The pit is an interruption
in the functional surface,
It breaks continuity,
It reveals a subsoil,
What lies under the crust,
It is a collapse of the surface. The pit is dangerous,

You end up in it .
The pit is the abyss of depression:
The depression that touches all the sacrificables bodies,
The discarded bodies not included in the rule .
Humanity forced to work is a pit ,
The landscape forced into massive production is a pit.
There are an infinity of pits:
A pit in the asphalt, A pit in the net,
A pit of rare earths,
Where wasted bodies extract materials
to make smart objects and smart cities.
A garbage dump is a pit,
A pit is a shelter for animals,
An animal trap.
A pit of an uprooted tree.
Underground cave pit
where chthonian creatures live.
an abandoned quarry
where human beings extracted stones to create their houses,
to build cities is a pit.
the forest that grows up now in the abandoned quarry
is still a pit.
because a pit is also a passage to somewhere else,
Like Alice in Wonderland.
The anus is a pit,
The mouth is a pit,
the nose is a pit
eyes and ears and skins are pit
that allows us to perceive differently,
cause perceiving is a cultural action,
is not just about physiology,
we perceive in a certain way cause we live
in a certain environment, in a certain privilege, in a certain culture of the performativity. the pit is the image, is the tool of the passability, instead of passivity,
the capacity of to be crossed, touched, passed by something or someone
Art is a pit where the shadow of time falls down
And out comes the vision of possible futures .
The pit is the unknown,
The darkness,
What still has to be thought.

By black hole we designate, a star that has passed below its critical range, and has thus acquired, going below, decreasing its critical range, passing a threshold, has acquired a curious quality:
It picks up in this case the photons that pass within its reach and retains them. it picks up and nothing comes out anymore. and that's why it doesn't emit, it doesn't emit light anymore, it doesn't emit photons.

So that' s where the expression black hole comes from.
we say formally: these are not metaphors. if we say: the face, the eyes, are black holes, if we say: the I-equal-I consciousness is a black hole.
how to break through the wall? how to get out of the vortex of the hole?
we are not saying black hole in the metaphorical sense, consciousness is a black hole, eyes are black holes, memory is a black hole. ^{^[1]}

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In July 2021, we worked in Pergine on the local version of La buca with a group of 15 performers, starting with the concept of the hole and its possible poetic and political declination. Through some body practices, we brought out a certain quality of the body and of being, which I will call hyper-sensitivity, capable of relating bodies and the landscape in a form that appears both new and disturbing to my eyes. these practices were about becoming a pit.

At the end of the workshop we organised a moment of exchange with the public.

The form of the exchange I chose was divided in three parts and was a sort of picnic.

This was the structure of the sharing moment:


We met in front of a gymnasium just outside the centre of Pergine. Here i gave a small introduction on the concept of the hole. in the middle there were some things to eat and drink, the audience was sitting on small blankets. At the end of the introduction I proposed a small practice on the gaze and suggested that we slowly slip into a sort of collective falling asleep which lasted about 15 minutes. The lights went out, the room was completely dark. Then, softly, music started up, the gym door opened and people were invited out.

They set off together for a short walk of about 15 minutes, accompanied by music through portable loudspeakers, leading the audience to the chosen location. It is a huge pit in the ground. It is the result of the demolition of a textile factory. There are many stories inside this pit: the stories of the workers, the cotton production, the strikes and then the closure of the factory, the financial speculation that eventually led it to be a place awaiting function. In the meantime, the plants have begun a process of repopulation, and now there is a forest below ground level.
	In the large pit, the audience finds the group of performers arranged in the form of a picnic intent on their collective becoming a pit, becoming hyper-sensitive through the practices developed in the workshop sessions. After about 40 minutes, the performers disappear into the landscape and the audience is led back to the starting point.

To become a pit small inventory of somatic practices Preparatory instructions breath > Bring your attention to the breath, take it in as if you were drawing it, without wanting to change the hatching. Breathe gently. Whenever you get lost, return to the breath and maintain good ventilation. buoyancy > When you want to move, change position or go somewhere else, do it slowly, especially at the beginning. Move in and out of situations calmly, gently moving the pile of bones-viscera-blood-bacteria that you are.
Exercise 1 Defocused gaze Position one hand in front of your eyes, 40 cm away, without focusing on it but taking in its general contours. Move your hand closer until it becomes transparent. Remove your hand and you will find yourself with a defocused gaze. Keep the optic nerve relaxed. If your hand were still in front of your eyes you would perhaps have the feeling of looking from the back, of having an eye there. Let the landscape enter the eyeballs
Exercise 2 Deep ear Listen with your left ear, then listen with your right ear. It is a question of attention, of directions. Then, instead of stretching your ear to reach distant noises, try to think of it as a hole into which the sound falls, drawing an internal path that reaches your neck and throat. You will find yourself in the Eustachian tube. Relax the muscles of your jaw, the folds of your mouth and ears.
Exercise 3 Butterfly hand Permit your hand to rest gently, almost softly, enveloping and taking the shape of the things it rests on. Through the pores of the skin, the information reaches into your nerves and muscle tissue. It is a light hand that does not compress but listens to the micro-movements taking place underneath. It is present but leaves space. It has no desire to do, at the moment. It does not manipulate but receives, welcomes. All of these exercises can have different levels of intensity depending on how much time is spent on them and where they are performed. One can also experiment with forms of combination between the various sense organs involved.

La Buca

The following video brings together and narrates the process of constructing the site-specific performance through a 5-day workshop with ten young professionals and the public outcome conceived for the Pergine festival within the framework of IN SITU _ (UN)COMMONS SPACES.

The video was realised by Bruno Leggieri