Silvia Battista was born in Rome, Italy, lived for twenty years in London and at present lives in Liverpool, UK. She stages performances and performative lectures in physical and digital spaces to question exclusive approaches to knowledge production and explores storytelling with writing, drawing and performance to produce alternative, metaphysical narrations. She is interested in areas of research engaged with perception and identity; with all the processes, discourses and practices that affect the way we see ourselves and others. This touches on the ecological, political and cultural issues related to social and ecological justice; on how reality is categorized and consequently who and what is accepted and who and what is excluded. Her objective is to problematize fixed and singular understandings of reality, to destabilize their dividing boundaries and discriminating practices.
She holds a PhD (2008-2014) in performance studies (Royal Holloway University) with a thesis focused on the notion of the numinous in contemporary performance/live art practices; an MA (2004-2006) in Communication Art and Design (Royal College of Art and Design, London) with a thesis on the work of Alejandro Jodorowsky and the theatricality of his psychomagic practices; and a First Class Honours degree (1992-1996) in Fine Art (Academy of Fine Art, Rome). Her work has been shown internationally, lately, she presented her work at RUINS festival (2021), performed at the Angelfield Festival (2020), Tate Gallery in Liverpool (2019), Liverpool Biennial (2019), the Stockport War Memorial Gallery (2018). Between 2018 and 2020 she published the monograph Posthuman Spiritualities in Contemporary Performance: Politics Ecologies and Perceptions with Pagrave and the Edited book The Performances of Sacred Places: Crossing, Breathing and Resisting with Intellect.
She holds a PhD (2008-2014) in performance studies (Royal Holloway University) with a thesis focused on the notion of the numinous in contemporary performance/live art practices; an MA (2004-2006) in Communication Art and Design (Royal College of Art and Design, London) with a thesis on the work of Alejandro Jodorowsky and the theatricality of his psychomagic practices; and a First Class Honours degree (1992-1996) in Fine Art (Academy of Fine Art, Rome). Her work has been shown internationally, lately, she presented her work at RUINS festival (2021), performed at the Angelfield Festival (2020), Tate Gallery in Liverpool (2019), Liverpool Biennial (2019), the Stockport War Memorial Gallery (2018). Between 2018 and 2020 she published the monograph Posthuman Spiritualities in Contemporary Performance: Politics Ecologies and Perceptions with Pagrave and the Edited book The Performances of Sacred Places: Crossing, Breathing and Resisting with Intellect.
Battista, Silvia 2021. The Performances of Sacred Places: Crossing, Breathing, Resisting. London: Intellect
https://www.intellectbooks.com/the-performances-of-sacred-spaces
This new collection offers a multi-layered and contemporary approach to the question of sacred sites, their practices, politics and ecologies. The overarching critical framework of inquiry is Performance Studies, a multidisciplinary methodological perspective that stresses the importance of investigating the practices and actions through which things are conducted and processes activated. This is an innovative perspective that recognizes the value, function and role that practices and their materialities have in the constitution of special places, their developments in culture, and the politics in place for the conservation of their sense of specialness. The questions investigated are: what is a sacred place? Is a place inherently sacred or does it become sacred? Is it a paradigm, a real location, an imaginary place, a projected condition, a charged setting, an enhanced perception? What kind of practices and processes allow the emergence of a sacred place in human perception? And what is its function in contemporary societies?
https://www.intellectbooks.com/the-performances-of-sacred-spaces
This new collection offers a multi-layered and contemporary approach to the question of sacred sites, their practices, politics and ecologies. The overarching critical framework of inquiry is Performance Studies, a multidisciplinary methodological perspective that stresses the importance of investigating the practices and actions through which things are conducted and processes activated. This is an innovative perspective that recognizes the value, function and role that practices and their materialities have in the constitution of special places, their developments in culture, and the politics in place for the conservation of their sense of specialness. The questions investigated are: what is a sacred place? Is a place inherently sacred or does it become sacred? Is it a paradigm, a real location, an imaginary place, a projected condition, a charged setting, an enhanced perception? What kind of practices and processes allow the emergence of a sacred place in human perception? And what is its function in contemporary societies?
Battista, Silvia 2018. Posthuman Spiritualities in Contemporary Performance: Politics, Ecologies and Perceptions. London: Palgrave
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319897578
This book provides an interpretative analysis of the notion of spirituality through the lens of contemporary performance and posthuman theories. The book examines five performance/artworks: The Artist is Present (2010) by Marina Abramović; The Deer Shelter Skyscape (2007) by James Turrell; CAT (1998) by Ansuman Biswas; Journey to the Lower World by Marcus Coates (2004); and the work with pollen by Wolfgang Laib. Through the analysis of these works the notion of spirituality is grounded in materiality and embodiment allowing the conceptual juxtaposition of spirit and matter to introduce the paradoxical as the guiding thread of the narrative of the book. Here, the human is interrogated and negotiated with/within a plurality of other living organisms, intangible existences and micro and macrocosmic ecologies. Silence, meditation, shamanic journeys, reciprocal gazing, restraint, and contemplation are analyzed as technologies used to manipulate perception and adventure into the multilayered condition of matter.
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319897578
This book provides an interpretative analysis of the notion of spirituality through the lens of contemporary performance and posthuman theories. The book examines five performance/artworks: The Artist is Present (2010) by Marina Abramović; The Deer Shelter Skyscape (2007) by James Turrell; CAT (1998) by Ansuman Biswas; Journey to the Lower World by Marcus Coates (2004); and the work with pollen by Wolfgang Laib. Through the analysis of these works the notion of spirituality is grounded in materiality and embodiment allowing the conceptual juxtaposition of spirit and matter to introduce the paradoxical as the guiding thread of the narrative of the book. Here, the human is interrogated and negotiated with/within a plurality of other living organisms, intangible existences and micro and macrocosmic ecologies. Silence, meditation, shamanic journeys, reciprocal gazing, restraint, and contemplation are analyzed as technologies used to manipulate perception and adventure into the multilayered condition of matter.
CHAPTERS AND ARTICLES here