Giovanna
di Filippo Vargas
Visual theater, performance, video and multimedia artist,
anthropologist and art pedagogue
Visual Theater
and performance
Film and multimedia
Pedagogy
and memory work
OTHER
© Giovanna di Filippo Vargas, 2024. All rights reserved.
Theater and performance
Wie Nägeln und Schmutz (or the Bathtube)
Mit Léa Broussard
Fitz Theater and pssst festival, Stuttgart / Straßbourg 2018.
An object theater piece for a bathtube about love, friendship and rebel birds."Wie Nägeln und Schmutz" is an object theater / performance that explores intimacy in public spaces. The project utilizes a playful narrative centered around a white bathtub, symbolizing personal experiences and collective stories shared between Giovanna and her partner Léa. The bathtub serves as a contact object and dance partner, representing the fusion of private moments with public performance.A letter for her.
The first time we met, we hung oranges embroidered with forks on the ceiling. Then I rolled her out of a carpet. After I sang an „Ave Maria“ in the fireplace and climbed up the ladder while she sang loudly and played ukulele.Something had happened.
In the evening in a bar, with a beer in her right hand, she looked me
deep into my eyes and said : ‘ Léa, j’ai une image de nous deux
dans une baignoire ‘. I see us both in a bathtub. The
next morning we bought an old bathtub.
White, plastic and very light, shiny inside, she had two holes and three feet.
Two holes and three feet.
She was perfect.Léa B.
With the support of Fitz Zentrum für Figurentheater and Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Stuttgart.
Chicana Box
A multidimensional play in the Box for all
With Eva Geckeler.
Stuttgart / Leipzig 2020
What frames us, determines our lives? Which external structures determine our inner
struggles? Who are we when we step out of the pigeonhole that was designed for us?
How can we play a new game with old rules?
Chicana Box is the story of a young migrant woman (la Chicana) who works in an urban
slaughterhouse and has to work the Sunday shift alone.
She talks to herself in order to be less alone among all the mess, she sings,
politicises and eroticises. Finally, she finds a chess piece in her intestines. The black
queen. Then there is Marquesa, who comes from a completely different time. She is the last
last female scion of her noble family in the Colombian region of Magdalena.
and locked in her chambers, she begins to remember.
We tell the story of a game of chess, a meeting.
Whether this meeting actually takes place or just happens in someone's head is of secondary importance.
In fact, the two women don't know how to play chess, perhaps they have forgotten,
perhaps they are playing by their own rules.
Box is a play about black and white, bottom and top, reality in our capitalist society and ways to turn them around.A piece in cooperation with Fitz Theater and HMDK Stuttgart.
Play and concept: G. di Filippo Vargas.
Performance: Eva Geckeler.
Live music: Mateo Marin and Agustin Lipp.
Under the supervision of: Samira Wenzel and Florian Feisel.
In between: The King eats his guts
With Marco Okamoto.
Mask performance with piano in the Attic,
Leipzig 2022
As an interlude of the pandemic era, with Marco we created a series of improvisations with a mask and a piano: between grotesque and comical, we invited the neighbours to watch how the king ate his own guts.
At the Attic from the Eisi 81, Leipzig
Spring 2022.Play and concept: G. di Filippo V.
Music: Marco Okamoto.
Tiefen, Ausatmen
Deeps, exhale
performative exhibition and videoinstallation in collaboration with Polymora Inc.
2022 / 2023
Under water, gravity is suspended. We want to get braver, liquefy our body landscapes, go deeper and practice singing with whales. We want to learn from sea creatures about our struggles and visions and how we share an Atmosphere together. DEEPS is restaging and invites you diving into DEEPS together.„My love to my pod in all directions. The smooth and the not quite so smooth. Those of you showing your back and those showing your belly. Those of you breaking through the surface and those staying in the deep. It’s an honor to be in the midst of you. Look around, listen out. Here we are.“ Excerpt from Undrowned by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
A project by POLYMORA Inc. witn A.Chat, Artemis and G. di Filippo V., supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture as part of NEUSTART KULTUR Program and the Cultural Office of the City of Leipzig, in co-operation with Garage Ost.
