Valentina Medda Revives Sardinian Funeral Lament in Performance

Valentina Medda's project 'The Last Lamentation' reimagines the traditional Mediterranean funeral lament (attittu) as a contemporary performance. Supported by Italian Council (XI edition, 2022), the work involves fourteen Sardinian performers, vocal trainer Claudia Ciceroni, stylist Filippo Grandulli, and cooperative La Matrioska. On June 27, 2023, the performance takes place by the sea in Cagliari with live composer Alessandro Olla. A video work will be presented at MAMbo in Bologna and MAN in Nuoro in 2024. The project will also be promoted at Arts Centre 404 / VierNulVier (Ghent), Flux Factory (New York), Bunker (Ljubljana), and in Milan with Careof, Bari's BIG Bari International Gender Festival, RAMDOM in Puglia, and Sa Manifattura and Exmà in Cagliari. Medda began research in 2018 with a residency at BAR in Beirut, studied ethnographic materials, and conducted fieldwork in Barbagia, Sardinia, accessing original 1970s recordings of attittos. The performance explores contemporary disconnection from grief and death rituals, using voice and body to reclaim care as political discourse. The Mediterranean is framed as a site of contemporary diasporas and hybrid identities.