Fortunata: Matilde de Feo's AI & Body Language Art Project

Matilde de Feo's "Fortunata" project, exhibited at the Complesso Monumentale del San Giovanni in Catanzaro until March 14, 2026, is an innovative work exploring the intersection of language, body, and code in the age of artificial intelligence. Curated by Simona Caramia and part of the "Performing PNRR / NextGenerationEU" program, the installation takes the form of a video-corporeal generative alphabet.

The essence of "Fortunata" lies in a specially developed AI algorithm capable of generating words and translating them into physical configurations through performers' bodies. The letters are not static; instead, they emerge as dynamic gestures, transforming posture into temporary architecture and restoring to language an experiential and continuously evolving dimension.

This research aligns with a rich artistic lineage, echoing Italian verbo-visual poetry of the 1970s by artists such as Giuseppe Chiari, Gianfranco Baruchello, and Tomaso Binga, who already explored the relationship between word and image and the performativity of language. "Fortunata" transports this tension into a computational environment, where the algorithm serves as a score for new configurations.

The title "Fortunata" itself evokes the aleatory dimension dear to John Cage, integrating unpredictability into the creative process. The AI generates words, up to eight letters long, connected to the Calabrian landscape between Aspromonte and the Strait, creating a geographically specific lexicon. Each word activates a different bodily configuration, redefining space through figures that appear and dissolve over time.

The work offers three progressive modes of interaction: a random function that generates ever-changing choreographic sequences, the possibility for visitors to write directly using the corporeal alphabet, and an advanced system that responds in real-time to user queries, transforming words into new gestural configurations.

Developed as part of the "Amménta" project with students from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Reggio Calabria, the exhibition also creates an unprecedented map between Aspromonte and the Strait using video-performative and interactive languages, turning the territory into a lexical and symbolic matrix that guides the AI-generated words and gives the landscape a narrative and sensory dimension.

"Fortunata" is the result of a collective and multidisciplinary effort, involving Matilde de Feo (choreography, performance, AI with Giovanni Mancini), Valeria Apicella (choreography, performance), Michele Di Pasquale (interaction design), Federico Passaro (photography), Barbara De Dominicis (soundscape), and many other professionals. The project highlights how language can still originate from the body and how gesture, in its fragility, precedes the fixed image, proposing a vision of AI not as a substitute, but as a catalyst for the creative act.