Agenda

09 Nov 2026 14:30

Lab DEA: Erotic Touch and Sacred Presence: Sensual Encounters with Saints in Southern Italy

Sala Geymonat, Palazzo Malcanton Marcorà, Dorsoduro 3484/D

Lab DEA: demo-ethno-anthropological lab presents
Erotic Touch and Sacred Presence: Sensual Encounters with Saints in Southern Italy
Michaela Schäuble (University of Bern)With a discussion around excerpts of Tarantism Revisited (2024), a film directed by Anja Dreschke and Michaela Schäuble.
Monday, 9th November 2026, from 2.30 to 4.30 pm
Room “Geymonat”, 1° floor, Malcanton Marcorà Building, Dorsoduro 3484/D, Venice

How is the otherworldly sensed and made present? Drawing on multimodal archival materials, ethnographic texts, and fieldwork in Puglia, this presentation explores the sensory, affective, and erotic dimensions of saint veneration. From the ecstatic practices surrounding Saint Paul, patron saint of tarantism, to the healing devotion to Saint Donatus, protector of epileptics, it asks how sight, touch, sound, smell, and bodily presence can mediate encounters with saints as living, responsive presences.


Michaela Schäuble is a filmmaker and professor for Social Anthropology with a focus on media Anthropology at the University of Bern, Switzerland. She is the co-founding director of EMB - Ethnographic Mediaspace Bern, a research hub that bridges social anthropology with creative practice through experimental filmmaking. Together with Anka Dreschke she realised the award-winning essayistic documentary film TARANTISM REVISITED (D/CH, 2024, 105 min.) and the 2-channel video installation SANTU PAULU MEU FALLE GUARIRE (D/CH, 2025, 14 min)


Free admission — Seminar valid for DEA/ ACEL internship credits.
Lab DEA — Laboratorio demo-etno-antropologico Anthropology, Arts and Performance Coordinators Jasmine Pisapia jasmine.pisapia@unive.it) Matteo Benussi matteo.benussi@unive.it

Lingua

L'evento si terrà in inglese

Organizzatore

Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, dott. Benussi e Pisapia; LabDEA

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