Tarantismo: Odyssey of an Italian Ritual

The hysteria of tarantism blurs the boundaries between music, medicine, spirituality and social experience

A legend of Southern Italy for almost a millennium, tarantism is a form of hysteria brought on by a bite from the Lycosa tarantula spider, to be cured only by music. The regional folk dance known as tarantella allegedly evolved as a remedy to this convulsive frenzy. Tarantismo consists of a bilingual (English/Italian) book and 2xLP conceived as a tribute to pizzica, a variation of tarantella from Puglia. Bridging anthropology, sound research and visual culture, the book and vinyl each explore the symbolic power of ritual, the physical language of trance and the enduring relationship between rhythm and healing. Rather than approaching tarantism as a closed folkloric past, the project treats it as a living cultural archive, open to reinterpretation.