As part of the “Swans never die” project which at Fabbrica Europa also includes Swaën by Camilla Monga, Living like I know I’m gonna die by Collettivo MINE and Open drift by Philippe Kratz in a single evening

The project invites some young artists to revisit in a contemporary way “The Dying Swan”, originally choreographed by Michel Fokine for Anna Pavlova in 1905.

The soul is like an aviary filled with birds. It is a place where motion, colors, air movement and purposes become the flesh of what has been, of what grows, morphs, dies out, transmutes into a ghost. Chiara Bersani approaches the “The Dying Swan” with her work entitled “L’Animale” (The Animal): what happens when looking at the deep night we can recognize ourselves through the singing?
– Giulia Traversi

Was he an animal if music could captivate him so?
– Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

The animal I carry inside me
Never makes me live happily
It steals everything, even coffee
It makes me a slave to my passions
It never gives up and can’t wait.
– Franco Battiato

The animal is motionless.
The animal is a house.
The animal is a memorial to the fallen.
Is the animal fallen?
No. The animal was under the table when everything fell.
Does the animal travel?
No. There is too much debris. It could get hurt.
More than this?
More than this, you die.
The animal feels the ghosts.
The animal chose them.

If you want to meet the animal, you have to ask for permission.
– Chiara Bersani

Chiara Bersani is an Italian artist who is active in the fields of visual and performing arts. Her studies mainly concern the field of theatrical research with elements of contemporary dance and Performing Art. She has collaborated with important artists and companies of the European contemporary scene including Alessandro Sciarroni / Corpoceleste_C.C., Rodrigo Garcia, Jérôme Bel and Babilonia Teatri. Since 2016 she has collaborated on various projects with the choreographer Marco D’Agostin. She has received several national awards and in 2019 she won the Ubu Award for Best Under 35 Actress.

by and with Chiara Bersani
scene & lights: Valeria Foti
with the collaboration of Richard Gargiulo and Sergio Seghettini
vocal dramaturgy: Francesca Della Monica
support to the dramaturgy: Giulia Traversi
creation support: Marco D’Agostin / Elena Giannotti
support to the process: Federica Della Pozza
promotion and curatorship: Giulia Traversi
logistics and organization: Eleonora Cavallo
administration: Chiara Fava
production: corpoceleste c.c.0.0 #
co-production: Operaestate Festival Veneto and Centro per la Scena Contemporana CSC,(Bassano del Grappa, Ita) – Fabbrica Europa (Firenze, ITA), Bolzano Danza | Tanz Bozen (Bolzano, ITA), Gender Bender Festival (Bologna, ITA) as part of the project “Swans never die”

[photo: Rebecca Lena]