CRY VIOLET, the eponymous title of the extinct flower, is a choreographic creation by and with Panzetti / Ticconi that is drawn on a sound composition conceived and proposed by Teho Teardo.

Using a gestural code that portrays expressions of pain and shame inspired by the iconography of original sin, the human expedient of atoning for one’s guilt through practices that attempt to make up for environmental damage or, in some other way, conceal it, is highlighted. Widespread phenomena such as greenwashing, indeed, represent deceptive practices that elude a real solution to the damage that human action has caused to the environment.

Actions, such as cleaning, merge with crying. In this context, a common object such as a cloth or a handkerchief transforms its function from a cleaning tool to an element that accommodates pain, absorbs tears. Recalling Lady Macbeth’s repeated and fallacious gesture in the perpetual attempt to erase the sign of guilt from her hands, the two figures trace the expiatory mechanics of cleaning and concealing. It is in this limbo between a real or façade attempt to make up for the damage caused that CRY VIOLET takes shape, in a shifting complicity between the aestheticisation of guilt and the act of resolving or concealing it, to the point of transforming itself into captivating, winking, advertising material.

Choreography, performance, costumes: Ginevra Panzetti, Enrico Ticconi
Sound composition: Teho Teardo
Graphic illustration: Ginevra Panzetti
Originally created as part of: Explorations – Project by Triennale Milano in collaboration with Volvo Car Italia
With the support of: Lavanderia a Vapore, Piemonte dal Vivo – Turin (IT); Rampe. Stuttgart (DE)

Duration: 30′