produced by MOTUS
with the support of Regione Toscana
Photo by Carlo Pennatini
We live in the age of envy. Career envy, kitchen envy, children envy, food envy, upper arm envy, holiday envy. You name it, there’s an envy for it.
Photo by Carlo Pennatini
‘Envy’ derives from the Latin invidere, ‘non-sight’. As the etymology suggests, the fundamental problem with envy is that it blinds us to the bigger picture.In Dante’s Divine Comedy, the envious labour under cloaks of lead, their eyelids sewn tight with leaden wire—suggesting that envy arises from, or leads to, a form of blindness.
Photo by Carlo Pennatini
Envy is deeply ingrained in the human psyche, and common to all times and people, but it has never been a greater problem than it is today. Our age encourages us to compare ourselves to one and all, and the Internet and social media make this all too easy, fanning the flames of our envy. “With the advent of social media – says Ethan Kross, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan who studies the impact of Facebook on our wellbeing – envy is being taken to an extreme”. We are constantly bombarded by “Photoshopped lives and that has such an impact on us as we have never experienced in our species’ history. And that is not particularly pleasant.”
“INVIDIA”(translation: envy) is a work exploring gestures able to describe the personal pain caused by the advantages of others and how this feeling impacts contemporary society.
Photo by Carlo Pennatini
| Concept and writing | Rosanna Cieri |
| Choreography | Simona Cieri |
| Music | various authors |
| Dancers | Martina Agricoli, Ilaria Fratantuono, Roberta Morello, Mattia Solano |
| Technical assistance | Giampaolo Loddo |
| Organization | Micol Viti |
| Press office | Greta Sartarelli |
| Directed by | Rosanna and Simona Cieri |
| Production | MOTUS |
| with the support of Regione Toscana |
Photo by Carlo Pennatini