HEKS

About

Italy has an ancient tradition of Catholic religion, that has deeply marked our culture and contributed to the proliferation of misogynistic and patriarchal dynamics. Current events show how women are still victims of severe discrimination, on a personal and professional level, and how femicide and gender-based violence are widespread phenomena.

for soprano and ensemble

3’00”

HEKS is conceived as a dramatic struggle, a fight in between the ensemble and the mezzo-soprano, the leading voice who embodies the figure of the Witch. The piece depicts the scenic representation of a public trial, where the Witch opposes strenuously with her voice, but she is finally defeated by the belligerent people. This is how it must be represented: without any kind of softening or mitigation, in order to seek a mechanism of catharsis which can only come from a complete identification with the sufferings of the oppressed, and not from a feeling of relief resulting from an happy ending.
The Witch embodies the irrationality. Holistic care, herbal medicine, non-traditional knowledge and connection with nature that has been lost, stolen by the Inquisitors in the name of a fictitious rationality and security, disguised as a good choice for the whole community. =e Witch as a woman, an single individual who is not part of a social group, such as the family; the Witch as the only authority over her own body, as an active opponent to a political system that is harmful to the well-being of society.