One-to-on performance

Babau is the Italian version of the child-eating monster, also known as the “uomo nero,” boogeyman, bugbear, Baba Yaga, or equivalent creatures in many European, North African, and Asian cultures. The strength of this figure lies in the fact that it is almost always undefined: it has no fixed face, and for that very reason it absorbs different fears depending on the era and cultural context.

The research incorporates a performative dimension through the use of a 9 kg weighted blanket. This object is commonly used to promote sleep and reduce anxiety, although weighted blankets were initially used mainly as therapeutic tools to assist people with autism spectrum disorders, dementia, or various mental health conditions.

The project is conceived as a one-on-one performance, in which each spectator encounters the monster of their childhood and allows themselves to be soothed by it; traditionally evoked to frighten, Babau becomes here an ambiguous presence: not only a threat, but a body that accompanies, contains, and cradles.