Zanni

A joint experimentation with actor Chiara D’Anna around the idea of performer in space — isolated, without context. The commedia dell’arte character Zanni, a starving peasant clown and ancestor of Harlequin, finds a shoe. He tries to eat it. He dies. The work also allowed for an exploration of the role of observer in relation to the performer.

We filmed in an empty black studio, lit to further demarcate the isolated space. Filmed primarily exploring composition and the aesthetics of the performer in relation to the object, allowing attention to travel freely while the performer improvised within the vocabulary of the character.

The result was an unrehearsed, improvised sequence that documents not just the performer but the relationship between performer and observer.