Mother at the Mother’s museum, mise-en-scene an abuse-sacrifice
A national preview in via Settembrini’s museum, on stage a theatrical performance, by Francesca Bartellini, born from a research on the figure of Mary Magdalene
by Stefano de Stefano
Mother at the Mother’s museum and it is not a wordplay. The performance-show’s title that the actress, director and writer Francesca Bartellinibringsinto the stage is today at 6.30 p.m. in national previewin via Settembrini’smuseum. The setting-up is presented by Ipazia Production and the Donnaregina Foundation, in collaboration with Macro Asilo of Roma.
Mother’skey lies in the breaking down of fences between genres and languages, which in the 2000s is rediscovering new conceptual and technological forces. «The show – explains the protagonist – is also a performance, for me there is no difference. Such as in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, in which I recognize myself». An aesthetic vision that coincides more and more with the new view of the museum chaired by Laura Valente and directed by Andrea Viliani, as demonstrates the project linked to Robert Mapplethorpe. «For me – she continues – the central point is still the actor-performer, because without himthe theater cannot exist, and I believe that to do so bodies and life are central elements in order to get closer to the public».
It’s a natural evolution of the previous work by the Milanese artist, Sermones, played at the Quartieridell’Arte’s festival in Viterbo in a project with Giancarlo Giannini in 2014 and restaged at the Pacta in Milanin 2017. Therefore, at Mother’smuseum performances and video art will intertwine, as the result of a research around the figure of Mary Magdalene. «Protagonist with all her boundless iconography, her apocryphal Gospel, the sacred couple, the HierosGamos, and the encounter with Jesus. And thanks to an elasticspatio-temporal dimension, she will face the brutality of the present in the New Millennium».
The public will thus witness violence on a woman consumed as if it were a sacrifice, here and now in the 21st century, with the image of a young and beautiful girl who breaks down, re-emerging as the emblematic figure of Mary Magdalene. «Who will finally reveal her motives through the centuries, and she will free herself from chains, since her story is”another”, and such as Pina Bausch’s poetics it will move towards the ‘Path of the Heart’ of the feminine’SacredIntellect’». The video art work, created by Francesca Fini, will then dialogue with the protagonist on stage, becoming itself a character, an atmosphere and a dramaturgic fragment, with references to the medieval theater.
The music, which goes from the Renaissance to the atonal contemporary, will be performed at the harpsichord by Angelo Trancone. The monologue Mother is part of the diptych Two, together with Father, written in English and supervised by the director Susan Wordsfold, stagingin Glasgow in April, before performing in summer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and then in London.
Many more activities the ones of the Mother Museum. At 11 in the morning there will be a guided tour through the retrospective dedicated to Mapplethorpe, while tomorrow at the same time, in occasion of the Memorial Day will be helda performative path, Diversa_Mente, about freedom, denied rights and the universal value of diversity, not to forget the tragedy of the Shoah. At 5 p.m., Guess who?will be played, a game visit for the art lovers who will challenge themselves on the history of the Mother from 2005 up to today. As a price there is a catalog dedicated to the artist, protagonist of the path.