Replica

Replica is a performance that investigate the definition of identity in relation to social apparatuses. The group of performers, composed of students from the Arnaldo and Tartaglia-Olivieri high schools in Brescia, was invited to reflect on norms and institutions, observing contemporary archetypes and stereotypes.
The socio-cultural installations are spatially represented by compositions of school desks: the scenography of the performance consists of object-modules arranged in variable shapes. The intervention is divided into four acts, visual metaphors for four institutions: family, school, work and politics. The staging of iconic family portraits from the history of art – Family and Court of Ludovico II Gonzaga,1465-1474 by Andrea Mantegna, Portrait of the Antinori Family, 1834 by Giuseppe Bezzuoli, Madonna of the Magnificat, 1481-1485 by Sandro Botticelli – is followed by representations of a school class, a work context, and a political judiciary.
In the construction of the choreography, the students reserve the freedom to identify their own role within the performance. Although instinctive, the choices of individuals influence the outcome of the work, bringing out the necessary subversive element. This component of autonomy of the performers and their interaction with the surrounding space and objects are factors that contribute to challenging the rules of the present, instilling doubt in the dogma.