e-ink

This work stemmed from curiosity regarding how oracular and prophetic messages are transmitted. Although precise in form, they are the result of destabilisation. Both exact and ambiguous in one, their communication is based around the momentary domestication of something whose nature desires it to be continually rewritten and reinvented. And misinterpreted.
Perhaps in the constant changing of the body’s state and its inconsequential reordering we can get closer to this unusual point of view and the compositional potential of a changing form of writing. Like the electronic inks of the near future, but only readable as a premonition.

Michele Di Stefano, 1999

The duet e-ink is fully choreographed, down to the smallest detail, to the extent that is appears paroxysmal and maniacal in its abundance of symbols, each of which follows a different rhythmic logic. Whilst we were reconstructing the work for Aterballetto, 15 years on, it was above all the body which rediscovered the precision of the writing, fusing all the detached details and returning them to an organic whole made up of mysterious iconography.
The main thing we asked to the two new performers was unconditional trust in this unrecognisable system, producing a physical rhythm that is not necessarily identical to the original, but which is capable of recreating the same absolute, arbitrary authority that characterises the work. The extraordinary pliability of these new bodies led once more to the blossoming of a choreographic element based on the contrast between precision and disorientation, the same principle for which the Oracle of Delphi was built. This new dynamic is achieved through unspeakable power, producing perfectly crafted verses in the process. Dance is clearly a matter of language.
In this sense the RIC.CI project, which gave us the opportunity to restore this choreography, offers the chance to trace one of the fundamental premises of its untranslatability right back to the first words of the creative process.

Michele Di Stefano, 2015

The duet e-ink was the mk company’s debut work, and was received very well by audiences and critics alike, with over 70 performances in Italy and abroad.
Production mk/Festival Teatri 90/Ref
Premiere February 1999 Teatri90 Festival – Teatro Franco Parenti, Milan
Performers Biagio Caravano, Michele Di Stefano