Massimo Furlan / Claire De Ribaupierre (CH)

show  | duration 60 min | in italian

c/o Parco delle Cave
Cava Aurora – Associazione Unione Pescatori Aurora
(in case of rain, the show will be staged in ZONA K)


An ancestral bond with the wild world, based on knowledge, patience, and listening with all the senses. Men and animals. Hunters and prey, fishermen and fish, forest rangers and philosophers. What connects them? Forests, rivers, mountains, and lakes where some live, and others search for a world that has almost disappeared. What do their stories, their anecdotes, and their experiences tell us?

On stage, fishermen and hunters—examples of the paradoxes of our time—are intimate connoisseurs of animals in their habitats and bearers of questions about human intervention in natural ecosystems. Their actions and practices combine tradition with contemporary issues, necessary needs (population regulation, human sustenance, etc.), and Sunday pastimes.

“Con l’Animale” is the second chapter of the “Trilogy of Contaminations,” a project in which Massimo Furlan and Claire De Ribaupierre explore the relationships we have with nature and its inhabitants to understand how an environment is structured: who are the main players, how they interact, and how they constantly evolve together. It aims to understand what unites us, what we all have in common. How do we build balances or create imbalances, form alliances or break them, and how do we coexist?

Today, more and more, we are neglecting the ancestral knowledge based on the balance between what we take from nature and the time we give it to regenerate. To no longer know the environment is to neglect it; to exploit it excessively is to destroy it. Without understanding the intelligence of what surrounds us, we are destroying ourselves.

a project by Massimo Furlan and Claire De Ribaupierre direction Massimo Furlan dramaturgy Claire De Ribaupierre with Tommaso Banfi, Vanni Bruscaglioni, Fabio Fiochi, Paolo Nicolini, Pablo Vallin technical and video direction Jérôme Vernez lighting Etienne Gaches sound Aurélien Chouzenoux administration and production Noémie Doutreleau distribution Jérôme Pique production Numero23Prod. co-production Théâtre Vidy – Lausanne (CH), Les 2 scènes – Besançon local co-production ZONA K with the support of Ville de Lausanne, État de Vaud, Pro Helvetia – Fondation Suisse pour la Culture, Loterie Romande (en cours), programme européen de coopération transfrontalière Interreg France-Suisse dans le cadre du projet CDuLaB.

Foto di Pierre Nydegger

After training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, Swiss set designer and visual artist Massimo Furlan worked with various dance and theatre companies. In 2003, he founded his own company dedicated to the performing arts, Numéro23Prod, to interrogate the act of representation outside the confines of genres. His multiple performances, essentially articulated around humour and contrast, question popular manifestations, the notion of the team and the themes of image, duration, childhood, memory and play. In 1988 Furlan received an award from the Irène Reymond foundation in French-speaking Switzerland and in 2001 a Prix culturel vaudois jeunes créateurs beaux-arts. In 2014, he received the Swiss Cultural Theatre Prize. Her works have been presented in theatres and festivals throughout Europe.

Since 2023 Claire De Ribaupierre has been the dramaturge of Massimo Furlan’s creations. She holds a degree in Literature and conducts research in the fields of anthropology and contemporary images and literature.