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Animal’s Planet
THE STORY OF THE OCTOPUS WITH A HEARTSHAPED HEAD; Alessandra Cianelli; TRT: 11.40
Once upon a time there was a heart beating, that threw itself into the sea…
Through broad visionary material, The Story of the Octopus with a Heart-Shaped Head is actually a fairy tale, showing an existentialist experience carrying an autobiographical character and is also an anthropological investigation evolving specific ‘signs’ from the culture of Naples.
The illusionary attempt to get control of oneself and of the world is shown in this fairy-tale: through the total elimination and/or the substitution of the deep innermost dark sides of oneself. I think that it is up to every human being to come to terms with one’s own “monster of the abyss”, which is composed of all that we are, we have been, we wish to be, on an individual level; and as part of coming to terms with the esseri umani and parte della collettività (human beings and part of the community) – trying to avoid the temptation to hide and relegate “the monster” into the shadows.
The analogy of “octopus/heart” was initially an unconscious association and only in a subsequent phase it found its scientific bases.
The octopus moves itself with what we call the head, but in fact it is actually the abdomen which functions like a pump, an hydrojet, aspiring and expelling water: this is the way the heart functions. Thus a common imagery is attained: the heart represents the nucleus of emotions and feelings, and also symbolizes the perpetual changes of emotional life.
The Heart, in quest of an identity and in order to survive, throws itself into the sea, the water that is the most similar to the liquid of the placenta. The Heart couples himself with an Octopus by substituting what we would call the “head,” which is actually the stomach.
The beating of a sane heart is chaotic. The head is the center of rationality and of the cold and immobile mind. The stomach is the focal point for the instincts and for the primary willingness to live…
Regarding the sound tracks: Adriano Casale/Bk Bostike composed this original soundtrack by starting with the song “Death and the Maiden” composed by Franz Schubert in 1817 and from the ‘sound’ of the sea water. I filmed in my studio and on Palazzo Donn’Anna beach, which is a place dominated by a fascinating antique palace dating back to the sixteenth century. I have also used some footage from the the Zoological Mariner Station Dorhrn Aquarium in Naples.
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