A ZONA K project

A public call, dozens of workers responding. This is the beginning of the project that has taken shape over the past year with meetings, theatre workshops, research, video documentaries, protest songs, marches, a pretext (Kafka’s America), three actors, a director and a dramaturg.
Work’ as a fil rouge. Work as an aspiration, as a compulsory choice, as a source of livelihood, but above all as an engine that delineates trajectories, defines self-esteem and personal convictions, risks shaping our values and determines where and with whom we spend most of our time.
But does work really define who we are? How well does it meet our expectations? How much weight does it have in our lives and in the choices we make? Can it today represent a point of observation on the state of health of society, especially after the acute phase of the health emergency?

Non siamo niente, saremo tutto (We are nothing, we will be everything) is the literal translation of a line from L’Internationale written by poet and revolutionary Eugène Pottier 150 years ago. A text that may be dated, sometimes still sung as a workers’ hymn, but now has almost no relevance to today and the state of the world of work. We are nothing, we will be everything is also the theatrical project produced by ZONA K, in which Jens Hillje and Alessandro Renda involved workers from different sectors, to explore individual stories and approach the theme from different perspectives: can we mirror ourselves in the work stories of others to feel more interconnected? How much does the realisation of a will or vocation condition our lives? Does understanding individual happiness or dissatisfaction help us to assess collective well-being? Are we still able to see ourselves as a collection of people striving for a common good or are we a sum of individuals, monads in our own right? The concatenation of stories becomes an investigative tool to transform the collective experience into a shared narrative, a chorus conceived as a total work of art and social sculpture to re-embrace the desire for community and, through theatre, find new forms of representation of reality.

 

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show ● in Italian ● running time 90 min.

c/o and in collaboration with Olinda onlus, ex. Osp. Psic. Paolo Pini, via Ippocrate 45 Milano – M3 Affori FN

IMPORTANT
Show up at least 15 min. before the performance to collect tickets c/o Bar Jodok, via Ippocrate 47 Milano – M3 Affori FN (via Ciccotti exit)
Maximum punctuality is required. Access is not guaranteed once the show has started.

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direction: Alessandro Renda; dramaturg: Jens Hillje; with: Roberto Corradino, Milena Costanzo, Matteo Gatta and with the citizens of a public call from Milan and La Spezia and with the Micene chorus from Milan; lighting design: Mario Loprevite; scenographic elements Denise Carnini and Francesca Pedrocchi
editing and visual effect video: Francesco Tedde and Alessandro Tedde (Anthropotopia); photos: Luca Del Pia; production: ZONA K (MI); co-production: Pergine Festival (TN), Association 47|04 (GO); executive production: Valentina Picariello and Renata Viola; organisation: Federica Bruscaglioni; with the support and collaboration of Fuori Luogo La Spezia/Gli Scarti; in collaboration Project For People, Stratagemmi Prospettive Teatrali, Olinda onlus

The project is realized with the support of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo in the context of Art Waves Produzioni di cultura contemporanea and with the support of Fondazione Cariplo and the Municipality of Milan and presented within STOP project presented for Milano è Viva

 

Alessandro Renda is an actor, director and filmmaker. Since 1998 he has been a member of Teatro delle Albe in Ravenna. He has taken part in numerous shows of the company, from I Polacchi (1998) to L’isola di Alcina (2000), from Salmagundi (2004) to Stranieri (2008) from Inferno (2017) and Purgatorio (2019) among others. He has been staging the monologue written by Marco Martinelli Rumore di acque (2010) for over a decade, with several tours in Europe and the United States. Since 2001, he has been a ‘guide’ in the workshops of the non-school, an anti-academic theatrical-pedagogical practice of the Albe, with various experiences in Italy and abroad. Since 2003 he has been involved in video, making projections for the stage or video ‘translations’ of many of the company’s shows or documentaries around theatrical experiences.

Jens Hillje (Germany, 1968) has worked in the German independent theatre scene since 1990 as actor, author and director. In 1996 he founded the space ‘Barracke’ at the Deutsches Theater together with Thomas Ostermeier. From 1999 until 2009 he was chief dramaturg and member of the artistic direction of the Schaubühne in Berlin with Thomas Ostermeier and choreographer Sasha Waltz. As dramaturg, he works with the leading figures of European theatre. He created the F.I.N.D Festival in 2000 at the Schaubühne, one of the most renowned festivals in Germany. Since the 2013/14 season, Jens Hillje has been co-artistic director and Chief-dramaturg of the Gorki, together with Shermin Langhoff. Since 2021 he has been a free dramaturg. In summer 2019, he was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale.

NON SIAMO NIENTE, SAREMO TUTTO is part of the schedule of