Often focusing on stories of the supernatural, the transcendent, and the psychedelic, Joachim Koester’s deeply researched work explores the real and imagined limits of the human body and mind. Through documentary films, photographic series, and books, he reintroduces repressed histories into the collective memory.
Tarantism is a condition resulting from the bite of the wolf spider or tarantula. The bite causes symptoms including convulsions that, it was believed, could only be alleviated by a frenzied sort of dancing called the Tarantella. This cure emerged during the Middle Ages in southern Italy, and was widespread in the region up until the middle of the twentieth century. Since then, the Tarantella has evolved into a highly stylized dance for couples.
In making this film, Koester asked a group of dancers to perform this “dancing cure” in order to reflect on the unexplored, neglected, or suppressed possibilities of the body. Somewhere between performance and possession, Tarantism stages the body as a threshold through which the repressed or invisible speaks, disturbing the boundaries between pathology, ritual, and ecstatic knowledge.
