fbpx Biennale Teatro 2017 | Introduction by Antonio Latella
La Biennale di Venezia

Your are here

Introduction by

Antonio Latella

Director of Theatre Department

Statement

Since I was selected to direct the Biennale Teatro, my collaborators and I have been reading, searching and listening to everything that the Biennale has been and is today; to lead it for four years means being led by it, understanding it and perceiving how to learn to give and receive. Memory is written, reported, because it talks about us and makes us what we are and advises us on what we could be. What I believe I have understood, in this short period of time, is that the Biennale Teatro represents something different, because its history makes it different. The Biennale Teatro cannot and must not be a sort of clone of the many Festivals held today in Europe and around the world, it cannot be a container, a showcase for productions; its historic and cultural value make it a place where once a year the spectators, operators and professionals in the field meet for a few days to share an experience of theatre culture, to observe the many languages of the stage and how they are evolving. A place where we can see an array of works by the masters, the directors, or fragments of works that allow us at the same time to observe at close range the creative process of a beloved master or a new director who is developing new alphabets, new grammars that can evolve into a language. How a creative process comes into being has always been concealed by an unforgiving veil of silence, neither a director, nor an author can explain his moment of inspiration after the fact. Often, when the creation is complete, the artist can remember nothing about how it originated, or matured or developed. Never, or hardly ever, is he able to explain how the words combined to give birth to a verse, how the sequence of images became an act of theatre; the only thing that can help us understand is the possibility of trying to call attention to or observe an artistic process, which can lead us into that zone of mystery that draws us nearer to the creation of new languages. Watching a play is not enough, we cannot simply showcase the productions, we must try to showcase the directors and their works. For this reason, within the boundaries of our possibilities, for each guest director we are trying to create small "personal exhibitions", that can bring us closer to the different creative worlds of each artist. 

This year, the line-up of performances, and hence the creation of mini-personal exhibitions, have shown that it is easier, even when time is short and especially with women directors, to perceive the birth, or better yet the evolution of languages. This has obviously stimulated us, for our first Biennale, and as we open our doors onto the next four years, to give the entry pass to women directors. Many of them with a deep critical sense, capable of very naturally developing the union of languages that serve as a bridge between the past century and this one. We have found this concentration on research into language, especially in women directors, to be a requirement, a non-gratuitous necessity that never arises from an aspiration to fame or a career, but a sincere creative urgency".

To them we dedicated the beginning of this four-year cycle,

Ladies first!

Biennale Teatro
Biennale Teatro