The Chicana Box II or How to eat Bananas in a Royal Way.
With Eva Geckeler
Awhal Festival 2024
This play invites us on an intimate journey to explore different perspectives of a historical event: the emergence of multinational corporations and the development of the Cavendish banana, which was a variety exclusively designed for the Global North. Through the two faces of the same character, the Chicana and the Marquise, we are shown two sides: on the one hand, the rage and monstrosity that arises when this rage cannot be expressed, and on the other, the exemplary worker who follows a life plan that pushes her to pursue the dream of social advancement. The play takes us through times and places marked by colonization and the harsh working conditions on the banana plantations, giving life to deep emotions through masks and objects: the repressed rage, the quest for dignity and the incessant struggle for liberation, even in the darkest moments.
Play and concept: G. di Filippo Vargas.
Performance and production: Eva Geckeler.
Outside eye: Daniela Ciccolini.
Music: Marco Z.
Was that discrimination?
or The Fly
Short animation Film 4´made for the association Deutsch-Spanische Freundschaft e.V. (DSF)
2022
Was that discrimination? is a short animation film about the feeling of discrimination that persons from differents minorities can have living in Germany and the differents ways to act about them, from talking to some anti-discrimination association to get together as community to empower ourselves. This project was made in the frame of a infromation channel for newcomers in the city of Leipzig.
Music, concept, animation and draws: Tatiana Pinzón and G. di Filippo V.
Notausgang
(Emergency Exit)
Fiction short film (10´) produced with the team from Free Film Lab,
Leipzig 2022.
In this science fiction short film, we delve into the delirium and fragmented inner world of a "Gastmitarbeiterin" (guest worker) from the communist era of East Germany (DDR) in Leipzig.
Through glimpses of memories and the harsh realities of a working winter, we follow Ana as she moves through the city—both the real one and the version shaped by her reconstructed recollections. The narrative weaves between the present and her memories, blurring the lines of time to explore her fractured sense of reality. At the same time, the film plays with the paradox between the vast public space of the city and the mental confinement (huis clos) in which Ana finds herself trapped.Script and direction: G. di Filippo V.
Music and sound landscape: Robie R.
Cast: Roxana Khamg Muñoz, Tilman Rüger, Artemis
Assistant director: Artemis and Lorena Millán
Editing: Fran Menardi
Camera Operator: Jacob Hanitzsch and Igor da Silva
Botos Kindheit (Childhood of the pink dolphin)Short film (3´) / fiction /made for the installtion Deeps, Exhale 2022
In association with Polymora Inc.
Botos Kindheit is a short film created for the exhibition Deeps, Exhale. In this 3 Min short film, we represent, as some biblical scene, the childhood from a magical animal (Encantaria) from the amazonic communities from Brazil: the Boto or pink Dolphin. This animal, after the oral mythology, appears in the night, transformed in a handsome young man with a white costum and a white hat, and sing beautiful songs to attract and take with him the young women from the communities to the deeps from the Amazonic River.Concept, direction an performance: G. di Filippo Vargas.
Camera and Editing: ZOFIA
Assistants: Léa Broussard, JONAH.
Curupira
Music Video, 5´
2021
Underwater, with the right magic, anything can happen. Curupira tells the story of a fantastic creature, a double on the other side of the mirror, reflecting our protagonist: a young woman waiting in the dentist's waiting room.Direction / Lighting. Nils Ramme.
Camera: Pariya Bakhshi
Camera Assistant / Lighting Set: Marja F.
Design / SFX: Emma
Production: Nora B.
Scenography / Object Theater / Choreography: Giovanna D.
Performer: Anna X.
Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó: defendiendo el territorio y la vida.Documentary short film (Work in Progress).
