Altofest 2022

I-World 

We are in the belly of the Whale, hollow inner cave in which the world has taken shelter.

We are in an abyss at the heart of an abyss, 

The jaws have closed behind us. 

Darkness absorbs the light, which ploughs itself, a sudden, unforeseen gash. 

Shreds of time and previous life take shape in the recesses, uncovered for a moment, beneath the hidden layers. 

In the memory the world is left under a sheet, to get protection during a prolonged absence.

We are in the crease, where light does not filter, but sense consolidates in the twisted path that jags, twists, vibrates.

At the surface no epidermis, no tactile threshold.  A reflecting device, it transposes visual sequences produced elsewhere. Transmitted images pulse, overlap, then they are absorbed again by darkness.

We follow the fold, a path towards the bottom, towards the origin, towards the self, the real inside-out, viscera and womb, treasure chest of memory and forge of prophecy, a place where personal history is reformulated, attributing a new place to each piece.

Here everything dwells, unexpectedly juxtaposed with everything. 

If outside it seems that the world must unfold along paths and geographies that assign to each presence its established place, here inside the path creeps through non-contiguous ravines, traverses reverses, falls, contradictions.

If the monster’s ambush does not prove deadly, if the monster can ingest us without annihilating or killing us, and simply harbor us in its stomach and offer us lodging among its innards, in its farthest intimacy we find that forgotten detail of the world, we find the place, arranged for the one sitting next to us, a space of hospitality where everything can linger and lodge.

As long as you linger in this cave we invite you to trace and walk the hidden thread that binds the works of the program, the subterranean path that unites them. 

Once you re-emerge to the surface, we invite you to follow the direction of your gaze, for a time, in silence, to re-trace the axis of your cardinal points and measure the perception deviation, the misdirection, the bewilderment that was created.

Loretta Mesiti – Altofest Dramaturg – Traslation by Beatrice Occhini