Domingo Ferrandis, theatre director and precursor of the Autobiographical Theatre methodology.
Resonance from the first Artistic Coexistence and Sorority Residence held at La Casa delle Donne in Modena, starting on July 25th, 2023, under the supervision of Rosanna Bartolini and Natalya Lyamkina, coordinated by Ana María Solís and directed by Domingo Ferrandis. The residence is part of the SILENCIO Project by Erasmus+, a "Plan for Repair, Recovery, and Resilience" that combines social intervention with a gender perspective and the Autobiographical Theater methodology, in collaboration with two partners: SOLIS Srls in Modena, Italy, and the Mancomunidad de Municipis de la Vall d'Albaida in Valencia, Spain.
Domingo Ferrandis, a trailblazer in the field of dramatherapy and theater, infuses the residency with his innovative perspective. His seasoned expertise in using art as a conduit for empowerment and healing propels the event beyond its tangible boundaries, creating an atmosphere ripe for personal exploration and communal growth. This residency marks an essential chapter within the SILENCIO Project, an Erasmus+ endeavor that marries social intervention with a gender perspective and the compelling methodology of Autobiographical Theater. As we gather under Ferrandis's visionary guidance, the transformative power of art and storytelling takes center stage, unraveling narratives of resilience, healing, and empowerment.
The theatre serves as an allegory of memory, through which fictional narratives bring to life the characters that represent traumatic stories trapped in painful memories. Symbolism is used to transport us from the dreamlike and magical world to the neural networks formed by violence, abuse, or the impacts of sexist behaviors that disrupt everyday life and interpersonal relationships.
Celestial Pabulum (1957) by Remedios Varo
Autobiographical Theater takes stories and experiences and clothes them in a new fictional narrative that serves a dual function for both participants and viewers.
The autobiographical piece clothes the tragic reality in metaphors to be able to express "the personal and the collective, the private and the intimate."
Autobiographical theatre is a form of artistic and scenic expression rooted in each individual's personal experience. Through this form of theater, people can share their own life stories with society through fiction, explore emotions, and empower themselves from past traumas.
The idea of "SILENCE" is to use expressive arts and autobiographical theater to sketch new ways of promoting mental hygiene by draining harmful memories from young women who have experienced violence, abuse, or the impacts of sexist behavior that negatively affect their daily lives and interpersonal relationships.
I am surprised by what happened today. I do structure work oriented towards the Casa delle Donne (Women's House), and I know some of the participating girls. That's why I was surprised by their creative and artistic talents displayed today, tailored to their needs. I wouldn't have imagined seeing them so spontaneous in the dynamics we carry out at the center. (Rosanna, Casa delle Donne, companion, actress)
"There is no barrier, lock, or bolt that you can impose upon the freedom of my mind," wrote Virginia Woolf. It is in the realm of imagination where no one can tie us down, but a space is needed where fantasy can be unleashed—a room of one's own where participating women can have a space to express themselves and create. Autobiographical Theater, full of sincerity, devoid of ornaments, detached from the superfluous, and brimming with freedom, is that personal room—a space that communicates, invites play, helps find other options, breaks molds, draws from other arts and satisfies emotions.
Group of women from Casa delle Donne di Modena, in the work of the first phase: Trust, of the autobiographical theater methodology directed by Domingo Ferrandis and coordinated by Ana María Solís, and supervised by Rosanna Bartolini and Natalya Lyamkina from Casa delle Donne. The image is part of a dramatized co-creation based on a painting by Edward Hopper, Early Sunday Morning (1952)
What happened today was magical. I arrived with high expectations. I was a little afraid because I didn't know what we would face. I wanted it to be something relaxed where they could have fun. It not only met those expectations but was also valuable and inspiring. (Natalya Lyamkina from Casa delle Donne, companion actress)
Through an artistic living residency, the aim is for girls to share both fictional and real stories that explore and release repressed emotions, feelings, and thoughts. "Fiction as a possibility for resilience" allows them to reclaim their voice, release mental anchors to painful experiences, and empower themselves through corporal expression, theater, and sisterhood. The collaborative creation of a theatrical piece during the residency serves as a means for women to share their voices in a single fictional plot that brings this silence closer to a wider audience. In doing so, it seeks to raise visibility, create awareness, and sensitize society to the emotional aftermath of abuse, violence, and the impact of machismo, which disrupts everyday life and interpersonal relationships for these women.
They say that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but what happens when the path is blocked when sediments hinder the flow of a river causing it to divert and zigzag instead of following a straight path to its destination? SILENCIO sees in these meanders of expressive arts the most efficient route for women to find an outlet to the sea of sensations and free themselves from the sediments of painful memories.
When it is not possible to ask questions, nor is it healthy to revictimize the person, nor is it careful to relive what needs to be detached from memory, art becomes an opportunity to drain the anguish. The tangles in the neural thicket of psycho-affective memory entangle everything: the fear of mistrust entangles the way of relating, trust in male figures, and the way of seeing oneself and others. That is the first step, to untie one's life from the harm that has been inflicted, so that the chemicals of trust, affection, and love, such as serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin, can flow freely once again. To return to normalcy.
