[This is an excerpt transcribed from the interview to Elisa Sbaragli and Sara Sguotti: you can find the video interview here]
Giovanni: Yet, you are very active on DanceMe.
Elisa: For me, DanceMe is a tool for pure and hard research, and I can’t do the same with Instagram, for example. DanceMe is a sacred and protected place where it is easy for me to open myself up to fragility, that is, at that very delicate moment of creation. On DanceMe, I showcase myself in the course of my real working life, that is, what actually happens to me during work. DanceMe places importance on the process and research, to those moments where if I, for example, am working on the void, I showcase a glass and this opens up a world of associations and visions for other users. I don’t want to think about DanceMe in terms of writing, but instead in terms of similarities and associations, about how an element can help to convey information regarding the work process. I do not take so much footage of the rehearsal practice, but instead I rather prefer to work with objects, books and the physical act of writing. These are images that for me represent the seeds of my research, the one that is less seen and that often remains in the shadows, in the background of my work. However, on mainstream social media I cannot make use of this function. I feel like a bit of a boomer in this regard. I need to try to find a way I can stay there. Sara, for example, experienced this ‘game’ of transformation, in her last work. The use of social networks also helps her in transforming her identity. It’s important, I think, to find a connection to the moment and the topics you’re working on, and then to use social networks to bring about other things.
Sara: While you were talking, I really wanted to write things down! For me, the practice of work is precisely this: to showcase oneself in ‘that’ sense and ‘that’ place. I asked myself right now: why don’t I see DanceMe as a place of ‘otherness’? In the end, it’s always me on Instagram. Everyone has access to Instagram, even those who don’t know me. There are people who come from any type of background and so for me the practice is precisely to be able to find the courage to experience a transition in front of them. Instead, a place like DanceMe could welcome me even as a person who has already transitioned, so I think that every piece of writing, every gesture that one makes, every form of practice, each interpretation is linked precisely to a specific mode and a specific necessity. I can’t frame myself within a clear framework, like so many other people do. Elisa, you were talking about the practice of keeping folders, that is, you were talking about a fetish with respect to some writing and archival mechanisms. Instead, I believe that as far as I am concerned the digital and analogue tools we have, of which there are so many billions and millions (for example, also attaching a post-it to the wall can be seen as a practice of writing) combine with my own practice in so many different possible constellations, depending on the exact research that I am carrying out at that time.
Giovanni: Would you like to ask any questions, to me or to each other?
Sara: Yes, I would like to ask you how much and why is it important to determine things through the medium of writing?