A durational performance by Marisa Garreffa

We still can’t touch, but our stories can. 

Internationally acclaimed performance artist Marisa Garreffa will inhabit the Sala Lungarno in Palazzo Lanfredini for a week, sewing together the stories of Florence shared with us by YOU. The written stories will be stitched together, one page at a time, slowly creating a paper river in the room beside the Arno.  Gradually a patchwork sculpture of identities, stories, and memory emerges, a representation of the emotional landscape of Florence. The soundtrack will be your voices, telling your stories, as Marisa listens whilst she works.

It will be a deeply meditative psychomagic ritual to reweave the fabric of our community, to bring our voices and lives back together during a time when crisis has held us apart. 

The performance will be live streamed over seven days, for seven hours each day.

After the performance, your stories will form the basis of a new Living Library at the British Institute, an always evolving collection of living stories from the community who inhabit, enliven, and activate the life of Florence today.

Marisa Garreffa in partnership with The British Institute for SOTTO al British, May 17-23, 2021

Main Image: Guido Mencari Photography