Gentle Unicorn
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What if the iconic image of the unicorn was only derived from the falsely identified depiction of an ox from the Bronze Age? According to historians, the two-dimensional portrayal is responsible for the missing second horn. Whatever the case, the origins of this creature – a phenomenon in today’s popular culture – cannot be traced. Collective thought has made the unicorn a mythological figure without a coherent myth to justify its existence; the unicorn has become a symbol of extinction and fragility.
In Gentle Unicorn, a work about the political body and its social role, Chiara Bersani dedicates her flesh, muscles, bones, heart, eyes and breath to the image and unfathomable being of the unicorn, to right the wrong that has been done to it and to reframe its role in history. Gentle Unicorn will give examples of how to fight off social stigmatisation and voyeuristic behaviour. Or how to subvert them. In short: a solo of subtle elegance.
works mainly in the fields of fine arts and performing arts. Being an actor and performer, she has worked with renowned contemporary performance artists such as Rodrigo Garcia, Jérôme Bel and Alessandro Sciarroni.
Bersani’s research also focuses on politics of the body. Her solo Gentle Unicorn, previously invited to aerowaves, can be understood as this research’s ‘manifesto’. In 2019, she received the UBU Best Newcomer Award for Performers under 35 as well as the Total Theatre Award for Dance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Credits
50 minutes
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