Controvena
performance and mixed media installation, 2015

Controvena is conceived as something between a mechanical séance and a performance for a machine.
It concerns Guido Tallei, my great-grandfather.

Guido Tallei, an engineer, designed and patented numerous machines, the majority of which were never realized.
Primarily focused on war machines and transportation, he designed a peculiar hybrid between an aircraft and an airship. Although never brought to life, it gained relative fame and was featured in German and American magazines.








Guido Tallei began his engineering career in 1920 in Rome, immediately after his service in the First World War. He witnessed the rise of the fascist party. Although his professional life took place under the fascist regime, his diary shows that he did not support it ideologically.

In 2001, while exploring Guido Tallei's papers, projects, and documents, a draft of a letter was found. A blend of autobiography, critique, and call for help, the letter was addressed to Benito Mussolini.

It is unknown if the letter, dated 1942, was sent or not.
Controvena is based on such letter, and takes the form of a radio play, performed on stage by lights only.

The performance was commissioned as part of the 2015 edition of “Reims, Scènes d’Europe” at La Comedie de Reims, France, within a program produced by FRAC Champagne-Ardenne and curated by Florence Derieux and Antoine Marchand. A second version has been presented as part of the 2015 Drodesera festival at Centrale Fies, Dro, Italy.

Performance at Centrale Fies, June 2015






Performance at "Reims, Scènes d’Europe", February 2015

Excerpt 1 (performed at Centrale Fies, 2015)

"When the European War broke out, I was 19.
At the end of 1914 I was drafted, and I had to abandon my studies.
In July I was promoted to Artillery Officer and assigned to the Second Auxiliary Battalion “Campagna”.
I volunteered and headed for the Lower Isonzo front. [...] In 1917, while I was in the trenches of Ortigara, I invented the flying torpedo. I sent a project draft to the Arms and Ammunition Commission.
For a couple of years, the answer I received was that the project was under examination. And has remained so until today. [...] When the war ended, in 1920 I found a job as an Architect-Surveyor.
In the course of two years I directed several building sites in Rome. Although I worked very hard, this was one of the happiest times of my life. [...] I had a small laboratory at home, and in my spare time I was totally engrossed in what was a true passion. I spent hours, sometimes the whole evening, working with the help of a workman (Bruno Massi). [...]
Duce! I am not old. I am confident that I can still do something, and it is my honor to ask for Your consideration."







Excerpt 2

"A terrible neuritis kept me in bed for over three years. I had to liquidate my construction sites; I was forced to suspend all my activities. Everything went to ruin. It was one of the worst periods of my life, and I ended up becoming a morphine addict."







Excerpt 3

"In 1926 I patented a new type of Airship.
It was a hybrid between an airplane and a disc-shaped zeppelin.
I called it “Diri-Disc”.
This, too, was examined by the Istituto di Aviazione, which answered me with the usual non-committal, formulaic message: “not interested”."

Excerpt 4

"Postscript.
Lately, there is a scene that I constantly see in my head.
I'm with my friends from the second Battalion. We all under 20 years old. We're celebrating something, in a chalet in the Alps. My friends are around me. They eat meat and play cards, sat at wooden tables. High in the sky, the sun shines.
Suddenly, my friends all turn towards me. They point at me and burst out laughing.
I am standing before them, and I cannot understand what they are laughing at.
Then, a blast of shame rises to my head.
I look at myself.
And I realize that I am on fire."

Performance at Centrale Fies, June 2015






Exhibited at: WUK – Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, Austria (2016); “Reims, Scènes d’Europe” festival at La Comedie de Reims, France, as part of a program produced by FRAC Champagne-Ardenne; Drodesera festival at Centrale Fies, Dro, Italy; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, Italy (2015)