Émilia Giudicelli and a fly rod

Over the past two years, Frankfurt choreographer Fabrice Mazliah and his colleague Marialena Marouda have invited fellow performing artists to enter into dialogue with a handmade object of their choice.

The fourth duet in the series is a collaboration between performer Emilia Giudicelli and a fly fishing rod, which she made herself. To fly fish is to deeply listen and tune into the different ecosystems that the angler is in contact with. Catching a fish is not an end in itself, but rather the confirmation of a successful “reading” of the water, the vegetation of the bottom and the insects of the specific wet biotope. The fly rod can function as an extension of the human body, but also as a lever made of bamboo and line in order to cast the tiny knot of a string fly onto the surface of the water. Flies are studies of insects in all different stages of development. They “play” the fish and queer the fly angler community, still mainly male-gendered, with their colourful garments of sequins and feathers. In the end the question remains: who catches whom?