Tramedautore - Looking for Paul
Concluded
©Steven A. Gunther
Does true art provoke and disturb? For the Dutch group Wunderbaum, the answer is yes, because art must challenge audiences and artists, and put them to the test. Inspired by the protests provoked by a statue created by a contemporary artist, the play reflects on art and on the opportunity for the same to receive public funding, paid for by the citizens, in exchange for “questionable” results.
Teatro Grassi
With the new artistic direction of Benedetto Sicca, Tramedautore is presented as the International Festival of Dramaturgies. The plural here is important: playwriting, evermore-so nowadays, has proven to be able to penetrate lands and languages both verbal and non-verbal, capable of elaborating thoughts on contemporaneity. Works will be staged from Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands and Sweden, focusing on the fragility of values in that part of Europe theoretically leading this continent which runs “at two speeds”. There will also be street performances and concerts in the Chiostro following the shows.
The Paul of the title is the contemporary American artist Paul McCarthy, creator of the sculpture of Santa Claus, re-named “Buttplug Gnome”. The sculpture, which was commissioned by the Municipality of Rotterdam, was uncovered in 2001, immediately sparking controversy for its presumed obscenity. Among the “angrier” protesters was Inez van Dam, a bookshop owner, who lives and works right in front of the sculpture.
In the play, Inez van Dam and Wunderbaum go to Los Angeles to have the opportunity to speak to the artist.
The artists won the Total Theatre Award 2014 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with this work.
At Chiostro Nina Vinchi
6 p.m. - meeting about Paul McCarthy vy Michele Robecchi
7 p.m. - "Una parola al giorno" performance
Duration: one hour and 45 minutes
With the new artistic direction of Benedetto Sicca, Tramedautore is presented as the International Festival of Dramaturgies. The plural here is important: playwriting, evermore-so nowadays, has proven to be able to penetrate lands and languages both verbal and non-verbal, capable of elaborating thoughts on contemporaneity. Works will be staged from Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands and Sweden, focusing on the fragility of values in that part of Europe theoretically leading this continent which runs “at two speeds”. There will also be street performances and concerts in the Chiostro following the shows.
The Paul of the title is the contemporary American artist Paul McCarthy, creator of the sculpture of Santa Claus, re-named “Buttplug Gnome”. The sculpture, which was commissioned by the Municipality of Rotterdam, was uncovered in 2001, immediately sparking controversy for its presumed obscenity. Among the “angrier” protesters was Inez van Dam, a bookshop owner, who lives and works right in front of the sculpture.
In the play, Inez van Dam and Wunderbaum go to Los Angeles to have the opportunity to speak to the artist.
The artists won the Total Theatre Award 2014 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with this work.
At Chiostro Nina Vinchi
6 p.m. - meeting about Paul McCarthy vy Michele Robecchi
7 p.m. - "Una parola al giorno" performance
Duration: one hour and 45 minutes
Credits
Piccolo Teatro Grassi
Wednesday 19 September 2017, 7.30 pm
Looking for Paul | The Netherlands
by and with Walter Bart, Daniel Frankl, Matijs Jansen, Maartje Remmers, Marleen Scholten
design Maarten van Otterdijk
A Wunderbaum production
a Red Cat, Big in Belgium, Richard Jordan Productions, Drum Theatre Plymouth co-production
in collaboration with Summerhall
In English with surtitles in Italian
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