It's not that what past casts its light on what is present, or what is present its light on the past, rather, image is that wherein what has been comes together in a flash with the now to form a constellation.
— Walter Benjamin
In his latest work, philosopher Walter Benjamin describes an angel who flies with his gaze turned to the past and his back to the future: buildings and ideologies rubbles accumulate before his eyes [musical instruments at the bottom of the ocean, malfunctioning radars, beached whales] and the angel would like to stop and mend those rubbles, but a storm swells his wings and drags him relentlessly forward [dead babies, statues in Antarctica, fluorescent rabbits]: we call this storm progress. Although the angel observes the succession
of events [hands on piano keys, atomic mushrooms, postcards in the jungle] and tries to resist the storm, he cannot stop and intervene, he cannot glue the pieces together again and rebuild a shared reality, he cannot do absolutely nothing to help us - maybe only because angels don’ t exist [cyanide cocktails, irrational numbers, tales around the fire]. What other conscious being could try to recompose something broken, take stories apart and - flying or not - finally turn around to project their gaze forward?
Sotterraneo are a theatre collective set up in Florence in 2005. Their pieces are easily recognizable for their avant-pop approach, combining collective imagination with unconventional thinking. Over the years, they have created several shows which were showcased in major national and international theatres – in Spain, Germany, France, Belgium, UK, Portugal, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia, Chile and China. The shows obtained a number of awards including Premio Lo Straniero, Premio Hystrio, BeFestival First Prize, Silver Laurel Wreath Award/Sarajevo MESS Festival, as well as three UBU awards. Sotterraneo are part of the Fies Factory, are Associate Artist at Piccolo Teatro di Milano and is resident at Associazione Teatrale Pistoiese Production Centre.
