Kthack
SENSITIVE ENVIRONMENT
Kthack
SENSITIVE ENVIRONMENT
2015
37° 30′ 36 N – 15° 7’ 9 E
“Kthack” is a project curated by the Retablo Cultural Association, part of the “I ART Festival,” an extensive collection of multidisciplinary events conceived and overseen by I World. The program comprised four shows, each tailored for virtual dramaturges within three-dimensional scenic installations: TIFEO – SOGGIORNANDO VICINO – DE CINERE – NON SI VIVE NEMMENO UNA VOLTA.
Titled after the combination of “Kατάvη” (Katàne), the city of Catania’s ancient name, and the computer term “Hack,” the performance unfolds within a sensitive environment, generating both digital and tangible outcomes. “Kthack” traces the history of the Etna territory and Catania, a city repeatedly destroyed and buried under lava, a testament to oblivion and continuous rebirth, where forgotten memories emerge from the ashes. On a narrative level, the work embraces new technologies and searches for unconventional ways to engage with them.
The theme weaving through all four shows revolves around the non-linear language of the unconscious, mythology, archetypes, and the phases of deconstruction, destruction, and reconstruction within reality. This plural approach is entrusted to the visionary gaze of different artistic talents, allowing the project to explore multiple creative dimensions. By employing innovative visual architecture and experimental approaches to theatre, practical and technological elements seamlessly integrate within the concept of theatrical narration, all viewed through the transformative lens of digital media.
soggiornando vicino
Directed by: Federico Magnano San Lio
Drawing inspiration from one of the rare published works of the wandering poet Turi Salemi, the piece pays homage to this legendary yet little-known figure of Catania’s twentieth-century literature. Much of his production has been lost in the city’s collective memory, often penned onto any available surface without revisions or corrections, akin to a bebop jazz musician of writing. Federico Magnano revives Salemi’s hallucinated spleen, transcribing it onto a sheet of paperboard imprinted with the fading voice of his beloved one.
tifeo
Directed by: Salvatore Zinna
Music: Fabio Grasso, Giancarlo Trimarchi
A monstrous giant with two hundred heads and serpentine arms was buried alive by Zeus beneath the entire mass of the Sicilian island, his head stuck by the volcano. Outcast, exiled beyond the translucent borders of the well-ordered Olympic civilisation, Tifeo, the son of Earth and Tartarus, tears the surface, sowing panic, cataclysms, and riots in the depths of the western fortress.
Non si vive nemmeno una volta
Directed by: Maria Piera Regoli
Demeter, a watchful mother in a state of coma, has erased the trauma of the fruit of her womb by Ades. Her current condition shrouds her past experiences in darkness. Director Maria Piera Regoli delivers a gripping portrayal of the woman giving birth to a series of divine maidens. The piece effectively retains echoes of the past trauma but conceals it from the awareness of what it generates. This dramatic allegory hints at memory removal as a recurring cultural element in the Etna territory.
De cinere
Directed by: Maria Arena
Performer: Daniela Orlando
Music: Lucilla Scalia
“Melior De Cinere Surgo” is the inscription on the arch of Catania’s Porta Ferdinandea, found under the bas-relief of the “Araba Fenice,” a lesser-known symbol of the city. Maria Arena and Daniela Orlando reimagine a contemporary tale of the Phoenix’s cyclical journey of death and rebirth, set to the notes of Lucilla Scalia’s harp. Having forgotten its eternal task, the Phoenix can no longer die in its nest grave, thus unable to be reborn again. The cycle is interrupted, trapped in an oblivion of endless sunrises without sunsets, in a desolate and corrupted land. Can its destiny still be fulfilled?
