Diana Anselmo / Al.Di.Qua Artists in conversation with Piersandra Di Matteo
The 1880 Congress of Milan institutionalised the ban on the use of sign languages in the educational systems throughout Europe and the United States. This prohibition prioritised oral language and reinforced phonocentric ideology, confirming the prejudice that deaf people, mistakenly considered “mute”, had cognitive problems and needed treatment. Subsequent medical approaches to deafness have categorized it as a disease, considering it something to be corrected and healed. Medicalisation technologies, such as cochlear implants, remain the subject of bioethical debate today.
Listening, colonised by the hearing world, has been the foundation of discriminatory systems. Deaf perspectives reposition listening through deaf performativity, articulating sound as movement, vibration, animation, and redefining the voice as gesture, and knowledge as a bodily process.
These themes will be discussed with Diana Anselmo, deaf performer and activist, and president of Al.Di.Qua Artists, the first European trade association of and for artists with disabilities. At the centre of this reflection, the linguistic act will be analysed in relation to the body, suggesting the possibility of tactile-hearing and visual-listening, employing communication with the hands as an act of incorporating languages and knowledge.
The seminar is aimed at curators, practitioners, artists, people interested in accessibility.
Diana Anselmo is a performer, activist and improvisational human being. As a student in Theatre and Performing Arts at the IUAV in Venice, and during their three-year degree in Sociology, they begin to get to know the world of performing arts by working within it – and haven’t left it since then. Performer on their own but also with artists of the calibre of Xavier Le Roy, an activist on the issues of intersectional transqueerfeminism, president of Al.Di.Qua. Artists, the first European association of and for artists with disabilities. Anselmo is also the youngest member of the Cultural Advisory Board of the British Council.
the seminar is presented at Short Theatre 2024 within the project Eco:frequenze funded by Next Generation EU and within Radio That Matters
with the support of Fondazione Alta Mane e Insieme siamo Arte, ATCL – Associazione Teatrale fra i Comuni del Lazio
in collaboration with CODA Italia APS e Al.Di.Qua Artists
realised with Otto per Mille funds from the Chiesa Valdese
ph. In-Press Photography Ltd
