"If the cooperation of thousands of millions of cells in the brain can expand our capacity for

consciousness, the idea that the cooperation of the whole of humanity or a fraction of this,
determine what Comte called a Great Being super -umano becomes more acceptable
"JBS Haldane.

Performaction... What is it?

Performaction is a form of total improvisation whose practical and theoretical concept was
created by Antonio Bilo Canella and has been developed since 1991.
Though the study and theory of Performaction has started in 1991,the practical development
and a considerable number of shows have been conducted since 1997 with the help of the
fundamental Hossein Taheri, Italo-Iranian actor-artist . After 2011 various other performative
ensembles have eventuated; the last ensemble is in collaboration with the poet and the
performactioner Alessia D'Errigo, and the director, writer and actor Giovanni Greco.
Having defined Performazione as a particularly advanced form of total improvisation,lets
specify what we mean by improvisation.
But to do so we have to take a small step back.
Trying a simplified ontology we could say that the artistic creation has always oscillated between
two polarities:

 the logical-rational, which is the ultimate sophistication craft: the conscious and
interminable workings over time to define and crystallize a FORM, presentable on the
outside and preservable in time.
the analog-irrational, which is the fury, the mania, the inspiration that creates in
a higher state of consciousness, extemporaneously.

In some way we could assimilate these two polarities to the main polarity of our cerebral
hemispheres, the left and right, and then to the eternal fight/dance between logic and insanity.
In fact, we are able to say that the inspiration (Furor, Mania), by itself, cannot guarantee an
outcome that has aesthetic and artistic value; and also the craft technique is unable to do so as
well. At this point, like Plato himself reminds us: "He who, without such a Furore, knocks at the
door of the Muses, persuaded that art is enough to make him a poet, will not achieve the
intended, and the poetry of those who think it will be eclipsed by the poetry of those who rave.
(...) This madness is given to us by the gods as the greatest of fortunes. Our demonstration will
not find faith among the reasoners for job, but will find it among the wises. " (Phaedrus 444-446).
Instead, the non bisection, namely the merge of handycraft (logical-rational work ) with the furormania-inspiration (analog-irrational condition ), can generate the highest artistic events. In fact,
results of unquestionable artistic value, improvisation, in all the arts,may be reached when
practiced as a route towards the summit of art and craft, further and beyond the most highly
specialized art and craft.
For Performazione ,therefore, becomes necessary to define any reference points that save
from the trap in which Improvisation often falls: the place where anyone can do anything.
And precisely through these reference points well define Performazione (Performaction).

First of all, Performazione is defined as a form of Art: this means that its primary objective is
the creation of Artistic Works. This is its heart: it isnt funny entertainment (like most of the
improvisational theater), nor a social or psychological tool (see other forms of improvisational
theater as Playback Theatre, or Teatro dell'Oppreso of Augusto Boal).
Specifically Performazione rejects any form of "match" or competition: it is not a demonstration
of skill or virtuosity. Any skill in Performazione is put at the service of the creation of the Artistic
Work .
The Performactioners are artists who have achieved excellence in their craft and have
chosen to go further: they are not actors, musicians, dancers, etc... "improvised".
Performazione seeks a synthesis between the aforementioned polarity: the
performactioner reaches the creation through an altered state of consciousness, but creates a
story, no matter how surreal and dreamlike it is: a story made up with elements of wisdom
"madly" generated; also uses his extreme craft mastery to give to the inspiration the
appropriate body, voice, music (and the greater will be the manifestation of new
possibilities,given from the Elsewhere).
Performazione is based on Listening: a full, total Listening, not just logical-rational, not only
listening to the words but the whole of souls, bodies, voices, music, lighting, stage and
audience; you want to create human Gestalts: there are no "solos."
La Performazione is a form of art as complete as possible: the internal artists (actors,
dancers, singers) are always in relationship with external Artists (musicians, lighting designers,

set designers): performing all together at the same time.

Performazione involves the STUDY of a theme (for example, the Odyssey, or Hamlet) on
which the artists work for months, through discussions, readings, research, etc... and then, in
the end, they go on stage.
In Performazione you do not quote, in the sense that you do not mention anything about the
material studied, what emerges is the result of unconscious processing, stimulated by the study
carried but absolutely no logically generated.
Performazione's not based on any type of structure (see in improvisational theater the long
form Harold and similar, or the matches of improvisation, etc ...), no towels, no format, no default
characters: when you go on stage there is absolutely no handhold, it goes into the
Void.
Performazione uses all possible languages: in particular, it reduces the presence of Daily
Realism (on which almost all the improvisational theater works) in favor of dreamlike, surreal
and poetic creations: an artist can become a speaking felafel, as well as Hamlet, as well as a
cloud-salamander, etc...
The Performazione is a kind of sacred game,meaning that the artists are always totally
involved (we would say in a "trance") in transformations that embody and not "ogle" ever to the
public (as happens in many forms of improvisational theater).

