, domestic, and distorted:
“It is a rosary made of almonds and sugar, walnuts and dried chestnuts, jute sacks and brass weights. It is a rosary to be prayed with the tongue, between tooth and tooth.”
— F. ChiriattiOver time, INRI has travelled through numerous national and international contexts, while preserving its ambiguous and relational nature intact. The long production trajectory of the performance has consolidated its place within Zerogrammi’s artistic path as a work capable of questioning — with irony and radicality — the human need to believe, belong, and construct shared symbols.
Zerogrammi
Festival Oriente Occidente
La Piattaforma
Dimora Coreografica
Regione Piemonte
Ministero della Cultura
STATUS: ongoing
FIELDS: contemporary dance / physical theatre / poetic research / relationship / symbolic memory
ACTIVATABLE FORMATS: performance / public encounter / workshop practice
ACTIVATION CONTEXTS: theatres / festivals / contemporary performance series / performative research contexts
AUDIENCES: general audiences / contemporary audiences / students / artistic communities
MODES: indoor / adaptable / scenic proximity
DURATION: full-length performance format
LANGUAGES: non-verbal
PARTNERS: festivals / cultural institutions / distribution networks
AVAILABLE MATERIALS: dossier / technical sheet / teaser / gallery / press kit
