the show
On the paths of Europe
What if Alexander the Great had actually been a foreshadowing of Europe? In other words, what if he had anticipated the contradiction between the desire for conquest and the curiosity for otherness, which are at the basis of the historical restlessness of the so-called European civilization, a civilization which has always been divided between the angst of conquest, which destroys, and the apprehension of knowledge, which preserves?
Mattia Cason and Alessandro Conte have been doing research for many years starting from this suggestion. The first result of this research was a performance called “Etiopjke/Le Etiopiche” (winner of the 2021 Scenario Award). This performance was focused on the arrival of Alexander the Great in Asia and his clash with Memnon of Rhodes, a Greek mercenary commander at the Persians’ service. It was imagined as the precursor of a new, but at the same time very ancient idea: that of an Afro-Asiatic Europe. An idea that Alexander would make his own only at the end of his adventures.
“On the Paths to Europe” is born from the essential themes of “Etiopjke/Le Etiopiche”, in particular it connects the rediscovery of the European civilization’s Afro-Asian roots with contemporary migrations, suggested as a precious opportunity for us Europeans to truly understand who we are.
The dramaturgical plot of this new performance is centered on Mattia and Alessandro’s encounter with Muhammad'Abd al-Mun'im, a publisher, writer and poet from Aleppo who was forced to abandon Syria because of his opinions against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Muhammad's latest novel, “Ala Durūbi Awrūba” / “On the Paths to Europe", narrates the story of how he escaped from Syria and his journey to Ljubljana, beyond Turkey, the Aegean Sea and the Balkans. This book makes up the initial inspiration for the performance, along with an ancient 15th century text called Sirat al-Iskandar wa mā fihā min al-'Ajā'ib wa 'l-Gharā'ib / “The story of Alexander and the wonderful things it contains”, which narrates the adventures (in part historical, but mostly fantastic) of Alexander in Africa and Asia. Starting from these writings, an interlacing of stories, symbols and echoes take place that the audience will follow in different languages - from Friulian to Amharic, from ancient Greek to Arabic, from Persian to the language of dance.
The astonished gaze of these three anarchists recalls the adventures of Alexander and the history of Europe, trying to re-collect how originally it too was different, foreign, so wonderfully foreign as to remind us of those who still cross the sea today in an attempt to reach Europe.
But it's not just the people on the stage who do this: along with them, standing by their side, the whole audience will find themselves hoping, sometimes even believing, that curiosity and the wonder that it produces can really be a first step to take the individual beyond identity, society beyond the nation and Europe beyond itself.
The body dances
A performance on the move, which experiments with places on the margin and recognizes the essence of Europe in them. A multilingual, multimedia performance that embraces and mixes temporal planes, involving the audience and local communities in a collective reflection - a reflection which is danced, sung, imagined - around the idea of Europe.
The performance will be preceded by the talk "The walking body" with Angelo Floramo, Špela Ledinek Lozej and Emil Krištof. Chairperson: Anton Špacapan Vončina.
The former hotel of the former railway station of the former Ljubljana-Tarvisio railway line dividing the watershed between Drava and Sava, between the Slavic-speaking agro-pastoral community of Rateče and the German-speaking mining community of Weißenfels, with a redundant Italy and a magnificent kozolec around the corner.
The performance will be preceded by the talk "Between two rivers" with Nadja Velušček, Anja Medved and Zdravko Likar. Chairperson: Anton Špacapan Vončina.
The Kobarid of the First World War, defeat or miracle depending on your perspective, but also of the Second World War, with the first partisan republic that saw Italians and Slovenians unite together. First of all though, the intersection of two valleys, that of the Soča and that of the Nadiža, which has always been a place of transit between Aquileia and Carinthia, Venice and the Empire, the Mediterranean and the continent.
The performance will be preceded by the talk "Once upon a time in Gorizia" with Hans Kitzmüller, Renato Podbersič and Anja Medved. Chairperson: Anton Špacapan Vončina.
Where up until the day before yesterday it was only the cart road to Vienna that went up a valley of roses, today it’s a mishmash of roundabouts, overpasses, petrol pumps and Casino Royal. The only steady point in the tumult of jackpots, pretentious car engines and breathtaking necklines on the billboards with a three rotating faces' prismatic support, is the ancient Jewish cemetery, and inside the cemetery a boy denouncing rhetoric.
The performance will be preceded by the talk "Afroasiatic Aquileia" with Andrea Bellavite, Gian Paolo Gri and Giorgio Banchig. Chairperson: Anton Špacapan Vončina.
The last remnants of pine forest on the sand dunes overlooking the Grado lagoon, there where in ancient times similar woods covered the entire coast at least up to the Timavo. On a dune the small church of San Marco, where legend has it that the evangelist from Alexandria arrived to begin his catechetical work. A little further in, going up the course of a river, a basilica with a mosaic floor beyond belief.
The performance will be preceded by the talk "The Balkan route" with Egidio Ivetić and Roberta Altin. Chairperson: Anton Špacapan Vončina.
The central railway station inaugurated in the presence of Franz Joseph. Opposite is the monument to his wife Sissi, stabbed to death by an anarchist. While some volunteers give the migrants coming from the Balkan Route a hot meal, a barrier is there to prevent anyone from mixing with the blue blood of the empress.