Antonio Rezza and Flavia Mastrella

Friday 20 July 2018 at 12 noon
Ca’ Giustinian - Sala delle Colonne

Antonio Rezza and Flavia Mastrella, known as RezzaMastrella, an artistic duo that has no equals on the contemporary theatre scene, are the Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre 2018.

Antonio Rezza and Flavia Mastrella have worked in theatre since 1987, the former as a performer-author and the latter as artist-author, jointly developing the concept and artistic project for their productions, which have reached a wide and above all diversified audience of fans.

Antonio Rezza is “the artist who, in a single body, fully merges the two distinct figures of actor and performer, distinctions whose barriers dissolve through his person, creating an approach to being on stage that is unique in terms of creativity and for its moments of pure, mad and lucid genius. Flavia Mastrella is the artist who creates stage sets and habitats that are art forms, which Rezza in turn inhabits and devastates with his formidable adherence; spaces that he inhabits while taking them apart, spaces that become objects which inspire events and come to life through the performing power of Rezza’s body and voice. This partnership has led to productions that are absolutely innovative from the point of view of the language of theatre” (from the motivation).

Flavia Mastrella (Anzio, 1960) and Antonio Rezza (Novara, 1965) work on involuntary communication. They have produced thirteen works for the theatre (including Pitecus, Io, Fotofinish, Bahamuth, 7-14-21-28, Doppia Identità, Fratto_X and Anelante), five feature-length films (including Escoriandoli presented in Venice in 1996, Delitto sul Po and Milano Via Padova) and an endless series of short and medium-length films. In 1991 they presented Barba e cravatta at the Festival of Avignon. Flavia Mastrella also works with sculpture, photography, video-sculpture (she has shown at GAM, Mambo and PAN); Antonio Rezza writes novels published by Bompiani (Feronia Prize 2008 for Credo in un solo oblio). Between 1996 and 1998 they collaborated with Tele+ as the creators of the television show Critico e Critici. For RAI 3, in 2000 they created the programme Troppolitani. In 2008 they won the Alinovi Prize for interdisciplinary art and published the first video collection of their black and white cinema, Ottimismo democratico, with Kiwido. In 2010, they presented Pitecus in Spanish in Madrid and Palencia, and staged several performance actions together with Afterhours. In 2011 they performed 7-14-21-28 at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris and in 2013 at the Theatre Center Na Strastnom in Moscow. In 2012, Barbès published their book La noia incarnita, il teatro involontario di Flavia Mastrella e Antonio Rezza. In 2013 they were awarded the Premio Hystrio and the Premio Ubu. In 2014, they published Clamori al vento with Il Saggiatore. In 2016, they were awarded the Premio Napoli; that same year they presented Pitecus at La Mama Theatre in New York. In 2017, they were awarded the certificate of Uniqueness in Culture and the Ermete Novelli Prize at Montecitorio, the Italian Parliament. They have worked for many years with TSI La Fabbrica dell'Attore Teatro Vascello and with the Fondazione Teatro Piemonte Europa.