Shows /

ESTREMO REMOTO

Small Archive Dances
Compagnia Arearea, Compagnia Zerogrammi
2024

Each archival act spans a timeline expressed through the far past and the very recent. Estremo Remoto (Far Past) connects contemporary dance with the hidden histories of the Trieste State Archives, offering the audience a unique perspective on the admission records of abandoned and orphaned children between 1770 and 1909.

The series consists of 82 registers documenting the intake of infants left at the foundling wheel (ruota degli esposti). Beyond recording the child’s name, mother’s name, birth/baptism date and place, wet nurse details, and handover date, the registers also note the “segnale di esposizione” (exposure token) number.

These tokens—small paper envelopes—might hold a ribbon, a medallion, a prayer card, half a playing card, a fabric scrap, or a letter. They served as identifiers should the child ever be reclaimed.

Starting from these tokens, Marta Bevilacqua (Compagnia Arearea – Udine) and Stefano Mazzotta (Compagnia Zerogrammi – Torino) initiate a choreographic research exploring concepts like body/memory/archive/border.

Just as dance emerges from movements and gestures that precede us—belonging to collective memory—history, too, is woven from seemingly insignificant lives that, intertwined, shape events. The archival approach condenses these objects and geographies, transforming individuals into dancing memory.