THE PACT OF FORGETFULNESS

Performance in the Spanish language with subtitles in Italian | duration 55 min

On Friday, Nov. 10, at the end of the performance, there will be a meeting open for the audience with Sergi Casero and Angelo Miotto (journalist and co-director of Q Code Magazine) and Maddalena Giovannelli of Stratagemmi Prospettive Teatrali

At ZONA K, via Spalato 11

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“Why to I barely know my grandma’s past?”

El Pacto del Olvido is a theatrical monologue which looks into the historic silence on the civil war and Francisco Franco’s reign in Spain, on his intergenerational transmission and the effects he has had on those who were born after the dictatorship.

The performance combines personal experiences, historical stories and documents collected during the research Casero conducted around the “Il Patto dell’oblio” affair, a Spanish amnesty law which passed soon after the the dictators Francisco Franco’s death in 1975 which impedes the investigation on the crimes committed during the 40 years of rule. In the monologue Casero tries to rebuild an incomplete national historiography through the recounts of the grandma who witnessed the civil war. It deals however with a fragmented narration, fruit of an auto-censorship at this point internalised at transgenerational level. This performative work is born from the reflection which, to confront Spain’s recent political violence, it is necessary to reveal the habits of domestic oppression on which oblivion has been woven into generation after generation, idem for the aftermath which this historic omission has produced in the successive descendents of families such as Casero’s.

Autofiction and historical analysis go hand in hand in this memory exercise which, through the language of light, examines the surroundings of the collective silence, inviting the spectator to explore the empty gaps of memory in which decades of furtively repressed decades of pain are insinuated. With the intention of intimately toning down the trauma provoked by the official speech which talks about winners and wins as collectives with no personal background, Casera investigates the varying generational behaviours respecting the institutionalised amnesia, incarnated in their relatives.

Until what point can silence push itself before becoming oblivion?

Ideation and direction Sergi Casero Nieto author Testo di Sergi Casero Nieto with citations and fragments of Jorge Luís Borges, Federico García Lorca, text of memory of Clara Valverde interpreted by Sergi Casero Nieto assistant to the dramaturgy Mónica Molins Duran assistance Elsa Casanova Sempé English translation Vincent Sanchís Puerto Italian translation Sofia Breschiane scenography, stage and stage objects Sergi Casero light design Sergi Casero with the supervision and help of Mifuel Angel Ruz Velasco costumes Sara Clemente graphic design Sergi Casero distribution Domenico Garogalo production Centrale Fies / Live Works residence Centro de Residencias Matadero Madrid

Sergi Casero Nieto (Barcelona, 1991) His work occurs at the intersection between design, action and research. In his work he explores the use of performance as an instrument to represent the results of research, paying particular attention to the projection of scenographic techniques. The historical information becomes physically present in his work, delving deeper into counter-narrations such as the oral testimonies or the collective memory, putting into discussion the hegemonic narrations through the presentation of multiple past perspectives. His work has been presented, amongst the other European institutions, at the Veem House for Performance (Amsterdam), at the Het Nieuwe Instituut (Rotterdam), at the Van Abbe Museum (Eindhoven), at the Arts Santa Mònica (Barcellona) and at the Centrale Fies (Dro, Italia).

Photos by Roberta Segata