Story

Since 1987, Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza have created fourteen plays performed by Rezza, specifically:

New Parables (1988)
Beard and Tie (1990)
The Electronic Vikings (1991)
Bury Me in the Furnaces (1992)
Pitecus (1995)
I (1998)
Photofinish (2003)
Fusion (2004)
Bahamuth (2006)
7-14-21-28 (2009)
Double Identity Raised to the Superficial (2010)
Fratto_X (2012)
Anelante (2015)
Hybris (2022)

Extracts of these plays have been shown on the television channels RAI 1, RAI 2, CANALE 5, TMC, VIDEOMUSIC, ITALIA UNO, LA SEPT ART and the plays have reaped awards at all the major international comedy festivals (Cetona, Forte dei Marmi, Grottammare, Polverigi).

In 1990 they set up the photographic exhibition The Visi…goths held in Giovanni Semerano’s gallery “Il Fotogramma”: ironic simulations of concepts, objects and characters are projected, and chase one another, on A. Rezza’s face. F. Mastrella was in charge of the stage design, Angelo Fratini was the author of the photographs, and A. Rezza and Massimo Camilli conceived the exhibition. “Il Fotogramma” will hold every initiative of the duo until 1998. In 1991 the duo shoots the short film Suppietij (winner of the first prize at the Fano Film Festival). In the same year, Beard and Tie is shown in French at the Avignon Festival.

In 1992 Antonio Rezza shoots the short films The Old Man Within (winner of the Golden Seagull at the Bellaria Film Festival for independent cinema) and The Divine Providence (winner of the first prize at theBolzano Short Film Festival, section “New Works”). Flavia Mastrella wins the “Sebastiano Oschman Gradenigo” award for young Roman photographers. Debut in Milan Bury Me in the Furnaces.

In 1993 Flavia Mastrella exhibits Implosions (sculptures relating the feelings of the Lattonauti, a nomadic population) in Roma at the Cultural Centre of the Image “Il Fotogramma” and Autopathy (Emotions behind the wheel) in Calcata’s Porta Rossa gallery.The duo starts working with Filippo D’Angelo’s Vitagraph.They shoot the short films Confusus (Golden Seagull at Bellaria) and International Torpor.

In 1994 they shoot and act in the short films De Civitate Rei (winner of the first prize for cinematography at Castrocaro) and The Guard/The Great Cry (first prize at the Turin Film Festival section “Young Cinema”).The following year they produce and act in the short film Schizo-pathy, and in an infinite series of micro lengthfilms broadcast on RAI 3 “Blob” and “Fuori orario”. In the same year F. Mastrella exhibits the video installation The Story of Mongana at Rome’s Exhibition Palace, as part of the festival “The Word and the Gaze”, dedicated to female creativity. She also exhibits a selection of sculptures from Implosions and photographic montages at Zurich’s Tumb Gallery and then again in Rome, at the Academy of Arts and newTechnologies, as part of the photographic exhibition “D’Après Claude Cahun”. In 1995 Pitecus made his debut in Rome.

In 1996 they shoot Escoriandoli, a full-length film which was shown at the Venice Film Festival. The editingis by Jacopo Quadri. In the same year Flavia Mastrella immortalizes Enrico Ghezzi in a photomontage andexhibits him at Bianca Menna’s “Lavatoio Contumaciale”. The duo starts collaborating with the Marche region’s Teatro Stabile.

A selection of Rezza/Mastrella’s micro-length films are shown on RAI 2. In 1997 Escoriandoli is shown in Moscow as part of a festival dedicated to Italian cinema. In 1998, thanks to Elisabetta Sgarbi, Antonio Rezza’s novel of many pretences Non cogito ergo digito, is published by Bompiani. In the same year Bellaria and TELE PIÙ dedicate a retrospective to the work of the two authors which includes Escoriandoli and a selection of their short films. Still in 1998, the performance I premieres at Rome’s Parioli Theatre, then moves on to Milan’s C.R.T. and Florence’s Puccini Theatre. Paris’s Italian Institute of Culture dedicates a retrospective on the film and theatre work of RezzaMastrella. In the summer of 1999, I is performed in Ostia Antica’s theatre. Antonio Rezza’s second novel, Ti squamo, is published by Bompiani. In the same year Flavia Mastrella exhibits a selection of sculptures from The Emotion Made Sound at Zürich’s Kongresshaus and exhibits the video installation Angels in the eyes of Alberto at Rome’s “Il Fotogramma”. The Turin Film Festival Young Cinema honours the duo with a retrospective called Spelt in the Night. Still in 1999, Rezza/Mastrella direct, for RAI 3, the tv programme Troppolitani with the authorial collaboration of Annamaria Catricalà and Stefano Coletta: six episodes of free-style interviews carried out by A. Rezza. Jacopo Quadri and Letizia Caudullo are the editors, Marco Tani the camera operator and F. Mastrella the first assistant cameraman. The duo conceives the programme From the Feet to the Ego for Radio 3.The year 2000 sees the duo filming another nine monographic episodes of Troppolitani, once again for RAI. The editing is by Lorenzo Michelazzi. In the summer of the same year they shoot the film Murder on the River Po edited by Eugenio Smith. In the autumn of 2000, Enrico Ghezzi dedicates an evening of RAI 3’s “Fuori Orario” to the duo.

