Designed as an extension of the Empty picture (2013) and Longing (2014) pieces, the Weaver project, initiated in 2015, focuses on the question of the memory of workers' actions and the peasant world. It is inspired by weaving traditions (between Italy, Morocco and France) as much as by rural folklore linked to tarentism (a nervous disorder attributed to a spider bite) to try to "mimic" cultural narratives, to take them back as they are repaired.
Conceived following meetings with workers who are now suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Weaver confronts two images of wounded memory: on the one hand, tarantism, which has become a folk dance (the "tarantella"), freezes in a watered-down representation, which alters its memory, and on the other hand, the irremediable amnesic disorders produced by the disease prevent the transmission of a gestual heritage.
Weaver first took the form of a multimedia installation (sound, video image and performance) that could be modulated and produced in situ (Weaver raver, 2015). In its dance form, Weaver quintet consists of a quintet composed of three dancers (Vera Gorbacheva, Daphne Koutsafti, Juliette Morel), a composer (Deena Abdelwahed) and a lighting designer (Rima Ben Brahim). Together, they form a secret and close-knit feminine community, a sorority bound by a common destiny. Joining this quintet: Alexandre Roccoli, choreographer.
Hearing to heal these wounded memories by recovering these lost stories, Weaver poses as a conservation device less documentary than affected, paving the way for possible resilience.
Alexandre Roccoli (France) is a recipient of the Performing arts Committee of the Cité internationale des arts.