Italy

• Age 12+
• Location – The big Hall of Puppet Theater
• Idea, directing, acting – V. Bianchi, A. Buzzetti, G.De Canio
• Original soundtrack: POSHO

Unter Wasser is an experimental theatre group founded in 2014 by Valeria Bianchi, Aurora Buzzetti and Giulia De Canio. The company places itself at the border between Visual theatre and Contemporary Art, exploring how the two overlap and creating an original, poetic language as an investigative instrument into the human mind and its many facets. The focus is on the artistic object, the handcraft, the image, the sculpture, the moving matter. The performance is a “Mobile Installation” to be enjoyed in the evolving of the scenes (frames), in the fluidity of their flowing, in the sequence of nothidden transformations of the matter, in changing of perspectives and points of view, that bring on the scene the principe of editing as used in cinema.

We are fascinated by the extraordinary possibility offered by Visual Theatre of opening doors on the scene, gashes that bring the public in poetic, dreamlike and fantastic worlds, empty canvas on which the eye of each spectator can project meanings and evoke memories, emotions, images.

With the support of: Théâtre La Licorne; CasermArcheologica; Teatro del Lavoro; Festival città delle 100 scale.

MAZE is a live shadow theatre performance. The shadows of hand-crafted three-dimensional sculptures are projected on a large screen.

The public can see the performers on the stage manipulating the objects and using the light source as a camera, creating through simple devices the illusion of watching a real film.

Different kinds of shots are reproduced by the movement of lights and objects.

The narration is fragmented. The eyes that look at the world are those of a woman. Scenes of her life appear like lyrical splinters that treasure significant moments. Visual poems that disclose and illuminate feelings, memories and emotions. A reflection over existence: the coming to life, the search for sense, the departure from this world. To float over the surface, to dive in, to let go.

The lyrical universe of the performance is bread by the words and images of Poets such as Mariangela Gualtieri, Emily Dickinson, Etty Hillesum, Wislawa Szymborska, Laurie Anderson.

There isn’t any text in the performance, but an original soundtrack that is intertwined with the scenes and becomes a fundamental part of the narration.

The esthetic inspirations come from Steinberg’s continuous line drawings, from the lightness and permeability of Tresoldi’s wire architectures, from the smoothness of Modigliani’s tract, from the sensitivity of Maria Lai’s sewn drawings. The sculptures reproducing faces have been created with clear reference to Calder’s work, in particular to his wire portraits. Wire is a material that has the capacity, in shadow, to create graphic effects that look like animated drawings, dynamic outlines.

The universal language of visual theatre without words becomes an instrument to investigate the human mind and its many facets.