THE Presence of the absenT

Raffaele Virgadaula & Anastasia Kostner

A site-specific dialogue between body and sound, memory and presence.

In The Presence of the Absent, DJ and occupational psychologist Raffaele Virgadaula and dancer and choreographer Anastasia Kostner weave a dialogue between music, body, and collective memory.
Their collaboration transforms remembrance into a living, poetic gesture — one that reverberates through the streets and squares of the city.

Inspired by Gunter Demnig’s Stolpersteine, the brass stones that mark the places where lives were interrupted by totalitarian regimes, the performance unfolds as a site-specific ritual of presence — an act of listening to what remains unseen, unheard, or forgotten.

With dance and DJ music, The Presence of the Absent transforms remembrance into a living, poetic trace within the urban landscape — one that makes the stumbling stones resonate.

A tribute to all those who had to part because of totalitarian ideologies.

An invitation to reflect.

An invitation to give space to the forgotten.

An invitation to dream, dance, and connect.

An invitation to rediscover your own city.

“So moving… I believe these stumbling stones should cover all our streets — not only to remember the Holocaust, but to remind us that wars, ethnic cleansings, and massacres still happen every day. History is not over; the present is its consequence.”
— A visitor’s reflection after the performance