Emilia Quiñones LUP DI MARE

In the wake of a shipwreck, the lupo di mare—the one who survives and immediately sets out again—embodies a relentless drive to continue, navigating between control and surrender as resilience is reimagined beyond heroic ideals of strength.

E subito riprende
il viaggio
come
dopo il naufragio
un superstite
lupo di mare

Allegria di naufragi

(after a poem by Giuseppe Ungaretti, 1917)

What remains of a person after a shipwreck? What forces act upon them, and what capacity for action persists in moments of existential crisis? Drawing on Giuseppe Ungaretti’s striking image of the lupo di mare—the survivor who immediately resumes their journey after the wreck—the performance develops a physical exploration of resilience, endurance, and the act of continuing under extreme conditions. The open sea becomes a metaphor for states of radical uncertainty and transformation. At its core is the body as a site of experience and inscription: How do crises manifest in movement? Where are the thresholds between stability and loss of control, between resistance and surrender? The choreographic work approaches these tensions as dynamic states that continuously reconfigure in the act of performing. At the same time, the piece questions established narratives of strength and perseverance. Which images of resistance are culturally shaped, which are gendered? And how might resilience be understood beyond heroization and displays of power? “Allegria di naufragi” thus unfolds a layered, embodied reflection on survival—as an ongoing process of locating oneself, losing ground, and moving forward.

Concept, Choreography and Performance Emilia Quiñones
Sound Design Anouschka Trocker
Production Emilia Quiñones