In 2001, Rezza/Mastrella’s second full-length film Murder on the River Po is shown at the Turin Film Festival and at Spoleto’s Festival of the Two Worlds. The Arcipelago Festival in Rome honours Rezza/Mastrella with an exhibition. The filming of Samp, an “on the road” film, begins. In 2002, at the Charterhouse of San Lorenzo in Padula, the duo takes part in the exhibition “Le opere e I giorni” organized by Achille Bonito Oliva (artists in a convent) with the performance I. In October of the same year Enrico Ghezzi devotes a second night of RAI 3’s “Fuori Orario” to the complete cinema of Rezza/Mastrella.

In June 2003, the Pesaro Film Festival, presided by Giovanni Spagnoletti, dedicates a retrospective to the cinema of the two authors. Still in 2003, the performance Before Everything Becomes White, Photofinishin Black and White is introdueced by Franco Quadri at the Milanesiana headed by Elisabetta Sgarbi. At the end of the same year, Photofinish premieres in Rome: Antonio Rezza moves like a dead weight in a white atmosphere conceived by Flavia Mastrella. In the theatre “Alfellini Spazio Zero”, to mark the seventeenth year of their artistic partnership, the duo exhibits the photos of all its works and screens all its films and short films. Rezza/Mastrella start collaborating with Teatro91.

In 2004, at the Charterhouse of San Lorenzo in Padula, Flavia Mastrella takes part in the exhibition “The Works and the Days” curated by Achille Bonito Oliva with the multifunctional sculpture Microcosm. Still in 2004, the duo conceives Fusion: Jazz performances in full freedom with Antonio Rezza, Armando Novara and The Fringe. Fusion is shown in Rome as part of the jazz festival “Esperanto” and at Milan’s Milanesiana. The space is improvised by Flavia Mastrella.

In February 2005, Antonio Rezza publishes his third novel Son(n)o with Bompiani. Between August and September, Flavia Mastrella exhibits the sculptures of The Emotion Made Sound at Polignano a Mare’s Atelier Campanella. Naples’s PAN honours the duo with a retrospective on their cinema.

In 2006, Rezza/Mastrella conceive the performance Bahamuth (produced by the CRT Artificio), which is shown during the Ortigia Festival and at the Montevergini Museum of Contemporary Art.

Still in 2006, Gianfranco Maraniello, the manager of Bologna’s GAM gallery honours the duo with an exhibition of its installations and performances entitled Anamorphosis, Mirrored Yearnings.

Rezza/Mastrella shoot their third full-length film Fotofinish 2, a blank sheet documenting their theatre performance of the same title, excerpts of which are screened at the Pesaro Festival of New Cinema, at Sulmona Cinema, at the Turin Film Festival and at Bologna’s Future Film Festival. In 2007 Antonio Rezza’s fourth novel, entitled I Believe in a single Oblivion is published by Bompiani.

Even in 2007, Rezza/Mastrella win the Francesca Alinovi Award, which is dedicated to the convergence of art forms. Naples’s PAN houses F. Mastrella’s installation Buoys Adrift. The short film Il piantone is screened at the Shanghai Expo with an introduction by Achille Bonito Oliva. The collaboration with the Teatro Vascello in Rome begins.

In 2008 Antonio Rezza started filming the film Hypothesis of films about the dead Christ. Still in 2008, Rezza/Mastrella film the documentary The Past is My Staff, edited by Barbara Faonio and screened at the Venice Film Festival in the “Giornate degli autori” sector directed by Fabio Ferzetti.
The first anthology of Rezza/Mastrella’s black and white films Democratic Optimism is published by Federico Carra’s Kiwido. Mastrella exhibits the habitat of Autopatia in the Roman gallery “L’acquario”. Rezza wins the Feronia award with the novel I Believe in a Single Oblivion. In 2009, the duo starts collaborating with the Fondazione Teatro Piemonte Europa. F. Mastrella exhibits a video installation of Autopatia in Rome’s Palazzo dei Congressi. In the same year, Artissima holds an abridged version of the project From the Pocket-Sculptures to Bahamuth in Turin. At the end of 2009, the performance 7-14-21-28, produced by the T.P.E. Foundation, by Teatro91 and by Rezza/Mastrella, premieres at Turin’s Astra Theatre. It will then move on to Milan’s Out Off and Rome’s Vascello Theatre. In January of 2010, Rezza/Mastrella introduced, in Madrid and in Palencia, Pitecus in Spanish and carried out at Milan’s Smeraldo theatre, at Rome’s Auditorium della Conciliazione and at Bari’s Petruzzelli theatre, some performative actions together with the rock band Afterhours. In the same year the duo carries out, at Naples’s Villa Pignatelli Home Performance in a Home not Belonging to Us and, for the Garofano Verde,the performance Double identity elevated to the superficial. Still in 2010, Rezza/Mastrella conceive, for Radio 3, the programme The Running Years and they present the film Troppolitani, Fuori Dove? edited by Barbara Faonio, at the Carcano Theatre in Milan and created together with the Gaetano Bertini Malgarini no-profit Foundation. In December, in Rome, in the spaces of the Vascello Theatre, they embark on a month-long performance of the complete anthology of their theatre.

