ODE ALL’OLIO
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conception, choreography and interpretation by
Lara Guidetti e Marco De Meo
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original video animations by
Francesco Collinelli
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original music by
Marcello Gori
« I will give up my oil, thanks to which gods and men are honoured, and will I go free on the trees?»
Jg 9.8-9
CAST &
CREDITS
costumes by Giovanni Motta
lighting design by Marco Mosca and Luca Grimaldi
with extracts and reworkings from the adhan of the Arab tradition, by Antoine Forqueray and Diamanda Galás
video editing Andrea Bianchi
original images Constantinos Thersippos Karentzos
with the contribution of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities – Entertainment Sector and NEXT – Laboratory of ideas for the production and distribution of live performances in Lombardy – 2015 Edition
Synopsis
IDENTITY 2.0
The first traces of olive cultivation date back to the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations, where oil is known to have spread in four fundamental fields of application: gastronomy, medicine, cosmetics, and artificial light. Since then, oil has accompanied man in each of these areas, a millennial long companion whose constant presence has never failed. The ancient testament then elevates the oil to a religious link between the earthly world and the divine, the tangible element able to represent a sacral event in a profane reality; still, today oil remains the common hallmark of the three great monotheistic religions.
Nature created the self-fertile olive tree but the oil itself is absent in nature: it is a man who squeezes the fruit of the olive tree to distill its essence. Oil is therefore born from the human tension to bend nature to its uses and needs: oil that nourishes the body and spirit, oil to touch, to spread, to heat, to perfume. The olive tree and man have always had each other: on the one hand humanity has chosen the secular tree as its own symbol of peace and excellence, on the other hand, man squeezes the fruit to obtain the oil, a synthesis of all the vital properties generated by the process of maturation. The drop of oil becomes a metaphor for the fusion between masculine and feminine, between the self and nature, between matter that is transformed from solid to liquid.
In Ode all’olio, dance, video and music come together to trace a visionary journey filled with humanity, quaint at times, where oil emerges as a liquid and mute witness to the eternal tension of man, of being incomplete, seeking absolute knowledge, or perfect synthesis, or the reunion of the parts.
THE SECTIONS OF THE SHOW
WHITE PICTURE | The flower
Olive tree flowers can be of two types: Perfect or Self-fertile, capable of self-reproducing they are in possession of both male and female organs and Male Imperfect because also endowed of pollen. There are no imperfect female flowers. The peculiarity of the olive tree are its Independent Vascular Systems which, in the form of cords, connect each of the main branches to the corresponding roots, generating twisted and irregular trunks are furrowed by deep channels that make its form sculptural throughout time.
GREEN PICTURE | The human
The human being can be of two types: male imperfect or female imperfect. Self-fertile or perfect beings do not exist. The peculiarity of man is his tension to squeeze nature, his own similar to him, and his search for the unity that he does not possess. Oil is the vehicle between the human and the divine through history.
BLACK FRAMEWORK | The drop
The drop embodies the essence of the olive tree, the liquid gold that synthesizes the process and transforms the state of matter in the unity of essence, becoming a sign.
The essential drop that perfumes nourish, cares, and illuminates the human.
