
ARCHIVIO
STEFANO MAZZOTTA
// ZEROGRAMMI
JENTU
]
UNO SPETTACOLO, UN PROGETTO DI RICERCA COREOGRAFICA, UN PROGETTO FOTOGRAFICO
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A project freely inspired by Don Quixote: a choreographic research on desire, persistence, and the constant tension between reality and imagination.
Through body and movement, the project traverses the fragile boundary between madness and vision, questioning the deeply human need to continue searching for meaning, beauty, and possibility even within a disillusioned world.
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
— Samuel BeckettJENTU originates from an encounter with the poetic universe of Don Quixote, approached not merely as a literary reference but as a symbolic device capable of questioning the present.
The figure of the wandering knight becomes an image of fragility and resistance, of the stubborn desire to transform reality through imagination. JENTU looks at Don Quixote as a body out of alignment with the world, constantly suspended between vision and collapse, momentum and defeat.
The project’s imagery is nourished by wind-swept landscapes, open territories, wandering, mirages, and continuous perceptual transformations. The wind — jentu — becomes an invisible presence (much like Don Quixote’s giants/windmills), accompanying the journey and serving as a metaphor for what drives human desire beyond the limits of reality.
The research engages with themes of utopia, disillusionment, and the ability to continue imagining possible worlds even within the precariousness of existence.
Jentu develops through a physical and dramaturgical research process built around themes of crossing, imbalance, and the tension toward elsewhere.
The creative process intertwines dance, relationship with space, and the construction of poetic images capable of evoking the wandering dimension of the Quixotic journey. The body is pushed toward states of instability and transformation, allowing fragility, momentum, and possibilities of resistance to emerge.
Over time, the project has taken on different performative and site-specific configurations, adapting to the hosting contexts while maintaining a strong relationship with the landscape and with the proximity of the audience.
The research continues to engage with the theme of dreaming as a form of poetic and political resistance, questioning the contemporary necessity of imagining new possibilities for shared existence.
Zerogrammi
Pim Off
CASA LUFT
Villa Cultura
Tersicorea T.Off
Regione Piemonte
Ministero della Cultura
STATUS: archive
FIELDS: contemporary dance / literature / poetic research / landscape / imagination
ACTIVATABLE FORMATS: —
ACTIVATION CONTEXTS: theatres / festivals / outdoor settings / contemporary research contexts
AUDIENCES: general audiences / young audiences / students / cultural communities
MODES: indoor / outdoor / adaptable / site-sensitive
DURATION: variable depending on the format
LANGUAGES: Italian / non-verbal
PARTNERS: festivals / cultural institutions / territorial networks
AVAILABLE MATERIALS: dossier / gallery / teaser / video / press kit









