GNANCANABUSIA

Four women gather around a wooden table worn by time, holding a white sheet in their hands. Through its threads, the choir discovers and reveals the life of Clelia Marchi, a peasant woman from Mantua, her husband Anteo Benatti, the people of their land and all the oppressed lands: a peasant story of poverty, war, gender and social inequality, but also a story of strength of character, memory and love. The story of a life written at night, over many years.

The four women become translators, spokeswomen, rhapsodists of this memory and, in bringing it back to light, they mark, stain and animate the sheet, which becomes dyed and transformed: the fabric begins to tell a story.

Lending their hands and voices to the narration, the choir moves in circular, repetitive motions: the constant labour in which Clelia was immersed. From ploughing the fields to the frenetic spinning of the spinning wheel, from reaping and harvesting to mending clothes, scenes from real life follow one another on the table, where materials, objects and words take charge of the narration and slide continuously from one to the other, accompanied by song. A work song, a dirge, a love song: the voice becomes survival, endurance of pain, catharsis.

In women’s hands, voices and gestures lies the memory of an entire generation, an object that preserves this memory and becomes a precious means of communicating with the world we live in.