EXHAUST

A marching crowd, a motor engine, an execution: the opening of the 24th edition of Transart will be literally explosive. Visual artist and theatre director Kris Verdonck invites us to march together through the streets of Bolzano to the site where a trial and death sentence will be carried out in the style of a medieval execution. This is a procession to the gallows not for a person, but rather for an everyday object: the internal combustion engine. Normally hidden from view, it’s a symbol of the insane technical progress known to mankind during the 21st century, but also of the ecological catastrophes gripping the planet. EXHAUST re-enacts the format of a medieval execution. The accused—in this case, the internal combustion engine—is dragged through the city at the head of a procession, beginning at the OASIE Transart in Via Dante. After a reading of the accused's crimes and condemnations—such as the unfulfilled promises of endless progress and growth—the death sentence is carried out. The performance follows the methods of Greek tragedies, Japanese Nō theatre or Shakespeare: mythological sacrifice as a violent ritual to resolve conflict; brutal violence as a purifying force.