MDLSX
Motus
May 8, 2016 21:00
Stazione Leopolda di Firenze | IT
The change needed is so profound that it is impossible to say. So deep that says it is unimaginable. But the impossible is to come. And the unthinkable is due… Paul B. Preciado, Feminism is not a humanism
MDLSX is an explosive sound device, a lysergic and solitary hymn to the freedom of becoming, to gender b(l)ending, to being other than the borders of the body, skin colour, sexual organs, being other than an imposed or acquired nationality, a belonging to a Fatherland. Rosi Braidotti in “On Becoming Europeans” talked of “an open belonging to Multiplicities”, a text that suggests a post-nationalist identity… And MDLSX aims at going beyond categories – the artistic ones, too.
It is Silvia Calderoni’s “outrageous“ theatrical trip, who – after 10 years with Motus – experiments a D-jay/Vj Set like format, in order to start an exploration around borders that will be catalyzed in Black Drama. A Tragic Musical.
Autobiographical bits and literary evocations come together, and MDLSX, by blurring fiction and reality, swings from Gender Trouble to Undoing Gender. We quote Judith Butler who, with Donna Haraway’s A cyborg Manifesto, Paul B. Preciado’s Manifeste Contra-sexuel and other bits of the kaleidoscopic universe of Queer, weaves the background of this Monster-Performance.
Motus was founded in Rimini in 1991 by Enrico Casagrande and Daniela Francesconi Nicolò.
In 1992 the group started of a long series of productions and small events curated and directed by both Casagrande and Nicolò, the former being particularly interested in direction and the latter in the dramaturgical process and writing. In 1993, for the Scenario Award, they created AID. Zona ad alta tensione. In 1994 the two artists created Cassandra. Interrogazioni sulla necessità dello sguardo, for the Santarcangelo Festival for Sarajevo, a show inspired by Christa Wolf’s Cassandra.
L’occhio belva (1995), dedicated to Samuel Beckett, paved the way to a fine season of theatre events during which the company was recognized as one of the leaders of the so called Romagna felix, the group of experimental theatre companies of the Emilia Romagna region in Italy. With the explosive show Catrame, inspired by J. G. Ballard’s The Atrocity Exhibition and Crash, Motus achieved recognition at the national and international levels. In November 1999 Motus was awarded the “Special Ubu Prize” «for the stubborn and creative coherency of a visionary research intent on redesigning spaces and filtering myths.» That same year, the group was awarded by magazine “Lo straniero”, directed by Goffredo Fofi, the Young Talent Prize.
In November 2000, the company is awarded in Milan the “Ubu Special Prize” by the Ubu jury for «Project Prototipo, independently run by Fanny&Alexander, Masque Teatro, Motus and Teatrino Clandestino at Interzona in Verona, in the context of the Venice Biennale, for the planning and implementation of a profitable experience of collaboration of young theatre companies in an extraordinary space».
That same year, the show Visio gloriosa won the competition “Seven shows for a new Italian theatre for 2000”.
Later came to life the new theatre project Rooms on the theme of hotel rooms. In December 2002, crowning two years of intense work, the company was awarded its third “Special Ubu Prize”.
In 2003 Motus set on a new artistic journey across Pier Paolo Pasolini’s words and images and in 2005 began working on another author maudit, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, with the documentary-project Piccoli Episodi di Fascismo Quotidiano and with the 2006 show Rumore Rosa.
In spring 2007 Motus began a specific exploration, almost documentary in nature, of adolescence, coming to life through the X(ics)Racconti crudeli della giovinezza project, which included four shows, a film and eclectic performative moments. In 2009 began the Syrma Antigónes project, focussed on an analysis of the relationship/conflict between generations.
During the summer of 2011, Motus has opened a new research path called 2011>2068 AnimalePolitico Project, darting into an intricate landscape of revolutionary artists, writers, philosophers, comics writers and architects. The first Public Act, called The Plot is the Revolution, was a touching scenic encounter between “two Antigones”, Silvia Calderoni and the mythical figure of contemporary theatre, Judith Malina.
Within AnimalePolitico Project a new performance called Caliban Cannibal was presented in 2013. At Santarcangelo festival 2014 Motus presented the last two productions and the first performance Call me x – Derive e approdi temporanei.
Motus has also worked on opera with King Arthur by Henry Purcell.
