Diana Lola Posani
FIABA
Curated by Giovanna Manzotti

With Diana Lola Posani’s performance FIABA the programme Fivefold Tuning moves beyond Platea’s urban venue to the Piarda Ferrari, situated a short distance from the old town of Lodi. A picturesque green space overlooking the River Adda, the piarda – a term traditionally used to refer to an area for mooring, resting and other activities linked to river navigation – is a site that slopes gently down towards the river through a succession of trees, lawns and terraces. Characterised by a direct relationship between the town, vegetation and water, the piarda serves as a threshold for both passage and lingering, where the natural landscape does not merely provide a backdrop to the urban fabric but takes centre stage. Precisely because of its purpose for both passage and partial seclusion, this location was chosen by Posani in order to take FIABA out of the exhibition space, in close connection with the element of water.

FIABA is rooted in a radical investigation of the voice as living matter, suspended between wonder and restlessness. Through the exploration of unconventional vocality, the artist’s body becomes a resonating chamber for intense psychophysical states. Drawing on the memory of trauma, Posani’s practice removes the individual experience from the purely autobiographical realm and leads it onto an impersonal plane. Sound ceases to represent and becomes a passage: a transit capable of fracturing established modes of expression and challenging the boundaries of what can be said. At the heart of the performance lies the use of a vocal technique characteristic of non-verbal hypnosis, based on the reproduction of the vocalisations of dying animals, which Posani adopts as an elusive language. Sound thus confronts an extreme experience – that of the final moments of life – and becomes a tool for exploring states of mind such as fear and vulnerability. The audience is invited, if they so wish, to engage with the intensity of life and with that which eludes or resists naming.

Performed entirely without the use of amplification devices, the performance is the result of a long period of physical and vocal training, revealing the raw presence of the voice as it takes on tangible form and interacts with the river landscape, both visually and acoustically. The choreography follows the natural contours of the piarda and its role as a place of transition between the city and the natural environment. 

FIABA will be incorporated into Fivefold Tuning in the form of an audio track, available until 15 January 2027. Sound, viewed here as sculptural matter, will thus become part of the layering that shapes the exhibition programme. In particular, during the morning hours, Posani’s vocalisations add an alienating layer and a further sense of mystery to the flow of water in Liliana Moro’s work; they lead us back along the River Adda, of which the natural environment inspired Lorena Bucur’s photographs of various plant species, like something out of the crawling form of Federica Balconi’s sculpture. Fivefold Tuning thus remains true to its constantly evolving configuration: an unpredictable harmonisation of voices and forms characterised by ever more elusive contours.

Giovanna Manzotti