This project is a celebration of beauty, both artistic and human.
Built as a hymn of resilience and resistance, it opposes the challenging events and political decisions of this past year.
It comes to life as a consequence of the enormous void that has been left in my heart as a result of the endless months that deprived me of everything I care about and I believe to be worth living for.
Connections and freedom that comes from movement and art.
This pandemic has forced our backs against the wall, leaving deep damage on top of the already terrible loss of innocent lives.
It has caused a fracture in society and within our souls, leaving an open and bleeding wound that is hard to heal.
It has reduced the essence of our lives to mere presence, rather than active participation.
We've been locked, distanced, silenced and forced to live a surreal and material life. One where art and creativity haven't been taken into account at all, nor considered essential to survival.
We've been forced to spend our days bouncing between supermarkets, home and work (for those lucky enough to still have a job) without any external help for the reinvigoration and strengthening of our bodies and minds.
Artists, and spectators alongside them, have been tied up, with their arms behind their backs, forced to their knees and executed, without any chance to raise their voices or fight for their rights. A tough verdict to swallow, heeding no one, that quickly left thousands of people empty handed, waiting for a miracle that never came.
And alongside them, theaters, cinemas, circuses, concert halls, festivals, museums, art galleries, everything closed. Homes consumed with empty and silent echoes, left dusty and abandoned, walking along the edge of failure.
This project arises as a reminder to people of the beauty within art, and to show that spectators and artists are extremely interconnected. They are the reason of each-others existence.
It also focuses on the underlining connection between the body and mind. As well as the influence of mental health in relation to physical health.
Eliminating everything that keeps us human and that contributes to the fundamental release of happiness hormones, is the first step towards illness and death.
Physical and social death.
It doesn't matter if you're an artist or a spectator, once you remove everything, you're just a dusty cover of an heart with no pulse.
This project arrives ultimately at the end of an year that put a strain on a huge amount of people. An year that saw us repeatedly as winners and losers, forced to face our darkest shadows looking for energies in the farthest and most hidden corners of our hearts, without any external help.
It also arrives at the end of an year that, despite everything, finds us still here, fighting hard, and celebrating beauty, with the deepest hopes in our hearts that this new year will bring us back all the elements that are essential to making our lives memorable and worthwhile again.
Rome, 20 December 2020
Acknowledgements.
My deepest gratitude goes to all the artists and theaters that reacted, and took part, to this project with great enthusiasm and with open hearts.
Thanks for offering me your time and space in such a period, and thanks for posing as representatives of those macro categories heavily impacted by this pandemic.
All the photos of this project have been shot in Rome, beating heart and capital of my beautiful home country.
An heartfelt thanks goes also to my brother and assistant Stefano Dattrino (IG @brino_artist) all round performer (aerialist, circus acrobat and theater actor) and fundamental support and help in coordinating the project.
Then in order of photos :
Cristina Pietrosanti (IG @cristina_pietrosanti23) dancer, performer, aerialist, representing aerialists.
Photographed inside Teatro Vascello, artistic direction Manuela Kustermann.
Antonella Salvatore (IG @antonella__salvatore) theater actress, representing actors.
Photographed inside Teatro De Servi, artistic direction Stefano Marafante.
Raffaella Zappalà (IG @patiraffa), actress and mime, representing mimes.
Photographed inside Teatro Abarico, artistic direction Umberto Bianchi.
Keba Seck, dancer and teacher of Afro dance, Sow Saouda, percussionist, representing dancers.
Photographed inside SpinTimeLabs, polyfunctional cultural centre managed by the artistic collective SpinOff.
Federico Millimaci (IG @duepuntodue_service) sound engineer, representing technicians.
Photographed inside Cinecittà World, CEO Stefano Cigarini.
Simone Martino (IG @simonemartinomusica), pianist and composer, and Sharon Alessandri (IG @sharonalessandri), singer and actress, representing musicians.
Photographed inside Teatro Arciliuto, artistic direction Giovanni Samaritani.
Fabiola Zossolo (IG @fabiolazossolo), classic dancer, representing dancers.
Photographed inside Teatro Degli Audaci, artistic direction Flavio De Paola.
Antonino Casile (IG @nino.casile), contemporary dancer, representing musicals.
Photographed inside Cinecittà World, CEO Stefano Cigarini.
Stefano Dattrino (IG @brinoartist), circus performer, aerialist, theater actor, representing circus performers.
Photographed inside Cinecittà World, CEO Stefano Cigarini.