Giulio Stasi's 'Accidentes Gloriosos' at Teatro India, Rome

Giulio Stasi's performative project 'Accidentes Gloriosos' unfolded from September 2 to 7, 2016, at Teatro India in Rome and surrounding spaces including the Caffarella park. The work comprises seven chapters, or 'Accidentes,' each lasting 9 to 90 minutes, exploring themes of death and rebirth. Stasi, founder of Rosabella Teatro, drew inspiration from texts by Mauro Andrizzi and Marcus Lindeen. The performances actively involve the audience, breaking the fourth wall and using diverse venues such as bridges, tubes, minivans, cars, workshops, parks, and woods. Four common elements recur: death and rebirth, the gift (often physical objects or experiences), active spectator participation, and the ineffable. Stasi employs distancing devices to temper intense biographical material, as when love letters from over half a century ago are read near a donkey and goats. The project references visual artists like Yoko Ono, Jannis Kounellis, Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, Yayoi Kusama, Bill Viola, and Marcel Duchamp, as well as theoretical works by Marcel Duchamp and Umberto Eco. The performance '29 marzo 1912' evokes Robert Scott's Antarctic defeat. Stasi's approach is described as photographic in the sense of Luigi Ghirri, renewing wonder. The project engaged thousands of people and marks an ambitious season start for Teatro di Roma, a National Theatre.