NOSTALGIA FOR THE FUTURE

If we constantly look back at the past, we are unable to imagine the future that eventually turns into an opportunity and a threat. Consolation, justification and celebration undermine the relationship between what we are and what we used to be, as well as our relationship with time. The past should help us envision the future and shape our destiny instead of filling a gap and making the present more acceptable.
In this era, man seems to be the main agent of every event except perhaps of his own future. We are part of a system that evolves only hiding the marks of its implosion and planning crisis necessary to its preservation. In our time, ideologies turn into traditions while utopia and desire represent rebellious ideas. The West muddies the waters, as Europe builds fortresses on swamplands. In Italy it seems impossible to imagine something unimaginable.
And here we are, here and now, feeling an unusual NOSTALGIA FOR THE FUTURE. Apparently an oxymoron composed of two terms referring to two different systems (reality and the virtual world, life and the stories about life). But isn’t representation an instrument for creating new possibilities, an alternative hypothesis? Couldn’t we try to expand our vision and take care of the landscape? A landscape that exists here and now and only asks the future to accept our next step. The next step we will certainly make. An hypothesis.
Ten years ago we tried to imagine what we wanted to be like today, in the future. Today we imagine what we want to be like in the present. We try to push up the bidding, displaying tools and forms that might encourage us to envision the future.

Our thoughts go to Chris Burden who often played with the concepts of opportunity and threat, investigating the border between art and life from “Shoot” up to “Metropolis II”, a work describing the vortex that awaits us.

Fabrizio Arcuri

SHORT THEATRE 10

There are many ways to look at things, observing from different spots in different positions. The beholder plays an active role as he observes. On the other hand, the actor is forced to observe as he acts. Every year Short Theatre showcases performances composed of the two activities.
Every year a community of artists, spectators and operators meet in a special time and space, Short Theatre. A community testing the right distance between the observer and the work of art. Short Theatre is a lens through which we can closely look at Italian and international live performances, and also an opportunity to talk about theatre today in all its forms, meanings and future possibilities.
This year’s theme is the NOSTALGIA FOR THE FUTURE.
The entire community of the festival will join shows, meetings and conversations, training and vision programmes, DJ sets, concerts, installations, creating an open dialogue. A dialogue concerning so many different elements, interwoven with precious references, that is impossible to describe them all.
As a result we see emerging new themes and intersections that cannot be overlooked for their relevance and virality: political discourse as an act of self-government and public intervention; stories about cultural, artistic and gender identity; art dealing with social issues; the new tradition of contemporary dramaturgy and European dance’s new scene; cultural strategies that can inspire political strategies; the virtuous ambiguity of both the performer and the spectator’s position.

Once again Short Theatre welcomes a multitude of artists and projects, many of them for the first time in Italy. The festival therefore confirms its fondness for betting on art; every year Short Theatre tries to catch new opportunities and keep old promises.
The connection with the European art scene is more solid than ever, some partnerships have grown stronger and new ones have been established with art institutions and organizations and cultural institutes from different countries. Short Theatre is also part of several European networks that support the circulation of young international artists and their works. A strategic as well as an ideological positioning, with the wish to turn the ideas of mobility, risk and building-together into reality; looking at borders as marks to be taken care of and reconsider instead of painful divisions.
In the while, we dream of a Europe that does not exist yet.

Short Theatre celebrates its tenth anniversary with an even more varied programme focusing on imagination and new ways of performing that might involve all citizens and not only the audience. 2015 edition is the first of a three-year programme on how to include the entire city community in live performances, an idea conceived with some artists in residence for the entire duration of the Festival, with the aim to explore the present and imagine the future.