Language and Art in Three Performative Actions

The article reviews three performative works presented in Italy that explore the relationship between language and power. At the Santarcangelo Festival, Romeo Castellucci's installation-performance "Il Terzo Reich" bombards viewers with flashing Italian dictionary words, accompanied by Scott Gibson's explosive sound, rendering language illegible. The work echoes Fabio Mauri's 1975 book "Linguaggio è guerra," which used stamps of war images to critique political rhetoric. In Bologna, the temporary collective 1X2 (Flavio Favelli, Nanni Menetti, Fabiola Naldi) exhibited paintings at the Collezioni Comunali d'Arte, paired with a notarial act reading at Cappella Farnese and a public poster by eee studio that reorders concepts alphabetically and by length, creating unexpected juxtapositions. The Laminarie company presented "Invettiva inopportuna" by Febo Del Zozzo, featuring a rotating luminous structure inscribed with Claudio Meldolesi's phrase "Theatre valorizes the unexpected." The performer navigates a rope cage until the precarious grid collapses, leaving him alone with his words: "At a certain point the day comes when you touch bottom."