SESSION 3 - General reflection on the function of theatre exchanges for the participant organizations and their leaders

What does the expression “theatrical exchange” mean? In Italy, and maybe in Europe, the expression gives little value to a theatrical product:  I come to you in order to present my show, and in return, you come to my theatre to do the same thing. So the remuneration of the work is even and the quality of the show comes after the budgetary problems that have become the central point around which the cultural exchange has been organised.

With these presuppositions, it is very hard for this kind of theatrical exchange to keep the necessary mutual donation for the development of the two partners.

That’s why I felt attracted by the concept of “Rencontres”: a place where, above all, we can share with each other and not transform the other’s presence in merchandising. If we consider what is at the basis of a very big part of the 20ieth century theatre, and the very efficient definition of theatre given by Grotowszki (Theatre is an encounter between the actor and the spectator: in order to make theatre exist, we need at least  one actor and one spectator). The Rencontres of Grenoble are above all the expression of a curiosity towards what is created elsewhere. This curiosity brings a wish of discovery that helps us to grow up, enforces our own experience until another encounter drags us once again into other directions.

The experience of Teatro Caverna is based on young theatre in many regards. The founders, Francesco and myself, were two young people when we conceived this project with other young people from high schools of the agglomeration of Bergama. I still continue today, unfortunately without François, along the same path. I think the concept of encounter still necessary especially when we talk about young people and theatre. And maybe, as we will see it later, about  life.

The Rencontres of Grenoble have taken place in this itinerary. Le Teatro Caverna has gone into a search of similar encounters and experiences because the situation of Bergama imposed that on us. In Italy, Bergama is one of the most conservative cities, closed on itself and auto referent in spite of the economic possibilities (or certainly because of them), that it has conserved even during the crisis. Bergama represents in one hand the catholic spirit of the Italian population and on the other hand the tendency to refuse what is different, firmly maintaining  its own boarders, and thus underlining  its  limits.

Facing this situation, the leaders of Teatro Caverna had to look for representatives that would enrich their experience: the first contribution we received to the Rencontres of Grenoble, was exactly what we looked for. We came back to Italy with communicative freshness, an envy of the other one that was not simply a fascination for an exotic escape towards the abroad, but that constituted above all the will to construct in our city a project with young people: an encounter between young people and not a preconceived product that would be imposed to them from above.

In order to give you some practical examples, we worked on two axes: the first one was to build a network with partners from outside our city and so not only on the local level, as it is usually asked from territorial authorities. The second axe of work was based on encounters with young people in order to show them the different possibilities that theatre can offer.

We can define these activities as a work of transmission, because we transmitted to others the curiosity that was born in us during the Rencontres.

It was also the moment to reactivate the certainties that time had started to freeze in our theatrical work..  For example, the necessity to make a collective creation that would be at the same time an efficient moment of education: revaluating this aspect in the light of the Rencontres of Grenoble by putting on scene not only our own experience but also the perception that the other cultures have taught us.

Meeting other cultures has filled us with a new knowledge that we brought on the scene such as working in another language, translating texts in other dialects and asking the actors to focus on the sound and the voice.

To meet, others, as I have already said, is the theatrical receipt of a theatre that offers itself to the others. So, one of the lessons of the Rencontres was the idea of “to be at the disposal” of a situation, to let  things come, offering our own ideas as a possibility and not as an obligation. To work in that direction with young people (and also with adults, the district, the city...) means to be aware of being “vehicles”, using an expression of Grotowski, of being the bearers of something that moves (without having any precise aim) but moving  in order to create a change.

The liberty young people felt during the Rencontres, of creating together, of taking part to a project, has allowed them to move, even in their own life. It is not necessary for theatre to offer everybody a professional perspective. Let oneself be crossed by theatre, acquire a liberty of perception, and act throughout theatre according to one’s own method: that’s are the challenges that have always  guide us as artists and that have come out reinforced by the Rencontres of Grenoble.

