Seeking Unicorns

A unicorn is a creature driven by its own desire to exist.

In her work, choreographer Chiara Bersani explores the body as the keeper of unique, unrepeatable stories. She sees the body as a political entity formed by encounters and clashes with society.

In Bersani’s thought, the body fulfills its social function when it chooses to merge into society and at the same time forces others to see it: the body becomes defined and interpreted, expectations from the outside begin to be directed at it.

The unicorn is a mythical animal, the shape of which is not defined by mythology, however. Sometimes the unicorn is depicted in the form of a bull, sometimes in the form of a horse. In her work, Bersani wants to make up for the injustices experienced by the unicorn by giving herself completely to it. She wants to give the unicorn the power of story, love and choice:

“You don’t interpret me, I show you a way to understand me. I take responsibility for giving the image that the world gets of me.”

Seeking Unicorns also tells about Chiara Bersani’s life as, in her own words, a “disabled” performer, but in a way that opens up the possibility of surrendering to a fragile, uprooted imaginary animal.

The performance is designed for non-theatrical spaces: empty, full, silent, crowded. To spaces whose light or history demands to be seen, and where the unicorn can take off its best clothes and abandon its theatrical stories and start a new journey in a new form.

The show is inspired by the northern light and will be performed in the Kiasma lobby at sunrise.