In 2022, I had the opportunity to go to Urabá in Colombia, to meet and work with the Peace Community from San José de Apartadó. The CDP (Peace Community from San José de Apartadó) its a activist community which 27 years ago, declared themselves neutral to the armed conflict in the area. Paramilitaries, the army, guerrillas and other actors in the armed conflict have tried to destroy this community by all means, including taking lives. But they, thanks to another way of living collectively, thanks to the lessons learned from history and collective strategies, among others through art, have managed to stay on their feet. In this documentary, our main character Brigida, one of the creators of the peace community and one of the founders of the first union in the banana plantations of Urabá, Colombia, tells us about her syndicate experiences and how she bravely confronted armed men who always wanted to take away with violence other ways of life.Camera, edition and direction: G. di Filippo Vargas.
In collaboration with the theater collective Sopa de Piedras, Francois Bonté and Ana Mejía Eslava.
Theater workshops in the peace community, Comunidad de Paz de san José de apartadó,
Colombia 2022
In the summer 2022, we held a series of workshops on theater, collective creation, masks and painting that culminated in the staging of a play that the participants presented at the annual commemoration of the peace community of San Jose de Apartadó (CdP ).In collaboration with the theater collective Sopa de Piedras, François Bonté and Ana Mejía Eslava.
Art Workshops with Kunst in Kiez,
In collaboration with Pöge-Haus e.V.
Leipzig, 2024.
In the year 2024, with the collective KIK and the association Pöge-Haus e.V, we made a project about Landscapes: inside and outside us.
For the whole year, we gave art workshops (fine arts, collage, sculpture, land art, theater, comic and drawing) in neighbourhoods in Leipzig which have less access to the culture offers that the city provide for kids and teenagers. The documentation about this work have been collected and re-worked in a year Magazine: Landschaften 2024.
Concept, Workshops, and Production: G. di Filippo Vargas in collaboration with the KIK Team and Pöge-Haus e.V.
Supported by: Der Bundesverband Netzwerke von Migrant*innenorganisationen (NeMO), Kultur macht stark / Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung).
Le 12ème Trophée des Galopins
Association Perles et Pollens
Saint-Ouen (France), Summer 2024.
Ladies and gentlemen, children and young people from Saint-Ouen, come and take part in the 12th Trophée des Galopins!After four weeks of intense head-building with children from local youth centres in Saint-Ouen (a suburb of Paris), using cardboard, foam, recycled materials and paint, research into characters and movement, we're ready: we're launching the race at Square Marmottan! The race is a relay race in which the residents of Saint-Ouen form teams and pass through a series of obstacles and crazy circuits, all the while running with the giant head!
As a bonus, there will be crêpes and a great atmosphere with the neighbours in the block.
A project from the association Perles et Pollen
Concept and logistics: Stéphane L.
Workshops and construction: Zoé Flambard, Léa Broussard and Giovanna di Filippo Vargas.
With the support of: Mairie de Saint-Ouen and CAF 93.
Club Sichbar
Theater der Junge Welt
Leipzig, 2024 and 2025.
Since the beginning of 2024, the Theater der Junge Welt in Leipzig has been offering regular theater classes specifically designed for non-German speakers. These weekly sessions provide a collaborative space where participants collectively create and stage theater productions.Our most recent production premiered in September 2024, and we are excited to announce that the next one is planned for May 2025.We envision these classes as an experimental space for exploring diverse forms of expression, including biographical theater, object and puppet theater, drawing, writing, and physical theater. Together, we explore themes that resonate deeply with our experiences, such as the challenges of arriving in a new place and learning a new language.Sichbar / Visible Theater Club.
Developed by: Maria Trofinov, Klara Burk and Giovanna di Filippo Vargas.
Theater der Junge Welt, Leipzig 2024.
Giovanna di Filippo Vargas, born in Bogotá, 1989
Giovanna di Filippo Vargas is a Colombian performing artist specializing in visual theatre. She writes, creates, and performs her own original works, blending storytelling and movement to craft engaging and thought-provoking experiences. With a background in theatre, anthropology, and gender studies from her studies in Paris and Stuttgart, she explores cultural and social themes that resonate with her audience.Giovanna is also passionate about working with children and amateur performers, using theatre as a tool for personal growth and community connection. Through her workshops, she fosters creativity and confidence, providing a supportive environment for participants to explore and express themselves through art.
Contact:
[email protected]