Freedom, understood
"I have felt part of something, despite the shame I have been able to express myself freely. Fiction protects you and allows you to use characters to say and do things you need them to do."
(participant-actress)
A
llegory of Winter (1948) by Remedios Varo
Throughout the process of unraveling in Autobiographical Theater, the care and protection of the women-participants-actresses is paramount. Artistic distancing is used as a protective measure, those meanders that lead to the stage. It consists of two parts: Expressive Arts and Autobiographical Theater. The first part is intimate and personal, based on expressive arts, where the girls participate in a living environment with other women in similar situations. It is an artistic living residency where books, paintings, movie scenes, music, choreographies, dramatizations, and improvisations take center stage. These fictional resources are used as springs to bring forth the silenced cry from a different place than direct narration, but through new narratives co-created by themselves in fictional accounts, "autofiction."
I didn't come with many expectations "I have felt incredibly comfortable. I have had the opportunity not only to learn about parts of the other girls' stories but also to develop a joint proposal for a new fictional story that carries our essence. It was wonderful." (participant-actress)
In "Embroidering the Earth's Mantle," the narrow claustrophobic tower in the sky indicates confinement. Remedio Varo painted all the girls similar to each other, all of them assigned to work supervised by a male authority. We use these resources and dramatize them, where the participating women put their own essences without asking.
Embroidering the Earth's Mantle (1961) by Remedios Varo
In a fluid, natural, and unpressured manner, what the woman-participant needs to tell, express, and depict finds its outlet in something physical, such as art. This is when their memories cease to be neural knots and become something plastic and malleable. It is an alchemical process that allows the painful episodic memory to come to life as fictional material. In that moment of freedom and artistic co-creation, what needs to be brought out begins to emerge in fragments that will compose a new narrative, the autobiographical group theatrical piece that will follow. It will not be their story; it will be a new fictional story that encompasses the accounts, emotions, and needs of the group of women-actresses.
I felt comfortable, showing myself without fear, without judgment "I come from a past where I have suffered a lot. What we are doing is reinforcing my confidence in knowing that I can achieve a better situation, despite the obstacles and difficulties." (participant-actress)
Rheumatic Pain (1948) by Remedios Varo
The second part is the preparation of the Autobiographical Theater.
With all the autobiographical material that has emerged in this sorority gathering among the group of women-participant-actresses, a phase of transforming reality into fiction begins. The fragments of the participants' stories, some of them quite painful and unfortunately interconnected ("similar situations that repeat themselves, and therefore, a social problem"), will inspire the theatrical piece that will employ all the necessary atmospheric resources: narrations, video art, music, choreography, lighting, and so on. In this magical point, the chrysopoeia of transmutation, where the painful events experienced in reality, which have become Gordian knots in the neural network of memory, their ties to traumatic memories hindering the daily lives of the girls, are gradually untied. The women's group shares, support each other, and expresses themselves together, co-creating the narrative until characters come to life and embody situations that need to be told. The theatrical piece is an alembic used for distilling the past through an evaporation process to produce medicine for their beings.
I come from a situation of suffering "I was scared, I didn't trust what we were going to do, I was closed off. Dancing, imagining, creating stories together with paintings, music, dance... It made me feel good, I felt heard, valuable."
(participant-actress)
The Lovers (1963) by Remedios Varo
The idea of Autobiographical Theater is to bring to the stage what the women-participants-actresses need to show, explain, and tell to their environment and society in general, without exposing themselves or being judged, as it is not them or their story, but fictional characters living a new fictional story inspired by the autobiographical memory of the group.
I arrived with a lot of fear and anxiety "I was inhibited, closed off, I wanted to hide, not speak. Dancing, imagining, creating stories together, and getting to know the essences of each of the girls has helped me regain confidence in myself. From today on, I know I'm going to do more things. Thank you very much, I feel liberated." (participant-actress)
This theatrical distancing allows for the staging of painful things, taboos, stereotyped and prejudiced themes, and generates pedagogy about the different levels of violence, abuse, and the impact of sexist behaviors. And we refer to levels because, no matter how shallow the level may be, the psychological and social damage to young women will disrupt their everyday lives and interpersonal relationships.
I have been impressed by the atmosphere created today, It's the first time I have gone barefoot with people I don't know. My situation is not similar to the situations of the other girls; I thought I had overcome it, but I haven't fully processed them, and now to contact them again, those are things that need healing, they are dormant but not healed."
(participant-actress)
The Creation of Birds (1962) by Remedios Varo
Fiction can empathize with the audience, using the language of emotions in impactful scenes, permeating the psyche with understanding and comprehension of the aftermath of violence, abuse, or sexist behaviors that harm a woman. If the message resonates, we can affirm that the metaphor of fiction becomes a pedagogical catalyst for effecting change in society.
SILENCIO is a reminder that art, sisterhood, and bravery can transform our lives and our societies. They are beacons of light in the midst of darkness, symbols of hope, and a call to action. A cry in the silence.
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