In the video ‘The Artist Dies in Art’, within an existentialist philosophical vision, the perfor-mer problematises the relationship with Being and Art, taking up the Greek metaphysical origins. The investigation of Being, within the performer’s poetics, is the very search for Art, for the Self and the I in Art. In this light, the golden mask of archaic funerary tradition (think of the mask of Agamemnon and the mask of the Egyptian pharaohs), like the title given to the work, takes on multiple meanings: it is the death of the artist’s ego in the search for Art and its rebirth in the sa-cred light of the same, as a sacred vehicle of connection with the deepest layers of Being. The artist creates by exploring his body, his soul, his identity’ to be reborn in the light of knowledge.
M. Balbi Dipalma is a performer, video artist, photographer and painter with a master’s degree in theatre from the Department of Art, Music and Performing Arts at the University of Bologna. In 2018, he completed advanced training in socio-cultural education at the Department of Education Sciences at the University of Bologna. In 2020, he completed advanced training in contemporary archives at the Central State Archives in Rome. Since 2001, he has been studying and collaborating with M.° D. Pasquali, from whom he has learned theatrical, cinematographic and vocal techniques. In 2004, he met Rena Mirecka, one of the most important actresses of the past century and a founding member of J. Grotowski’s Teatr Laboratorium. He collaborated with R. Mirecka for 18 years. Since 2004, he has continued to participate in Mirecka’s research on paratheatre, first as her assistant and then as the leader of “THE SUN – The School of Rena Mirecka”. From 2017 to 2022, he directed “The Sun” at the Grotowski Institute (Wroclaw|Pl). In 2022, he brought to light the Master’s archive collection. The Master passed on to him the training of the Teatr Laboratorium, in particular the plastic exercises and the creation of ritualistic performative actions. Balbi Dipalma has had various experiences in traditional rituals and meditation, which led him, in 2021, to begin new research into ritual performance arts. In 2022, he returned to Italy, where he focused his research on the format of ritual performance video art. In 2025, he began photography and oil painting projects. He studies modern and contemporary dance at the Balletto di Varese and painting with Pippo D’Elia. Since 2025, his work has been supported by M. Corazzini’s CSA Farm Gallery in Turin.
My art stems from the need to explore Being with my body, in search of the ontogenesis of Love. My works investigate autobiographical experiences, focusing on pain as a source of knowledge and spiritual transformation. I study ritual techniques as tools to elevate personal creativity in a vertical, cathartic and existential reflection sense. Through performance, video art, photography and oil paintings, I seek to make visible the light of the soul through the plasticity of flesh. I contemplate red. The eternal pathos of red. Action, colour and form embody existential human feelings, expressing a sense of abandonment and surrendering to Being. The body is a language of slits, revealing its own existence in silence: “Being with”. I consider my works to be carnal prayers, seeking an instinctive relationship with the viewer to take them, through aesthetic reflection, into the depths of the soul, towards a common place present in the heart.
