OvO and gruppo nanou's Dante-Inspired Infernal Performance

The Italian noise duo OvO (Stefania Pedretti and Bruno Dorella) and the dance duo gruppo nanou (Marco Valerio Amico and Rhuena Bracci) collaborated on a performance titled "Miasma Arsura" for the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri's death. The event was part of the Transmissions Festival, with support from Ravenna viso-in-aria and Fèsta. The performance, streamed online due to the pandemic, combined OvO's 2020 album "Miasma" with nanou's ongoing choreography "Arsura." The piece explores themes of hell, isolation, and desire, drawing on the historical context of 1960s-70s Roman gallery L'Attico, where music and dance merged in a feedback loop between art and life. The performance features red-lit darkness, repetitive noise, and Bracci's ghost-like movements in white tulle. Critics note that the video medium diminishes the tactile, immersive impact of the live sound, and the excessive darkness sometimes obscures the choreography. The 35-minute piece is described as a traumatic block, reflecting the pandemic's separation of bodies. The collaboration aims to recreate a shared dimension, albeit different from the joyful era of L'Attico.