There were 48 portraits of the main participants, to which were added the “collateral” ones of those who, from time to time, accompanied them in the project. These drawings were joined by a series of 18 pastels of boxers, another highly significant element of the BAT experience. All of this was presented in an exhibition at Casa Testori, open to the public throughout May 2025.
As Antonio Latella wrote in his introduction to the exhibition, “when observing the work of Simona D’Amico, we find ourselves in front of sketches of bodies and faces of those who took part, in any capacity, in the Bottega Teatrale—even if only for a few hours; and yet, what surprises us is that the artist chooses to testify to her own experience by sketching everyone who was there, and who, therefore, continues to be present.” Within the BAT, Simona D’Amico led a drawing course attended by the eight actors and Latella himself: a course conceived with a holistic approach to Testori’s expressive world, since he himself was also a painter and draftsman. The same goes for boxing, which shaped some of the choreographies imagined during the BAT journey. The project, directed by Latella and produced by Amat Marche, Piccolo Teatro, stabilemobile, and Pesaro2024, received the UBU Award in the “Special Projects” category in December of last year.
As part of the exhibition, visitors also had the chance to view the documentary filmed by Lucio Fiorentino, dedicated to the BAT: a feature-length film that recounts, through the voices of the protagonists, every stage of the journey involving eight young actors between September 2023 and April 2024.
The protagonists who live on in the “sketched” drawings by Simona D’Amico cover the walls of Casa Testori’s main hall, thanks to the exhibition design by Alessandro Frangi. “With her portraits,” Latella also wrote in the introduction, “D’Amico creates a true alphabet that, through the play of juxtapositions, helps trace a narrative of the entire journey of the Bottega Amletica Testoriana, while her boxers pay tribute to those loved by Testori and to the struggles of the actors who wrestled with the oceanic substance of Testori’s work found in the three Hamlets.”
