Chandana Sarma – danzatrice classica indiana di Kathak
«Instabilli Vaganti came to India in August 2015 for a residential session of their project, Rags of Memory. I had applied for the residency and was one of the selected participants. So I got an opportunity to work with them, in the village theatre residency near Shantiniketan, in my country. I was interested in taking part in the project because I am practicing as physical theatre performer and maker. I came from strong movement based training and was looking for a fine training to work with voice, text and to find organic integration of the same into physical language. I found Instabili’s work very intense and powerful. When one whatches their video samples, he/she finds body, voice, text and dance seamlessly meshing and integrating with one another as a single living being. Their work emanates life, breath and rhythm. I was very inspired and also very curious to learn the process that lays the foundation for their work. The process, then, was very intense: physically, mentally and emotionally. It works on multiple dimensions of rigour and, simultaneously, with various qualities of movement, voice, text, etc. Hence, the process enriched me much. It guided me into understanding the art of presence and how a performer sustains engagement; it helped to look at a performance as a composition and understand how tension is maintained. But, more essentially, it brought focus on breath and rhythm – which bind us as humans, irrespective of culture, creed and caste. The process opens doors between cultures, so as to allow them to intermingle. I learnt a lot about other cultural dimensions, thanks to the fact that every participant could bring material connected with his/her culture and life history. It was a very rigorous and humbling experience. Memories of which I still carry with me».
Katrin Arcel Konstantin – ricercatrice e performer austriaca
«I invited them, for the first time in 2013, to the Theaterfestival (www.festivalspectrum.com), in Austria, with Rags of Memory. It was a pleasure. I found them via internet search because I was interested in Italian artists, who were working in the performing arts. I liked their approach very much, their research, especially when considering their idea of working about rituals worldwide. Apart from this, I was interested in the body language, including Instabili’s experimental and physical approach to their work. During the Festival, I led a discussion about performance as a new genre in the performing arts. I gave a short theoretical input and the groups (including Instabili), who participated in the Festival, spoke about their different approaches. Afterwards, we talked about my artistic and theoretical approach and we found common interests with Anna Dora and Nicola. When they returned to Italy they asked me whether I wanted to write some lines about the project and become part of Rags of Memory. These lines became a short article with a theoretical part concerning rituals and theatre, together with my personal experience during their performance. Since then, we have been in touch. I also visited their working lab in Bologna and invited them twice more to my Festival with their new productions. Finally, last year, I went with them to Mexico in order to give a lecture according to the article I had written. I was also very interested in brushing up on my Spanish. Their work on the 43 missing students of Ayotzinapa impressed me a lot. Anna Dora and Nicola are friendly, open-minded people, with high competence in the performing arts. On the other hand, in Mexico I lived an anxiety-provoking situation, because of the dangerousness of that country and the problems connected with the lack of payment. Apart from this, the cooperation – from an artistical and scientifical point of view – worked perfectly. It would be a pleasure to follow again their work in the future».
Riccardo Nanni – musicista e compositore italiano
«Ho conosciuto Instabili Vaganti nel 2013 durante gli incontri formativi sulle Reti Culturali Creative dell’Emilia Romagna. La collaborazione è partita con la registrazione delle musiche di Made in Ilva, che era stato selezionato al Fringe Festival di Edimburgo nell’agosto 2014. Nell’autunno del 2015 Anna Dora e Nicola mi hanno proposto di collaborare al progetto di Stracci della Memoria dove il progetto richiedeva la presenza sul palco e la musica eseguita dal vivo. Per un musicista come me, che lavora prevalentemente in studio, il palco è sempre una forte sfida emotiva. Il lavoro di studio è frutto di riflessioni e di ripensamenti; sul palco ogni momento è unico, ogni replica è unica. La relazione tra il gesto, la parola e la nota musicale o il suono non è mai scontata e non deve esserlo. Oltre alla sfida emotiva, si è aggiunto il viaggio. Siamo andati in India, prima a Nuova Dehli, in occasione del Festival internazionale organizzato dalla National School of Drama, e poi a Mumbai. L’India si può amare oppure odiare, ma è impossibile rimanere indifferenti. Sento ancora un forte legame tra lo spettacolo e il viaggio. È stata la prima esibizione pubblica in questa nuova versione, ma alla fine è andato tutto per il meglio».
Nota bene.
Avvertenza per i lettori: per rispettare al massimo i contenuti, le voci dei performer sono state lasciate in inglese o francese, con alcune sfumature che questa lingue possono assumere nei vari Paesi in cui non sono lingua madre.
