phased / romantic
phased / romantic is a collaboration between Alice De Crais and Ant Hampton (and an anagram of their surnames) that began in 2025 following work together on a Rome iteration of Ant’s ‘IN VIEW OF WHAT WE STAND TO LOSE’. They created ‘Momento Spento’ in September 2025 for IRA festival in Soverato, Calabria, a one-off, largely unrehearsed outdoors performance involving 9 horses and riders, two Fiat 500s, an Alfa Romeo, a local choir, and percussionist Daniele De Santis. A month later, a first, outdoors version of USCITA was developed in Modena and Cagliari with the support of Periferico Festival and Sardegna Teatro.
phased / romantic creates performance interventions in areas of Southern Europe marked by fragile ecosystems and the tourist industry. The project questions our psychological and spiritual approaches to these territories and to ‘free time’ in general, informed by visions of de-growth and ‘buen vivir’ articulated by philosophers such as Hardmut Rosa (Resonance) and Byung-Chul Han (Vita Contemplativa / In Praise of Inactivity), stretching back by extension to Transcendentalism and 19th century German Romanticism.
MOMENTO SPENTO
2025 | Soverato
live performance, 1h
2025 | Soverato
live performance, 1h
A dream of truly free time, probably sparked by her holiday reading: Bjung Chul-Han, who writes that “Inactivity has a logic of its own, its own language, temporality, architecture, magnificence – even its own magic. It is not a weakness or defect but rather an intensity”.
Working from her notes, and with almost no prior rehearsal, she tries to bring this dream of truly ‘free time’ back to life by assembling its cast from existing communities in Soverato: an audience under a darkening sky, a drummer, a choir, several horses and old Fiat 500s, with their riders and drivers…
Concept, text, direction: Ant Hampton
Feedback and support: Alice De Crais
Performer: Alice De Crais
Percussion / prepared drums: Daniele De Santis
Photography: Angelo Maggio
Videography: Isabella Marino
With the extraordinary participation of the Soverato Choir, Centro Ippico Valle Dei Mulini / Scuderia Cricelli, Auto Club Soverato
With thanks to Ida Raynal, Giulia Cricelli, Chiara Prodi of Habitat.it
MOMENTO SPENTO is produced in the frame of DETOURISTIKI, an ongoing project by Ant Hampton exploring live art in relation to tourism and 'free time', based on research carried out in Palermo (supported by Teatro Bastardo) and Athens (supported by Onassis AiR).
This performance was commissioned by IRA festival 2025, Soverato, Calabria.
Dedicated to the memory of Lynn Hatzius.