IL MARGINE (THE MARGIN)
The Margin is an evolving narrative about mental health.
I tell this story because Kelly Ardens, her chaotic storyteller, starts from her own experiences and life as a person functioning with borderline personality.
Evolving because it feeds on emotions and contradictions and poses questions that, perhaps, have no answer but remain vibrating in the air, sometimes light and fleeting, sometimes heavy as a boulder.
The Margin is the protagonist’s world and a new narrative for people who live, not a “disorder” or a “suffering”, but the condition of neurodivergent people.
That world that belongs to “crazy” people, so far from what is considered “normal”.
The audience will be invited to watch and listen, immersing themselves in the performer’s daily life: in her epic acts of pain, in her small and large gestures that make her feel good, and in her multifaceted art, including tarot cards, colored pencils, cigarettes, false eyelashes, and what’s hidden in her Hello Kitty bag.
Dedicating his favorite songs, reeling off the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” and laying herself bare while telling the truths of his spiritual journey, Kelly imagines The Margin as an open construction site, where everything is still possible.
Or as bell hooks would say:
“A place capable of offering the possibility of a radical perspective from which to look, to imagine alternatives and new worlds [β¦] A space of resistance. A space of my choice.”
Debut:
7 ottobre 2025 @ Sa Manifattura a Cagliari for Fuorimargine 2025
Residences:
- 27 agosto – 2 settembre 2024 @ Base Milano
- 6 – 12 febbraio 2025 | Fuorimargine
- 1-7 Luglio 2024 | Fuorimargine
- 26 maggio – 1 giugno 2025 @ Casa Anima Mundi (Isili, CA) accompanied by the choreographer Cristina Kristal Rizzo | Fuorimargine
Staged studies:
- 5 Ottobre 2024 @ BASE Milano – PRESENT! in FAR OUT Live Arts Festival 2024
- 12 Febbraio/13 Febbraio 2025 @ Sa Manifattura a Cagliari – SOLD OUT + replica straordinaria
STORIES FROM MY BODY BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE
In 2026 Kelly Ardens won the prestigious international Open Dialogo 3 call.
Open Dialogo is a bilateral cultural exchange programme commissioned by Arts Council England, the Italian Ministry of Culture (Department of Performing Arts), the Italian Cultural Institute in London and the British Council.
Kelly will be a guest from June 8th to 14th at Chisenhale Dance Space (London).
She will explore the creation of a new solo work that challenges beauty standards and amplifies the visibility of marginalized people.
The residency includes artistic exchange, mentorship, and international networking, creating lasting connections between Kelly and the Chisenhale Dance Space Artist Community in Kellyβs first international residency.
Further developments soon.