ORIGINALITY AND PERFORMATIVE CRAFTSMANSHIP IN COSTUME: GIOVANNA BUZZI'S THEORY OF THE GAZE

Interpreting and creating a story through textiles can revolutionise theatrical dramaturgy and, consequently, the staging of a text. Giovanna Buzzi, daughter of the internationally renowned architect Gae Aulenti, founder of Slow Costume in Rome, winner of two Abbiati awards as best opera costume designer of the year for Gioacchino Rossini's Ricciardo e Zoraide at the Rossini Opera Festival and the other in 2004/2005 for Le Valchirie, directed by Federico Tiezzi, costume designer for Le Cirque du Soleil, uses the theory of the gaze to tell a story and characterise characters. Unhinging the initial idea of a costume allows the mind to imagine other stories, other lives, other bodies, other body movements. So a revolutionary act for 21st century theatre in which sight and touch represent one of the fundamental cornerstones for making a costume, for choosing the cut of the fabric, for making it unique and suitable for the performance context. Giovanna Buzzi's ultimate goal in the creation process is curiosity towards things which, in her case, derives from an all-female upbringing, made up of examples and models from which she was able to draw the interest to search for the particularity in the simplicity, the history and the whimsy of a costume. Teaching an open mind to diversity and, at the same time, giving importance to practical work, to drawing, to the subject matter allows the workshop art of costume to retain its originality.