In “Oikos” the performance space becomes a type of house, an empty house that is about to be abandoned. The action unfolds taking into account two main levels: the vertical one, represented by the walls, stairs, the building and the horizontal one, represented by the floor, the balcony, the atrium, the terrace. The wall holds the memories, which are activated by the performer through the sounds of her voice. The wall is enemy and friend, prison and refuge, it attracts and repels. Home is a place; the house is a metaphor for our body, it is our little universe. When we find ourselves at home, we feel protected, when we find ourselves in our empty house, we feel lost.
Manuela Barile (b. 1978) is an artist of Italian origin who lives and develops projects in close contact with local communities, taking into account specific aspects of the territory such as tradition, memory, symbols and rituals deposited in the soil as indelible marks . Her artistic work combines visual and sound anthropology, documentary, video art, performance art and vocal performance, touching on intimate issues such as death, poverty, work, happiness, emigration, etc. Manuela Barile’s art is a continuous investigation into reality, about being in the world, about personal experience. Using her own existence and that of ordinary people as a starting point, the artist’s work is capable of transforming individual experience into a place of collective projection. As a vocal performer, in 2001 she embarked on a personal journey in the area of vocal experimentation applied to free improvisation. The artist relies on the use of “extended vocal techniques” focused on the relationship between voice, body, soundscape and acoustic properties of places. Manuela Barile is currently the artistic director of Binaural/Nodar, an organization for which she has created numerous audiovisual works, many of which are co-financed by the Government of Portugal and private foundations in Portugal and Italy (“Moroloja”, “Locus in Quo”, “Oikos”, “Rheia Zoontes”, “The Wife” etc.). His works have been shown at multiple national and international festivals and exhibition spaces: Australian International Experimental Film Festival, Cologne OFF, Óptica Madrid, Óptica Buenos Aires, Videoholica, Camden International Film Festival (US), Marco (Vigo), Espaço Isto is Normal (A Coruña), Museu Bienal de Cerveira, Espaço Performas (Aveiro), Teatro Viriato (Viseu), etc.