Moving the Silence

Abstract

This article will illustrate the artistic research on silence I have conducted throughout the two years of my Master’s degree programme in Theatre Pedagogy at the University of Arts-Theatre Academy of Helsinki (2011-2013). In particular I focus on the creative process which led me towards the production of a performance built throughout a four-month-work without use of speech: Moving the Silence. Silence proved to be a fruitful ground for a dialogue between art and spirituality, becoming a generative platform for developing meditative ways of working in the field of art. The Moving the Silence performance had its première on February 2013. I conclude by briefly illustrating the future developments of my research, which is currently dealing with the challenge of integrating meditative, artistic and ascetic practices within the rhythm of an average working and family-life: the Hermits in Progress Project.

Keywords

• Silence
• spirituality
• performance
• meditation
• T’ai Chi Ch’üan
• Orazio Costa