The aspect that I find the most difficult in our nowadays theatrical life ( but maybe in all the times) is the relation, in some way inevitable, between  theatre and power.

Today we use the word “institution” in order to hide the uneasiness that the word power provokes. In the way that we are all producers of power (and sometimes also thirsty of power), and, at the same time scared of this similar power.

Theatre always has been in relation with power: admiring and suspecting it.

Discussions with official institutions are an economic necessity.

Today, in Italy, the relation between institutions and theatre is difficult and often linked to the mechanisms of “exchanges” we talked about previously. From this point of view, the participation to the Rencontres of Grenoble was a discovery: such as the official opening of the manifestation at the City Hall with the presence of representatives of the city. For us who are coming from a city where the culture is totally subordinate to a productive work, it is a difficult objective to reach. Anyway, after this experience in Grenoble, we decided to go out of the four walls of our theatre and go into the streets, the parks, the historical centres and touristic places, into sacred places as well as profane ones in order to meet young people, old people, migrants, Italians...

In this context, the encounter was not an abstract concept, but something that really happened, taking advantage of the spaces that were left free to a communication that has become crazy. After our return from Grenoble in 2014, we invited to Bergama, la Cie La Batook. It has represented a wonderful encounter with the streets and places of the very rich city, touched in that way in its economic, social and bourgeois heart. This encounter between city and theatre was made with the artists of the company but also with us who , on another way,  intervene in the suburban neighbourhood.

The International dimension was one of the aspects of the Rencontres of Grenoble we  appreciated most. It led us to implement it in our own territory, showing thus our wish to give Bergama’s territory the will to meet with the theatre and cultures coming now from other parts of the world. It is the aim that we are developing, by creating in Bergama concrete moments of encounters with groups from Senegal, Estonia, France, Spain and Burkina Faso. This desire of a world without boarders seems to us something necessary to think and create contemporaneity : If we are not open, there can be no encounter, if there is no encounter, there is no life. We think that theatre has this aim. Theatre asks questions that keep us alive. The Rencontres have invited us not to remain sleeping on what we already know, or in a theatre that could be soporific as television can be and which would lead us to an early death,  because theatre has something to do with life and death as the old Polish master Kantor used to say.  

It is also in an opening perspective, that we have tried not to put a financial weight on young people, in order to avoid selecting the participants on an economic basis. We only asked our young people the money for their insurance (very little amount). The other part was paid by Teatro Caverna that has organized with the participants themselves, in order to collect funds allowing their participation to the festival of Grenoble.

Inside our annual budget, an important amount is dedicated, every year, to the creation of a  network of international theatrical actions: the Rencontres of Grenoble take part in this perspective, with precise instructions not to impose to young people a payment that could exclude those who are less well-off.

We have brought to France migrants, children coming from underprivileged families and also at the times young people coming from well-off families in order to mix social classes. This will has required a big financial effort but this choice seemed necessary to us. It involved to look beyond us in order to grow artistically and humanly and to find new partners. What leads to economic consequences. The international relations that we were able to develop these last four years, gave us access to funding (on a European and Regional basis) that allowed us to realise all these actions.

We could continue for a long time telling you about the following  consequences linked to the Rencontres of Grenoble. But what remains constant and what unites us before everything else is the vocation we share of working with young people. We share this vocation with Créarc and with many other members of the Network. It is also present in the youth formation to a critical approach. Young people as the fuel that makes the machine work, as the motor of curiosity leading to discover what we don’t know yet and then transform it into an experience to go farther, grow and discover.

In conclusion, isn’t everything already said in the word that unites us here? “Rencontres, encounter. Action to move forward to another person. Towards something else, that is hardly recognized or recognizable, that is a challenge, that shakes off my point of view and that changes my perception.

In order to create and ask questions as a guarantee of the durability of life.

Documents

Intervention in french : Click on this link to open this document.

Intervention in english : Click on this link to open this document.