Shaping Narratives is a multisensory performance that traverses real and imagined funerary rituals across space and time. Criss-crossing between Tunisia and Modena, the work invites audiences to engage through scent, taste, sound, memory, and collective acts of grief and commemoration.

Developed through a series of physical and virtual encounters with archaeologists in Modena, the performance takes as its starting point the shared culinary traditions of North Africa and Northern Italy. These exchanges unfolded into speculative explorations of funerary practices within Etruscan and Roman tombs, offering a context through which to examine the transformation, survival, and reimagining of ritual across geographies and histories.

Through this work, the artists reflect on archaeology as both a scientific and speculative discipline, one that continuously reorders historical narratives through fragmented discoveries. With sensory ceramic and glass vessels, the artists explore taste as a medium of remembrance and connection. The performance interrogates how power, memory, and cultural dominance are shaped and perpetuated through the act of excavation and interpretation of artefacts.

Central to Shaping Narratives is a collaboration with a local ensemble of singers, who co-create and perform the live vocal score. Curator Salma Kossemtini worked closely on the research and creation process, as well as Collettivo Amigdala, who put the artists in touch with archaeologists working with the Museo Civico in Modena.