NIGREDO was born out of the need to think about and experiment with a new form of dialogue between artists, starting with a comparison of different creative processes.
Time is fertile matter, it should be observed and listened to in its confused song, in the echo of a scream,
in the chaos.
The primordial void, a kind of dark whirlpool that sucks everything into an endless abyss comparable to a black gaping throat.
In ancient mythologies Chaos is almost always set against the Cosmos, in the sense of a disordered universe, the former and an ordered universe, the latter.
NIGREDO is the starting point from which different and simultaneous speeds spring, in constant conflict: research, setting up, feedback, intent, success, archiving, reflection, defeat…
Is it possible to draw a hierarchy between these different moments?
A particular characteristic of artistic processes is their rituality. Immersed in change, in an incoherent search for justifications, a studio visit for a little peek, enthusiasm and distrust.
Achieving goals means being able to release energy, to feed again and start again following new trajectories.
Sometimes you forget, sometimes you remember.
NIGREDO’s research therefore gravitates around magic, theatre, the religion of history, landscape and the queer alternative.
The former Church of Sant’Antonio Abate in Via Rezzonico in Como is small but compact in its paradox. The most unlikely functions that a sacred structure can host justify its need for attention.
The changes settle down to create a dense mixture of rites and memories, a magma that simmers in silence, a source of very ductile material from which to draw.
The space dematerialises with its trappings, it smells of history, it is made up like a memory.
And it goes on stage,
improvising an infinite repertoire of possible narrations.
The church flattens into a clearing, the audience on its knees looks up at the moon,
an altar, the refuge of an adolescent.
The design of an artistic work now surpasses or gives way to the final result, the precious object shining with its own light,
the light of its new audience of believers.
The process itself, devoid of quantifiable value, is lost in cataloguing, while the performance ends the moment it begins.
NIGREDO is a pure process that is not interested in the product. On the contrary, it seeks new ways of experiencing confused thinking, the possibility of losing, the desire to cast a new gaze on the reality of waste.
