creative practice PAST PROJECTS CONVERSATIONS WITH A SONG Conversation with a Song is a short series consisting of three video performances in Italian, interlacing Slam Poetry to Video Art and Performance. The poems dialogue with three very popular songs but each text and meaning is reinterpreted – or, perhaps, expanded. In this way, the conversation with Hey Jude allows for a discussion of mental health and depression, the one with The House of the Rising Sun opens a space to rethink addiction, and the one with the famous Italian song Giardini di Marzo offers a way to reimagine physical illness and the relationship to one’s own body. In all three poems, language is symbolically the medium of these conversations but also ends up being the focus of their content: in fact, each conversation ends up questioning the role of language in how we imagine (and thus relate to) mental and physical illness. Finally, poetry is performed and translated into a video performance which adds a new layer of signifcance. Interdisciplinarity and intermediality are at the core of these videos in which word, image, performance and symbolism all wish to dialogue with each other. Episode 1 • “Hey Jude” My conversation with Hey Jude (The Beatles, 1968) allows for a discussion of mental illness, depression, and the importance of language in redefining how we relate to them. Episode 2 • “The House of the Rising Sun” My conversation with the traditional song The House of the Rising Sun opens a space to rethink addiction as an illness often dealt with through the wrong means. Episode 3 • “Giardini di Marzo” This conversation with the famous Italian song Giardini di Marzo offers a way to reimagine the presence of illness in one’s own body. WORK IN PROGRESS