In June of 2011 they introduce 7-14-21-28 in Paris, at Théatre de la Ville during the Festival Face à Face.

Then, they create inside the Napoli Teather Festival Italia at the ex Asilo Filangeri Performance Art as part of A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man – curated by Lorenzo Gleijeses.

In April 2012, published by Barbes book “La noia incarnita” – the theater involuntary Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza by Rossella Bonito Oliva. In November of the same year he made his debut in Turin and Rome the last show Fratto_X, in coproduction with TPE Foundation of Turin and La Fabbrica dell’Attore – Vascello Theatre of Rome.

They present the feature film Troppolitani, Valle Occupato edited by Barbara Faonio, made in collaboration with the occupants of the teather Valle in Rome. In May 2013 they are assigned the Prix Hystrio-Other Muse “Where performance intertwines with contemporary art, improvisation with meticulous scenic-dramaturgical work, provocation with the ability to speak to people, laughter with horror. And this in the theater as in the cinema, on bookshelves, even on the small screen ”.

In October of 2013 7-14-21-28 presented at the Theatre Na Strastnom Center of Moscow, within the VI

International Theatre Festival Production One-Man ‘Solo’.

In December 2013, they were awarded the Special Prize in 2013 UBU “for the shiny path of excavation in the unbridled cruelty obtained through the genius of an actor and the intuition of a visual artist original plastic”. In January 2014 Mastrella exhibited at the Mambo – The Museum of Modern Art of Bologna directed by Gianfranco Maraniello, the exhibition “Sculture in tasca. L’esaltazione dell’insignificante”.

In Matera, within Materadio Rai3, they present Fratto_X on the radio, commented off the pitch by F.Mastrella and Laura Palmieri.

In November 2014, published by Il Saggiatore book “Clamori al vento” – Clamori al vento. L’arte, la vita, i miracoli di Flavia Mastrella e Antonio Rezza. In November 2015 they presented the last show Anelante in Turin Teather Astra.

June 2016, they are awarded the Naples Prize “the first and only Italian award given to personalities who stand out for their contribution to language and culture regardless of eminently literary production”.

In October of the same year Pitecus was represented in New York at La MaMa Experimental Theater.

In December, the film Milano, Via Padova, edited by Barbara Faonio and released with the help of Alessandro Massi and the Gaetano Bertini Margarini’s no-profit Fondation, was released with an independent distribution: Rezza/Mastrella; the work is presented in independent circuits throughout Italy and in March 2017 in New York as part of the Segal Center Film Festival on Theater and Performance. In July 2017, the Certificate of Uniqueness in Culture was conferred on them in Montecitorio, in the Sala della Regina, and in September the Ermete Novelli Prize “for the significant cultural contribution”. In 2018 they are awarded by the Venice Biennale The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement: “Antonio Rezza is an artist who totally merges into one body the two distinctions of actor and performer, distinctions that thanks to him lose every barrier, creating a unique way of speaking in movement, out of inspiration and at times out of pure, demented, undeniable genius. Flavia Mastrella is the artist who creates Habitat and art forms which Rezza in turn inhabits and devastates with his amazing antics; spaces he inhabits and dismantles at the same time, spaces that become objects, that inspire events and that come to life thanks
to the performative force of Rezza’s body and voice. A union that has produced shows that are absolutely innovative from the point of view of theatrical language”.
Also in 2018, they created the television program “La tegola e il caso”edited by Barbara Faonio, for RAI 3. In 2019, La Milanesiana awarded them the Golden Rose Award.

In 2020 they realized the short movies Molossi, Deserto – Non tempo e Autoritratto, the latter presented at the Turin book fair and the feature film Samp selected in the SPECIAL EVENTS section of the 17^th edition of Giornate degli Autori within the Venice Film Festival.They have been collaborating for several years with La Fabbrica dell’Attore Teatro Vascello.