#dryordrown

[fontepoe]

DRY OR DROWN

performers: Diego Barone, Vincenzo Barone, Antonio Cerchiara, Pierfranco Lucente, Paola Marino, Claudia Oriolo, Valerio Ruscelli, Yukiko Saito, Emanuele Serrano

video, 05:15 min

2014 

A group of people walk down the semi-dried bed of a river, against the stream, while rhythmically beating stones and wood sticks until they encounter an instructor who guides them in a silent exercise until the dusk. The action takes the form of an atemporal ritual linked to the mythology of the waters whose presence, abundance, inconstancy and risk have traced the history of the whole territory since the time of the first Greek settlements. Water was the subject of the birth and the decline of Sybaris whose ruins are now being kept dry with constant effort. Further it was the subject of sacred offerings to the goddess Athena. Despite the importance of the relationship between the Greeks and the waters however there is no significant evidence relating to the practice of swimming. “Dry or drown” establishes a connection between place, past and present, blurring the boundaries, ranging from performance action and cinematic image, sacred ritual and athletic exercise, Greek mythology and the contemporary sensation of ubiquitous emergency.

site-specific video realized during the residency Témenos in Sibari (Italy)

email | [email protected] | for password