Proimion (“proem” in Greek) is a 20- minute site-specific performance conceived for the FERTILE a new exhibition space established by Palazzo Monti. Serving as a prelude to the film Baccanti, the work unveils the original state of a traumatized body, tracing the threshold between wound, memory, and transformation.
Female figures remain trapped within the dynamics of the male gaze, displayed like captive animals within a museum-like environment of white rooms, neon lighting, and frontal observation. Three dancers, each occupying a separate room, wear garments covered in white paint that blend into the surrounding architecture. As the performance unfolds, this image gradually fractures: the bodies move from a state of control toward ecstasy, initiating an animalistic and grotesque transformation.
Each performer engages with a fetish-object—domestic and symbolic elements that become instruments of resistance and rebellion. The performance ends in suspension, finding its completion in the film, where the process of transformation is fully realized.
