“We are merchants of desires, shop assistants in a future shopping centre, where the hidden strategies of the soul are visited.

The currency of exchange is desire: desire for desire.

“OhAhSì welcoming AHAHAH” is a participatory performance developed in collaboration with the workshop participants “If a city is situated on a Height” held at Opificio Puca in Sant’Arpino.

Together, we transformed the space, a former textile factory, into a shopping centre of the future by dividing it into four departments.

In the first department, passing through the practices of the present (the point of light), past (the fall) and future (the time capsule), and then welcoming the spectators to the carpet room, the Merchants introduced the shopping centre.

The second department started from the desire to reconnect their own body, a practice developed by walking with one’s brother, becoming children again.

The third department opened with the Stripping practice, where the people could let go of their daily life burdens. When finished, the spectator was free to experience the space as they wished, being able to play with props such as hula hoops, rocking horses, etc., or trying out the practices of boundary (discussing and marking boundaries on the other’s body), sky-earth (abandoning the womb and finding one’s own identity), and spiral (forgiving a parent).

In the last section, all reasoning is abandoned, and the “madness” of becoming a child is given free rein. Each spectator reveals their desire by writing with white chalk on the charred walls of the mall. The laughter of the merchants accompanies the actions, and then they transform their voices into screams of longing.

The performance ends when each person declares their desire before leaving the burnt-out room.