“THEì to there I thought of an error. I wouldn’t even have dreamed of that the Silver lion from the Biennale Dance He could go to an artist like me ». Why? «I come from an independent context and – despite being already 40 years old – I receive financial support only. Without considering that I have always contaminated the languages and that, in reality, the text of my practice is the text ». No no, obviously no mistake: Wayne McGregorthe director, was overwhelmed that Carolina Bianchi – Brazilian of distant Italian origins – he deserved it. «It uses its body as a central element of the work, radically in the tradition of women’s performance and, at the same time, questioning it. Representative of the most radical avant -garde, reminds us of the essential need for new such rigorous voices »wrote McGregor in the motivation of the prize that He will be given to you in Venice during the event entitled Myth Makers/Creators of Myths (July 17-August 2).
Radical avant -garde
And when he speaks of “radical avant -garde”, he does not exaggerate. Who, in 2024, saw The bride and goodnight Cinderella to the unmissable Fog (the refined multidisciplinary festival of Triennale Milano Teatro, led by Umberto Angelini) Don’t forget.
It was the first chapter of the Cadela Força trilogy (Bitch resistance) and opened with a kind of conference: Bianchi started from a quote from Dante (“In the middle of the journey of our life/ I found myself for a dark forest”), continued with the analysis of the tables of Sandro Botticelli inspired by a short story of the Decameron (Nastagio degli Onesti meets a young man rising by a dog by order of the rejected suitor), he continued with the painful story of Pippa Bacca (the artist, nephew of Piero Manzoni, killed in Turkey in 2008 while moving to the hitchhiking for the project Travel bride).
Carolina Bianchi (photo Alexandre Quentin).
The rape drugs
Up to here, an intellectually stimulating show. But, About halfway, the unimaginable occurred: he drank a cocktail with disk the rape drug (Boa Noite, Cinderelain the Brazilian slang) and fell asleep. At that point the members of the company climbed on stage and, among other things, they performed a sort of gynecological visit Coram Populo unconscious on her. Nothing free, however: there could be no more tangible demonstration of vulnerability. There could be no more effective way to cause deep identification in the audience, total empathy.
“The price to pay”
Carolina Bianchi in a moment of “Goodnight Cinderella” (photo de Christophe Raynaud de Lage).
The personal cost of such a representation?
There is a price to pay, this is certain. AND High, despite being preceded by a long experimentation process to understand how to deal with the experience on the stage, how to “train” physical and emotional resistance. In any case, it is a conscious decision.
What inspired it?
A personal experience. There is a beautiful text by Brazilian philosopher Suely Rolnik on the signs that the trauma leaves in the bodies, and how they become a source of knowledge. My creations arise from listening to these scars, and the need to externalize. Of gender violence I had dealt with (with Mata-Me de Prazer, Kill me of pleasure in 2016 and with Lobe, Wolfin 2015, on Artemisia Gentileschi, abused at 18, editor’s note), but thinking about Pippa Bacca I understood that I had to expose myself with something that would overcome the boundaries of theater and imagination to become concrete.
Franca Rame confided that she had tried relief after taking stage the monologue on the rape suffered. In his performance, however, the writing appears: Fuck Catharsisfuck the catharsis.
For me, in fact, it is the opposite. And I do not intend to offer a sense of relief to the public: the traces in the victims are indelible. Yet I think gradually the wounds “move”, they turn. In an interview Leonora Carrington – a painter whom I love deeply – to the question about the abuses suffered during the war replied: “I will silence. I wrote two books on this, I painted on this. Now I wish to talk about flowers, the extraordinary colors of things”. I found it wonderful! The pain does not disappear but, at a certain point, you can choose to tell more.
The second chapter
Carolina Bianchi in “Lobo” (photo Mayra Azzi).
And this is his current attitude?
(it is moved, hesitation) It’s the place I want to arrive, but I’m not there yet. I am completing this trilogy precisely because they are not yet there. (he dries his eyes)
In Venice he will present the second chapter, The Brotherhood.
The focus will be on what happens to a body that “awakens”: as a community, what do we offer to those who return to live after a traumatic event? And I will investigate the concept of “brotherhood”: our society is structured on a logic of alliance and protection between men. I also think of the theater, from the origins: in the betweenGIIINO GRIThat women were not even allowed on stage and, in any case, all its history is built on “the” great director, “the” great playwright … what I do can exist within this same space? Or are we women on the margins, at the perennial search for our place?
There will be in Brotherhood ties with literature and visual arts?
Yes, in particular with Sarah Kane (the twenty -eight -year -old British dramaturga in 1999, editor’s note) and Emily Brontë. Stormy peaks It is considered a romantic love story and it is not at all: it is political! It contains overpowering, concerns a system that legitimizes perversion. And there will be references to the Viennese action (movement born in Austria in the 1960s, editor’s note).
Do we have to expect shocking moments?
I don’t know, I don’t create shocking. My goal is to push to question themselves, generate that restlessness that questions produce in me and share it with the public. Art is an appeal to the imagination, it has the ability to open unexpected spaces, we pretend to see ourselves in places that we would never have imagined.
“I don’t want labels”
Carolina Bianchi on stage (photo Christophe Raynaud de Lage).
Feminist?
In everyday life yes, I consider myself feminist. But I don’t feel that my shows should be by definition, nor that they must be read through this lens. I prefer that they are not labeled. When you are “pigeonholed”, I have the feeling that you are implicitly granting a permit: “You can say these things being a woman …”. And this bores me. He tired me.
Remember a moment of childhood who let his future presage?
As a child I played a lot with fantasy. I wrote short stories that they already contained a lot then Darknessa lot of darkness. I did not come from an intellectual environment, however my mother read and there were many books at home. At 12 I approached the theater and I understood instantly that this was my place.
And when did you decide to put the body in the center?
Also in some of my initial works in Brazil (for years it has been established in Amsterdam, editor’s note) It was very present, but the relevance has increased gradually. I was obsessed with the story of Pippa Bacca, just as I was from the artists I speak of in The bride and goodnight Cinderella: Marina Abramović, Gina Pane, Queen José Galindo, Angélica Liddell …
Emily Dickinson’s poetry
Strange the name of his company: Cara de Cavalohorse face.
It comes from that poetry of Emily Dickinson, my favorite poet, in which it describes the faces of the horses that lead her to death. It is titled Because i Couuld Not Stop for Death: “Since I could not stop for death / she kindly stopped for me / the carriage contained only the two / and immortality … / for the first time he senses that the heads of the horses / were turned towards eternity”.
Don’t run, eh … he just turned 40! By the way, was it an opportunity for reflection, of budgets?
It was the pretext to realize how far I am from the person I was at twenty years and how much that reality no longer belongs to me. There are many things I have learned, and many others that I have not yet understood … (finally, laughs)
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