CORPI MEZZI
by Chiara Marini Ferretti

with Carola Demarchi, Milena Inge Grigolo, Chiara Martini, Giulia Zini

“Mezzo”, from the Latin medius, meaning “in between,” “intermediate.”

Here it is understood in its dialectal use as “wet,” “damp,” referring to something soaked, impregnated with liquid. This usage comes from a semantic shift of the word mezzo, which normally indicates “partially,” “halfway.” Mezzo has undergone an extension of meaning linked to the perception of an intermediate state: “partially wet” = “damp,” halfway between dryness and complete wetness.

This work arises from the urgency to engage with the overload of information and mental matter—absorbed as much as produced—and with the constant pressure of productivity, which projects us into a future dimension, straining the capacity to be present in our bodies with ourselves and with others. The performance reflects a collective condition: our inability to stay, the fatigue of rooting, the difficulty of inhabiting the present.

Here we dwell in the in-between dimension, the body present only halfway. It is a work on the dissociative state between mind and body, unfolding in three distinct movements.

Movement II – Absorbing, Absorbed

As director, I guided the performers in a bodily exploration of the dissociative state, focusing on the continuous absorption of information, images, and sounds coming from our phones.

Action. Each performer inhabits the space while gazing at her own personal screen, with the amplified sound emanating from her own body. The bodies allow themselves to be absorbed—dormant, breaking apart—moving through the space in this state of unawareness, until they collapse upon one another.