Embodying Pasolini

Romaison presents the world premiere of Embodying Pasolini, the extraordinary performance inspired by the secret life of clothes beyond the stage and the evocative power of the body, conceived and interpreted by Olivier Saillard and Tilda Swinton.

Olivier Saillard - fashion historian, former director of the Galliera Museum in Paris, and a world-renowned fashion curator, and Tilda Swinton, an icon of international cinema, Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement 2020, have imagined the show as an ongoing exhibition in an artist's atelier. The action takes shape around the dress, seen as an alter ego of the body that wears it.

About forty dresses and coats, designed by Danilo Donati for Pier Paolo Pasolini's movies, made and still kept today by Sartoria Farani, and a selection of wooden shapes from the Laboratorio Pieroni, used to create the hats worn in the director's films, are mysterious presences in the space of the atelier and the ideal starting point from which Embodying Pasolini was born and developed.

From The Gospel According to St. Matthew to The Hawks and the Sparrows, Oedipus Rex, Pigsty, The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales, Arabian Nights up to Salò or the 120 days of Sodom. The costumes recreate an "emptied" cinematography of the actors' bodies as if they were prisoners of monumental status, silenced, never having been shown again after filming.

Tilda Swinton wears the costumes to test their consistency and memory by giving them "body." She does not recreate the role to which they were appointed. She underlines the lack and the absence and suggests the contrast between power and act.

Embodying Pasolini is promoted by Roma Capitale, organized by Zétema Progetto Cultura with Palazzo delle Esposizioni - Mattatoio, and produced by StudiOlivierSaillard, with the coordination of Aymar Crosnier. Artistic collaboration of Gaël Mamine.

The event is broadcast live streaming from 6 to 10 pm on www.romaison.it and accessible to the public by reservation.