A spider bite. A body spirals into hysteria. Only dance can cure it. Bodies troubled by blood, birth, control, and madness. Avoid death, or inhabit it.

Tarantism is a cultural syndrome from southern Italy, said to be caused by a spider’s bite. The affliction, marked by hysteria, catatonia, or delirium, was believed to be curable only through ecstatic dance. Most of the afflicted were women.

TARANTA TARANTA is a story of the past and the present. It’s a claim for those burned at the stakes, those stigmatized, medicalised, marginalized, abused, or silenced. A claim to witchery, to heretic healing, to the sacredness of the body in madness.

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TARANTA TARANTA. Kiki Kazimi + Lola Pistola. 2025. Audiovisual.