Cummndazz

Cummndazz, 2020

Location: Rossomanno ruins, Piazza Armerina, Sicily, Italy

Photos by Alex Gulino

Materials: Honey, marble bowl, prickly pear tree leaf, glass bowl, white paint, twine rope, scissors

Cummndazz explores material traces, touch and memory in a site-specific performance in rural central Sicily, where I spent 5 months in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Known by local people as ‘Rossomanno’ or ‘Cummndazz’ in the local dialect, the site has a significance spanning over 2000 years - first a settlement for the Sicani (Sicilian natives), then destroyed and made into a Pagan temple during the Roman Empire, and lastly, a monastery before being abandoned after the killing of the last monk in a robbery attempt. 

It was 39 degrees that day. We spent 8 hours there, climbing, picking thyme, sleeping.