There Are Always Words . Citizens’ Stories
9-10-11 november 2018
Capraia e Limite (FI) – Centro della Cantieristica e del Canottaggio [Centre for Shipbuilding and Rowing], Gymnasium, Rowing Hall, Lungarno (starting from Società Canottieri Limite), Pasquinucci Kiln, Associations, Citizens’ Homes
During the three days from 9th through 11th November, at Capraia e Limite, people will listen to citizens’ stories. Chosen through an open call to the entire area, they will be directly staged by the inhabitants, three different ones for each meeting, with the dramaturgical support of actors from the Empolese Valdelsa district. The narrative thread will be the temporal axis which always distinguishes the stories of specific places: tales of emigrants, tales of elderly people, of families, of children, of immigrants who have arrived during the past few decades. The theme is life, an almost ‘free’ theme, yet at the same time full of reasons, of causes and effects. The aim is to shine light on a community that rediscovers the pleasure of sharing its stories through the extraordinary quality of everyday life, in order to confront not only its own memories, but also the codification of the present, thus accepting the challenge of the contemporary cutting edge as an objective, but employing the noble art of the word as an instrument.
Along with the theatrical moments, spontaneous narrations are scheduled: these will be the fruit of our natural capacity to tell stories and to listen to them, in a convivial atmosphere. Refreshments and dinners will take place, during which visitors will encounter citizens’ stories, tasting regional food products or typical recipes of the local gastronomic tradition.
During the three-day sequence, three artistic performances dedicated to the story will be performed. Each one will involve the audience even more.
I Wish, by Stefano Lanzardo, a portrait photography project in which citizens recount their current desire concerning the place where they live, and their sense of community. The portraits will create a work in progress, which will construct photograph after photograph, ending with its self-destruction, giving everyone the chance to withdraw his or her own portrait.
I Tell, by Francesco Siani, best described as an installation/sculpture, in which citizens will freely record their stories. An interactive artwork, which will serve to establish the foundational nucleus of a Sound Archive of Contemporary Memory.
A Mile In My Shoes (Along the Arno) – Homage to the Empathy Museum of London: a stroll along the banks of the Arno will make it possible to listen to several stories from the archive of the Empathy Museum, in the actual shoes of the people who have lived those stories. International stories, but linked to local areas by the common thread of empathy.
