Motus: MDLSX

Thursday, August 27th at 9.30 pm
Stara mestna elektrarna – Elektro Ljubljana

This is the third time that the Motus collective will be performing at the Mladi levi festival. The directing and dramaturgical duo of Enrico Casagrande and Daniela Nicolò forms a powerful triangular engine of creativity with performer Silvia Calderoni. Following their performative articulation of Brecht’s Antigone titled TOO LATE! (antigone)contest #2 and Alexis.Una tragedia greca, the collective this time tackles gender identity.

MDLSX resembles a Bildungsroman or, in this particular case, a Bildungsperformance – a coming of age story about personal formation. However, while identity-formation was once seen as a coming-of-age journey towards a fixed structure, nowadays we watch as our notions of identity fragment and fight to exist and be recognised. Instead of simply accepting and adopting our ascribed identity while we mature, we are forced to consider how we can define and create our own. The performance flows like a sequence of music pieces, while Silvia Calderoni – who has a fluid gender identity herself and is the initiator of the performance addressing gender identity – takes on the role of a DJ. The whirlwind of music accompanying Silvia’s journey between her own position of a performer, namely herself, and other characters and histories draws on themes from novels, mythology and theoretical texts. Autobiographical bits and literary evocations come together, by blurring fiction and reality; the performance swings from Gender Trouble to Undoing Gender.

Performer: Silvia Calderoni
Direction: Enrico Casagrande, Daniela Nicolò
Dramaturgy: Daniela Nicolò, Silvia Calderoni
Sound: Enrico Casagrande in collaboration with Paolo Baldini, Damiano Bagli
Lighting design and video: Alessio Spirli
Producers: Elisa Bartolucci, Valentina Zangari
Production: Motus
In collaboration with: La Villette – Résidence d’artistes 2015 Paris, Bunker Ljubljana, Santarcangelo 2015 Festival Internazionale del Teatro in Piazza, L’arboreto – Teatro Dimora di Mondaino, Marche Teatro
Supported by: MiBACT, Regione Emilia Romagna

Photo: Ilenia Caleo

80 minutes

The performance is in Italian with Slovene and English surtitles. A stroboscope is used during the performance.