THE GUT CREATIONS:
"ZWANG SEE"
"Why am I feeling calm?
1,2,3,4,5 Blue. Door is locked.
Is he hating me? 1,2,3,4,5 Blue, walk on the right side.
Can I take it? Is it safe?
1,2 Go back, check the door.1,2,3,4,5 Blue.
He will never like me. 1,2 Lights on: watch!
1,2,3,4,5 Blue. Wash your hands, don't touch me.
I'm afraid of sleeping. Look behind.
1,2,3,4,5 Blue. I'd like to love you.
I can't touch anybody. I can't let you love me.
1,2,3 People die when you sleep.
4,5 Blu. I still love you. But you're gone.
1,2,3,4,5 times, watch me now. 5 times in my mind."
Created By Giulia Mandelli & Marco Rivagli feat Nahuel Arias (Premiere in June 2019)
Performed by:Giulia Mandelli, Marco Rivagli, Nahuel Arias
Photo courtesy:Federica Villi Video courtesy: Na'ama Landau
"VIRI SANCTI LIBIDINUM"
There was one holy man, with a paternal smile, visceral power, forgiving himself in the name of morality.
There is a holy man that takes little hands, he reclaims the good and the trust, doubt is not allowed.
Always there will be the saint man, surrounded by ashamed voices, white guiltiness in silence.
The holy man is driving a Mercedes and he is coming.
It is not his fault, in the name of the good, it is not your fault, it is not my fault. This is NOT my fault! You have to do it, in the name of the good.
It's pure. The holy monster.
A series of questionable performative windows that reflect the actual weaknesses of those who act upon defenseless beings. How far are we wiling to go into forgiveness?
(BASED ON A TRUE STORY)
Created By Giulia Mandelli & Marco Rivagli feat Nahuel Arias (Premiere: January 2019)
Performed by: Giulia Mandelli, Marco Rivagli, Nahuel Arias
Photo courtesy of Federica Villi Video courtesy: Na'ama Landau
"PLASTIC"
Between reality and absurdity, madness and plastic faces are coloring the scene. Our world is no longer meant to be understood. We're surrounded by grotesque and surreal episodes that are far from being perceived as reality but that leave doubt open. Are you sure to know what's fake and what's real in your life?
Created By Giulia Mandelli & Marco Rivagli feat Nahuel Arias
Performed by:
Giulia Mandelli, Marco Rivagli, Nahuel Arias
Premiere: March 2018
Photo courtesy of Cindy Albrecht ,Federica Villi & Gia Ventura
Video courtesy: Na'ama Landau
"#TOP_SKREEN"
A performance that wants to understand the relationship between technology and humans in the 21st century making people aware that, with these new comforts, we are facing new and deeper problems.
We ask the question: how much beneficial can this technological influence be when instead of enhancing the quality of human life it seems to erase the real physical and emotional connection between people?
“We” are prioritizing social networks communities giving birth of a walking herd of smartphone zombies.
We are brainwashed, manipulated and unconsciously truly alone: welcome to #top_sKreen (“E-Motions: a journey through ARTificial minds). A little scary and concrete example of what could happen nowadays: If one morning we found an article on the newspaper saying that somebody died because somebody else was immersed into looking how many likes his or her cute selfie received, we would actually believe at the news. It would NOT sound impossible in today's world. Isn't it too much?
We are not using cellphones, but rather SELF-PHONES: are we living a kind of George Orwell prediction (Almost dated 70 years back)?
Gut Reaction would like to demonstrate that if and when technology is being used with reason it becomes a valuable tool, an artistic language that instead of isolating people sensitizes them toward the problem. We will not put on stage how “cool” is using technology, but rather show what just described, criminalizing the shallowness of social media relationships and the addiction to smartphones, through a very avant-garde way of expression, thanks to the usage of an extremely modern instrumentation (electronic drums) together with the ancestral language of dance and acoustic percussions. A technologically ancestral language that denounces the failure of human judgement and the ways technology has been used so far.
It'd be like attributing to Einstein the making of the atomic bomb instead of discovering E=mc².
Created and performed by Giulia Mandelli & Marco Rivagli (Premiere April 2017).
Performed in duo/trio/quartet through the precious collaboration with Adam Sandhal in art ADAMORE (Singer from Sweden) and the Saxophonist Nicola Battistelli (Italy).
An Exploration of humanity's subconscious quest for 'truth'.
A need that sometimes gives answers before asking questions?
New perspectives that allow us to stay sane and strong in a World full of rules and confusion. Inspired by the Lawrence Krauss' book “A Universe From Nothing: Why is there something rather than nothing?” Gut Reaction will take you on a personal journey from the origins of the Universe through variegate existential questions that raise many contradictions between science and religion leading inevitably to conflict and barriers which divide humanity.
"WHOLE BLINDED"
The absurdity of all this becomes ludicrously apparent when we adopt a 'Cosmic' perspective, and begin to realise how small we are in comparison to our World and the Universe. Human beings cannot be much different than any other creature. But, although we may be 'insignificant' we do have Universal importance when we understand that we are in fact part of the whole. We extend this invitation to celebrate life, curiosity, our differences and similarities and the beauty of the unknown.
Created and performed by Giulia Mandelli & Marco Rivagli
Premiere: January 2016
"4MOODS"
is a pièce inspired by the book “The Curious incident of the dog in the night time” written by Mark Haddon. The show is a personal interpretation of the story; the concepts led the duo in the composition of the scenes and
the music dramaturgy. The book is written from the perspective of a 14 year old boy with Asperger's syndrome (a form of autism) that, becoming a "detective" in the hunt for the murderer of a dog, is conducting an investigation in a personal growth and realization. The author doesn't focus on the problems of autism, but on the reality seen with those eyes.
Likewise the Gut Reaction decided to live the stage. Using the expressive language of the body and rhythm,a series of seemingly disconnected situations are proposed with the aim to evoke the most varied, personal and unexpected images in the mind of the audience.
Created and performed by Giulia Mandelli & Marco Rivagli.
Performed in duo, trio or quartet with the participation of the guitarist Emanuel Victor and the live painter Merav Leibkuechler.