DEEP IN TIME / Weaving Deep Time by Nadia Tamanini and Francesco Mina is a performance that connects space, matter, body, and geological time. Starting from stone as the original foundation, combined with the practice of knotting, the body becomes an instrument for listening, measuring, and connecting with the deep time of the ecosystem of which we are a part.
Rocks selected in the Bolzano area, coming from different geological layers, are tied to threads stretched on a structure that evokes ancient looms, where stones served as counterweights. The performative action consists of a ritualistic and repeated gesture: the thread is knotted starting from the stone, making one knot for every million years lived by the stone (1 knot = 1 MA). The duration of the performance and the length of the threads are determined by the number of knots, i.e. the geological age of the stones. The knot thus becomes a unit of measurement of time and memory embodied in the thread, while the rhythm of the gesture transforms geological time into embodied experience, manifesting the vastness of deep time through an essential gesture that is as functional as it is symbolic.