Breathings of the moon functions as both a performance and an expedition into the underwater worlds of the Venice Lagoon and its canals. Rooted in the idea of a magic trick, it follows the logic of pre-scientific amusement artifacts that looked at the world and its different scales with fresh eyes.

The performance is structured as a series of quasi-theatrical progressive steps to be taken: to hold the hand of the rower (eternal storyteller), to descend into a vessel, to enter the belly of a quasi-fish, and to get used to the dark. Looking into the water through an instrument, resonating with the rower, the canal, the rhythms of the lagoon, and embodying a multiplicity of tidal patterns, to come back anew, return changed, amused and amazed, disembarking elsewhere—close, but elsewhere, perhaps on a much more complex realm.

Boat and rower: Venice on Board
Performer: Vincenzo Tosetto
Commissioned by TBA21–Academy with the support of S+T+ARTS

tba21.org