Drilling Down

Starting from the observation of a familiar tool such as the drill, the lecture-performance focuses on one of its applications outside the ordinary context: a rereading of the ancient surgical practice of trepanation, still little known and marked by an unsettling underlying ambiguity. The project connects a multitude of case studies: from the Neolithic to the electronic music of the nineties, by way of medieval practices for treating madness, right up to today’s requests for trepanation on online forums.