This ON LINE FORUM has included a series of webinars with international guests – project partners, performers, thinkers, critics, university professors, artists – to share and dissect some of the issues affecting our new post-pandemic era.
A moment of reflection and intercultural confrontation, a virtual place capable of generating a “shared global memory” able to photograph the particular historical period we are going through. A virtual space in which it is possible to continue to nourish thought and reason about the function of theater and art in our days. A meeting space capable of building an international and multicultural community capable of generating mutual support among practitioners, thinkers and artists, even at a distance.
The forum relied on the collaboration of national and international partners for the organization and promotion of the meetings, the supervision of philosopher and theater critic Enrico Piergiacomi, the moderation of U.S. director Jesus Quintero, and the video direction of Wyde – the connective school.
The meetings were held in English and live streamed on Instabili Vaganti’s social channels.
IΒ° Meeting
February 27, 2022
Walls that close, walls that free. Is a border necessarily harmful?
Walls or borders have an ambiguous nature. They can either create a safe and welcoming place (a home that defends us from cold, bad weather, and beasts) or build prisons and areas of isolation that deny our freedom. This simple fact often leads us to believe that walls, or more generally borders, are merely means of distancing ourselves from something. Even good walls, such as those of houses, confine our experience to a limited space. In this first meeting, however, I will present the paradox of walls that give vent to our imagination, passions, freedom and thought. Theater and other art forms provide this paradoxical space. However, a limit can also be read as a strange path to the infinite and the unlimited.
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Anna Dora Dorno – Artistic director of Instabili Vaganti
Nicola Pianzola β Co-artistic director of Instabili Vaganti
Enrico Piergiacomi – Guest philosopher of Beyond Borders Project
Mia Yoo – Artistic director at La Mama NY
Adriana Garbagnati β Artistic director at La Mama Umbria International
Francesca Zitoli – Programming Manager at ATER Foundation
Roberto Prestigiacomo – Professor at Trinity University
IIΒ° Meeting
May 13, 2022
Theatre as a space for the good contagion: method and problems
There is a long tradition that connects theater space with city walls and resorts to the metaphor of the plague. The idea that theater is a resource for contagion that can be both good and bad and has broad social effects has remained constant over the centuries. This brief discussion seeks to study the logic that structures this metaphor, shows its main assumptions/objectives, and points out when it can be considered a useful means of revolution rather than the cause of moral disorder. Although the main objective is still conceptual, its method is historical. In fact, the analysis will reconstruct the similarities and differences that can be found in four texts: Plato’s Republic, Augustine’s The City of God, Erasmus’ In Praise of Folly, and Artaud’s The Theater and Its Double.
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Anna Dora Dorno – Artistic director of Instabili Vaganti
Nicola Pianzola β Co-artistic director of Instabili Vaganti
Francesca Amendola – Director of Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Mumbai – India
Enrico Piergiacomi – Guest philosopher of Beyond Borders Project
Charlie Pepiton – Associate Professor presso Gonzaga University
Paolo Brancalion – L’arboreto vice-president and communication manager
Anuradha Venkataraman – Indian classical dancer and project’s participant
Jordi Perez – Theatre Director of Sargantana Theatre Company and project’s participant
Elena Copelli – Choreographer and project’s participant
IIIΒ° Meeting
April 3, 2022
Revolution starts from confinement. An hypothesis of political theatre
If we accept the paradox of the existence of some opening walls and the hypothesis that theater is a possible pathway for good contagion, it is now time to examine whether this useful disease that is paradoxically opened by theater walls coincides with revolution. Before proceeding, however, it is mandatory to understand what a “revolutionary” act is. It will be argued that a revolution is a complex transformation that is not necessarily sudden and violent because it could also be slow and gentle. The key element may be that it begins with a clear perception of confinement and discontent. Every revolutionary act then occurs because it is surrounded by walls or limits: one cannot desire freedom without feeling imprisoned, nor can one aspire to change if the condition of immobility and rest is not perceived as painful. This phenomenon will then be studied by focusing on the causes and conditions of a revolution in three small “circles”: the circle of the individual, the circle of the limited group (family, society…), and the circle of humanity.
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Anna Dora Dorno – Artistic director of Instabili Vaganti
Nicola Pianzola β Co-artistic director of Instabili Vaganti
Enrico Piergiacomi – Guest philosopher of Beyond Borders Project
Sabera Shaik – Artistic director of Masakini Theatre
Brahma Prakash Singh – Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
Parnab Mukherjee – knowledge consultant and alternative theatre nomad.
Pankuri Sinha – Journalist
IVΒ° Meeting
April 24, 2022
The space for a dramatic Eutopia, or the circle in expansion
The final meeting focuses on the destruction of the walls that have been erected so far. The main idea that theater or other revolutionary means do not require limits and confinements is not denied, because we have seen that the absence of both nullifies the very existence of art and revolution. Rather, the wall must be destroyed, in the sense that it must be continually shifted, in order to include, surround and protect what has hitherto been kept on the outside. A good image is a circle in expansion: a figure whose boundaries still exist and are equally distant from a point taken as its center, but also move and include new spaces within the perimeter. Such a symbol can coincide, in political terms, with the end of utopia and cosmopolitanism, that is, the approach to an idealized perfect society that gathers the good qualities of each individual and group without suppressing their essential peculiarities and differences. To return to the image of the circle, a revolutionary person can occupy an off-center in the circumference. He maintains his uniqueness and also recognizes the values of others, thus entering into a happy relationship with a dynamic world. Each part of the circle moves in harmony with the expanding whole.
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Anna Dora Dorno – Artistic director of Instabili Vaganti
Nicola Pianzola β Co-artistic director of Instabili Vaganti
Enrico Piergiacomi – Guest philosopher of Beyond Borders Project
Moussa Nβdaye β manager of Ker Theatre and Assitej Senegal
Janardan Ghosh β Theatre Professor β India
Budhaditya Chattopadhyay β Researcher β India
Ivanka Apostolova Baskar – Head of Macedonian Center, International Theater Institute
Sonya Armaghanyan β Phd at Georgetown University
Cristina Di Falco β projectβs participant