image Tom-Palomino-Ingram

Silvia Mercuriali is a British-Italian theatre maker and artist, originally from Milan and based in London since 2000. She is best known as one of the pioneers of the strategy of AUTOTEATRO, which she developed for the show Etiquette in 2007 with her company Rotozaza and as  founder of the (Inter) National Ear Theatre and now member of french theatre research team Fabrique Autonome des Actors.

​

AUTOTEATRO explores a new kind of theatre practice, whereby audience members perform the piece themselves, usually for each other. Participants are given instruction via audio, visual cues or text for what to do or say. By simply following these instructions an event begins to unfold. 

​

Silvia has experimented with this new strategy, applying it, stretching it and moulding it to different technologies and in different contexts constantly inviting audiences to question what is real and what is not. ​​The real and the imagined blur, creating a parallel reality which exists only for the participants, whilst around them, the general public carries on undisturbed. The audience's panoramic view of Silvia's work is a melange of public & private interactions, comprising both the random-unplanned and the controlled-scripted. 

​

In 2020 with the launch of her show Swimming Home Via the App Mercurious Net, Silvia has built a new home for her  Autoteatro work: the (Inter) National Ear Theatre, an independent and virtual theatre where audience members can access the shows from anywhere in the world.

​

She has presented work internationally and has been commissioned by cultural centres and theatres including Brisbane Powerhouse (AUS), Museum of Art of Kochi (JP), Sardegna Teatro (IT), Casa Museo Palazzo Maffei (Verona), Miramare Museum and Park (Trieste), Idra Teatro (Bergamo, IT) and Teatro Stabile Rossetti (Trieste) as well as UK commissioning bodies such as Wellcome Trust, Fuel Theatre, The Roundhouse, Battersea Arts Centre, and Harrogate Theatre & Yorkshire Festival. 

​

Her most recent work has been more and more focused on creating interactive sound walks in dialogue with different communities pushed by the desire to find ways of collaborating with them and the sites that host her work in a meaningful way both for the community as well as for the artist.