research

The theoretical frame of the performance is based on the following pillars:

1. Abjection and the Eroticized Threshold

Informed by Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection, this framework positions the foot as a liminal site where the boundaries between self and other, sacred and profane, are destabilised. The foot, as the lowest part of the body, is physically and symbolically closest to dirt, decay, and excrement—elements that provoke abjection. Rather than being expelled or hidden, the abject is made visible and central. In this way, the performance uses the foot not merely as a fetish object but as an entry point into the unspoken, disavowed underside of the body’s symbolic order.

2. Fetishism as Containment of the Abject

Foot fetishism is approached not as pathology but as a strategy for aestheticising and containing abjection. The fetish becomes a psychic and performative object that allows the subject to safely eroticise what should otherwise be repulsive. In performance, this allows for an exploration of desire structured by taboo—what draws us precisely because it disturbs. The work stages this tension by invoking beauty, ritual, and care around the foot, rendering it sacred and obscene at once.

3. Christian Iconography and Abject Ritual

Drawing from Christian rituals such as foot-washing, martyrdom, and purification, the framework collapses spiritual humility with erotic submission. These gestures are re-read through a queer lens as choreographies of abjection and power. The performance reclaims religious tropes—sainthood, suffering, cleansing—as embodied practices that expose the holiness of the grotesque. In doing so, the piece proposes a theology of the abject, where redemption and desire arise not from transcendence but from an intimate, ambivalent encounter with the flesh.

Visual research

the piece reimagines the scenes of Foot El Lavatorio by Tintoretto. The story is told from a perspective of a dog and mirrors the subconscious and emotional state of his master.

shows

the show was crated during a 2-week residency and try-out period at Pride museum – a temporary venue in brussels.

upcoming

ANAl pompidou, Deep cabaret

25 august 2025
De wallen (Rue Rollebeek 13 1000 Brussels)

Reservation: analpompidou@gmail.com

research

Trigger was conceived during my residency at BAC ART LAB in Leuven, Belgium, where I gave the tentative form to this piece. My research has departed from the role of tombs of the unknown soldier in concocting mythologies about wars.

During my research, I came to realise that the guarding service of the tomb of the unknown soldier holds a mesmerising reservoir of vocabulary for movement and is instrumental to fabricating historic narratives on wars, heroism and patriotism.

The studio work, on the other hand, was dedicated to excavating the remnants of my dance training in Georgian folk dance and dissecting the patriotic symbolic gestures.

At the end of the residency, I presented a 20-minute work-in-progress that represented the point of convergence of these two streams of research.

photo credit: jente waerzeggers

shows

the latest iteration of trigger premiered at Homografia festival in june 2025, Brussels, belgium.

upcoming

In the mountains festival
14 September 2025
Panke Culture, Berlin

tickets

research

Inspired by Blue, Derek Jarman’s last autobiographical film, FUCK ME BLIND is a duo in which the performers share the same pivot point. In the movie, that was shot shortly before his death from complications from AIDS, the director takes on his imminent end as an active vindication of his entire existence.

The International Klein Blue, dear to the film’s director and the only image in the film, becomes the input to begin a tangible research of the body in continuous rotation towards infinity.

Using the same non-narrative tools as the film, FUCK ME BLIND aims to create a hypnotic experience against the backdrop of a homoerotic landscape.

Through centrifugal force the dancers intertwine a landscape in which Eros and Thanatos, penetrating each other, coexist as a centripetal force, in a fatal and irreducible tension. It is from here, Hypnos emerges undisturbed, leading the audience to experience the performance in a liminal state.

The two dancing bodies use aesthetic codes that reveal a new homo-folk dance, enacting the same claim to existence as the director.

In Jarman’s film, blue becomes the body, in FUCK ME BLIND the dancing body becomes blue.

Trailer: vibe stalpaert

credits

concept and direction Matteo Sedda choreography and performance Marco Labellarte, Matteo Sedda

sound Gio Megrelishvili dramaturgy and light design Margherita Scalise costume design Maarten Van Mulken support for artistic research Igor Urzelai Hernando, Moreno Solinas production Fuorimargine – Centro di Produzione di danza e arti performative (IT) coproduction Théâtre de Vanves (FR) residencies S’ALA – spazio per artist* (IT), With the help of Ad Lib – Belgium Residency LIBITUM (BE), Destelheide (BE), Residency at the Studio Thor, with the support of the Company Thor / Thierry Smits (BE), Festival Pedra Dura (PT), Bora Bora (DK), BAMP (BE) thanks to FESTIVAL + DE GENRES (FR), Aids, archives, and arts assemblies in Belgium (BE), oester (BE), LILA Cagliari (IT) and Benoit Van Aken

upcoming

DNA festival (arboreto, Italy)
Roma europa (Rome, italy)
Gender Bender (bologna, italy)
Trente Trente (bordeaux, france)
La balsamine (brussels, belgium)
Milan triennale (milan, italy)