Francesco Scavetta: Nowhere Like Here
Nowhere Like Here deals with our emotional responses to the connotation of “home” as a metaphor for identity, of domestic bliss, a place of warmth, comfort and affection, but also conflicts and routines. The place where to welcome and where to close the door and be by ourselves. Where we feel safe and where dishes can pile up. The utopian emotional location we recollect with nostalgia: it’s not a case that when talking about home, we often regress to childhood and refer to the place we grew up. The performance unfolds a visual and metaphorical blueprint of the “home”, as a microcosm of the world, where thresholds are continually drawn and boundaries repeatedly broken. The dancers on stage rediscover daily rituals, embodying a physical cartography that keeps transforming in front of our eyes: the gesture of welcoming becomes an iconic forgotten language, connecting and rejecting at the same time, in a short circuit of contradictions. The image of the house becomes the topography of our intimate being: people need houses in order to dream, in order to imagine. A politic of the gaze, contra posed to the impression of the glance: epiphanic and restless.
The photo book Pictures from Home by photographer Larry Sultan has been a central source of inspiration. Pictures from Home is a selection of photographs of Sultan’s parents, which together form a kind of family album spanning from 1982 to 1992. The camera functions as the family’s primary tool of self-representation — a way to, at least seemingly, preserve memory. The images also contribute to shaping the concept of “family” and its cultural myth, serving as a testament to a shared longing for the narrative of domestic peace and family happiness. But the images only give the illusion of being a simple depiction of reality. The staging in the photographs instead serves as a framing of a daydream — of how things ought to be. Everything is constructed in the images, yet appears ordinary and comforting.
Free tickets reservation and information: info@bunker.si
The performance is followed by the Audience Council – a discussion of the audience about the performance. The discussion is moderated by the philosopher and critic Jaka Bombač.
Concept, choreography: Francesco Scavetta
Created in collaboration with the dancers: Margareta Firinger, Magalí Camps, George-Alexandru Pleșca, Jerneja Fekonja, Michał Przybyła, Laura Tóth
Music: Kim Myhr
Sound technician: Matteo Dell’Unto
Dramaturge: Guy Cools
Scenography: Francesco Scavetta, Luciano Goizueta
Light design: Stefano Stacchini
Costume design: Mari Ballangrud
Photos: Naomi Pongolini
Developed from and inspired by: Home Movie (by Wee/Francesco Scavetta, 2022)
Production by: Vitlycke – Centre for Performing Arts (SE).
Nowhere Like Here is part of the Beyond Front@: Bridging Periphery project, developed in collaboration with Central Europe Dance Theatre – CEDT (HU), Bunker (SI), HIPP (HR), Krakow Dance Theatre (PL), M Studio (RO).
Beyond Front@: Bridging Periphery is funded by the European Union. Vitlycke-CPA’s participation in Beyond Front@ is co-financed by Swedish Arts Council and Västra Götalandsregionen.
