Diana Anselmo

Diana Anselmo is an Italian Deaf performer, the youngest member of the British Council Italy Cultural Advisory Board for 2021-2022, the Italian ambassador of Europe Beyond Access, and President of the association Al.Di.Qua. Artists, founded in 2021 with Chiara Bersani among others.

Pronouns: they/them

In 2022, they performed at Sign Language Art Night (Sweden), DIS_Festival (Serbia), were Artistic Director for Beyond Signs (Scotland and Portugal), did a residency in Germany with Xavier Le Roy, were a speaker at DanceAble with Holland Dance Festival. In 2021, they spoke on a panel titled “Dance, activism and the inherent structures of ableism within the performing arts” at DansFunk (Sweden), ‘Rethinking Structures’ at Integrart (Switzerland) and was Artistic Director for Beyond Signs (Croatia).

You Have to be Deaf to Understand

Description: Drawing inspiration from the poem of the same name by W. J. Madsen, the performance stages the embedded experience of deafness, revealing themes such as audism, linguism and
phonocentrism.

Extra information: Performed at Community Festival in Lisbon (Jul '22); Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh (Aug '22); Vapore d'Estate in Milan (Sept '22); Sign Language Art Night in Stockholm (Nov '22).

Autoritratto in 3 atti

Description: Lecture performance on the theme of stigmatised identity and the look, declining it from three points of view: the own look, the look immediately and the look reappropriated.

Extra information: Presented at Orlando Festival (ed. 2021), Festival del Silenzio (ed. 2021), Nessuno Resti Fuori Festival (ed. 2021), Lo Sguardo del Gatto Festival (ed. 2021), Festival TENSIONI (ed. 2021), Standards Studio di Milano (oct '21), MAXXI Museum (may '22), DIS_Festival in Novi Sad (set '22), Malefiqa Festival (sep '22), INTERAZIONI Festival (oct '22), Danae Festival (oct '22).

Museo dell'Empatia

Description: Interactive installation on the theme of stigma and the deconstruction of the canon, demystifying the common vulgate on the idea of normality.

Extra information: Published on various Italian journals and presented at Castelfolk Festival (ed. 2020), Festival dell'Economia (ed. 2020), Pergine Festival (ed. 2020), Dolmiti hub (Nov '22).

Lecture performances
Speaker on panel discussion
Residencies
Work with Deaf audiences and artists