The Performazione includes audience but leaves it in its role of "witness": the audience
determines the given conditions and different audiences generate different Performactions, but
do not expect any structural involvement; if the audience is directly involved is because the artist

wanted it to be as a part of the artistic creation, but may not even happen.

During 20 years of research and shows we were also wondering: how can we guarantee the
extraordinary outcome, that we are looking for,taken as given,the fact that there is not a text?
A possible answer was found by carefully studying the videos of all Performactions that have
taken place and comparing this study with our own direct spectacular experience on the stage:
we have recognized two specific crossed phenomena , Research of the Archetype and
Gestaltic Emergentism.
Performactioners train to look for particular combinations of bodies, souls, objects, light and
music that "resonate". They do not know them before, they have not prepared them, but they
look for them and sense the tremendous potential energy: these combinations are the
Archetypes, organisms whose elements are in a relationship that generates additional value far
more than the sum of the parts ( Gestaltic Emergentism ). The combination of many Archetypes
leads to an high temperature most of times higher than temperature reached by shows
written and rehearsed, precisely because it happens there for the first time. And all this can only
happen if you are able to remain in a state of "furor" and not of rational logic. In addition, the
same story that the show tells arise from the succession and interaction of all the Archetypes
found from time to time.
Another thing to point out, as a side effect, it is the necessary killing of the ego: the spectacular
result is obtained only through Archetypes, which by definition are group creations: alone, in a
Performaction, you will not get anywhere.

Currently Performazione is practiced in a number of ways that evolve continuously, even when
it comes to to the material on which we choose to work and artistic ensemble members (only
voice and music, body, voice and music, dance, voice and music, video, dance, voice and
music, painting, music, voice and bodies, etc ....).

The language used by the Performaction includes and combines all the art forms frequented by
humans, with the only critical difference that they emerge according to the need of the moment
and are not predetermined: more everyday moments could take place, or grotesque or surreal
or abstract ; poetry, storytelling, music, bodies that transcend the ordinary and invent parallel
universes, emotive and amazing .
Perhaps to sum up, we could define Performazione as a kind of a reborn Mystery Theater,
where the sacred and the profane mingle and collaborate in order to explore new unknown
universes .
Here are some titles and related material of some Performactions of the past:
De Heliogabalus,materials from Eliogabalo A. Artaud, Apollonius of Tyana by Philostratus,
Historia Augusta, History of Rome by T. Mommsen.
The Sacred Game,material of PK Dick, the I-Ching and the Koran.
UomOOmega, materials Opera omnia of T. Sturgeon, Teillhard De Chardin.
Hamlet and the Revolution,materials of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Saxo Grammaticus , Il
Mulino Hamlet, Norse Mythology, contemporary economic theories, Hamlet Machine by H.
Muller, modern sewerage.
Performazione is currently in preparation of the theme of Odyssey.

Links:
www.performazione.com
Trailer Performazione :
http://youtu.be/gwCEu4yD7Bw

Extracts (2-4 min) from the project Hamlet

Hamlet and the Knowledge of Good and Evil
and the Rosselli 1 Hamlet
Hamlet2 and Rosselli
Hamletand Rosselli 3

Interview video on Performazione (italian):

http : //youtu.be/XDeq0RVuVis
Articles on Performazione:
http://www.psychodreamtheater.org/rivista-passparnous-videg-numero---psychodream-review--amleto-e-la-rivoluzione---di-sara-maddalena.html
http://www.succedeoggi.it/2013/10/il-teatro-dal-nulla/
http://www.omero.it/omero-magazine/why/la-chiamano-performazione/
http://paolo-fusi.it/category/2013/febbraio-2013/
http://taccuinodiwatson.altervista.org/il-destino-del-teatro/?
doing_wp_cron=1392580618.2844519615173339843750
http://www.omero.it/omero-magazine/interviste/conversazione-con-il-fondatore-di-cineteatroantonio-bilo-canella/