CALIBAN CANNIBAL
performance
2011-2068 Animale politico-project
Santarcangelo Festival. Italy 2014
Mohamed-Ali Ltaief and Silvia Calderoni © Motus
After the tempest, a brief stopover and a journey, a lightweight emergency tent is quickly set up in empty public and private spaces, from squares and parks to shopping centres and theatres. This suspended, transitory non-place is inhabited by two unlikely characters: A and C. They are together by chance and necessity, having landed in this shelter after experiencing tormented events involving actual and existential crises, grand gestures and unfulfilled demands. They attempt to communicate despite not speaking the same language, trying to recount their stories in a mixture of Italian, French, Arabic and mangled English. They try to support each other, but lack the strength to do so fully. 'A' could be Ariel after the tempest: aphasic and narcoleptic, in full confrontation with a freedom that was sought after in slogans but fundamentally feared. She is as fragile as the chrysanthemum, 'the flower of the dead', which she has brought with her. C could be Caliban after the explosion on the island, after the attack on Prospero. After the fireworks and the 'Tunisian Revolution'.
Silvia and Mohamed-Ali (Dalí) have thrown themselves into the 'occhio belva' of the camera, inhabiting the space and getting to know each other properly, trying to transcend limits and 'transform carbon dioxide into oxygen' ... Violent Flowers. They carry pieces of crossed worlds on their bodies, remnants of desires now piled in a corner of their refuge. A shelter, a hut? An elsewhere without solid foundations. It's in danger of being destroyed by the first storm, but what's the problem? We move without inhabiting properly, and we inhabit without questioning stability. We are fractures of time and space.
