As part of Ogni volta unica la fine del mondo, the theatrical collective Sotteraneo lends their contribution to the programme Sostenere lo sguardo, which proposes a collective exercise in perception. As spectators and artists, we ask ourselves how we can aid our planet by looking at it through different eyes; how to focus attention on events, objects and living creatures in order to assess our relationship with the world from foreign and wild points of view.

Here, three chapters of Talk show, a thought-provoking and entertaining format, are presented, involving - in order - Telmo Pievani, Maura Gancitano and Wu Ming 1. Sotterraneo have involved an evolutionist, a philosopher and an author, leading them to walk the line between their professional fields and the theatre, creating an opportunity to examine the sense of their various areas of expertise in this period of digital revolution, in the midst of a global pandemic and an unprecedented climate crisis.

Talk show is a response to our desire to encounter diverse figures that carry out research in distinctly different areas. We are often enamoured by the work of those outside of the theatre, rendering it a tool to apply during rehearsals, citing, copying and betraying them. The talk-show format allows us to meet those who have stirred our passions face-to-face, for example kidnapping them [an evolutionist, a philosopher and an author] and leading them to walk the line between their professional fields and the theatre and examine possible points of compatibility, common enemies and the meaning of their and our work in this period of digital revolution, in the midst of a global pandemic and an unprecedented climate crisis (are we forgetting anything?). A chat set around a table, structured yet self-defacing, both serious and fun, an hour of cultural exercise shared with the audience. (Sotterraneo)

Sotterraneo is an experimental theatrical collective that was founded in Florence in 2005. The group’s productions, which are characterised by an avant-pop approach that is a balance between collective concepts and anti-conventional ideas, form part of many of the most important national and international festivals and theatres, over the years receiving numerous forms of recognition including the Lo Straniero Award, the Hystrio Award, the BeFestival First Prize, the Silver Laurel Wreath Award/Sarajevo MESS Festival and two UBU Awards including one for “show of the year 2018” with “Overload”. Sotteraneo is part of the Fies Factory project and the European network Shift Key and is a resident collective at the Theatrical Association of Pistoia.

Wu Ming 1 was born in 1970 in the ancient Po Delta, and remains closely tied to those lands, despite having lived in Bologna for a long time. He graduated in contemporary history with a piece on Marxism and the environment in the works of Amadeo Bordiga. In the second half of the 1990s he was part of the Luther Blisset Project. He is a member of the Wu Ming collective, with which he has written various novels, including Q (again wunder the collective pseudonym “Luther Blisset”) and L’Armata dei Sonnambuli. Together with Roberto Santachiara, he wrote Point Lenana (Einaudi, 2013). As a “soloist” and writer of novels and “unidentified narrative objects”, including Un viaggio che non promettiamo breve (Einaudi 2016), La macchina del vento (Einaudi 2019) and La Q di Qomplotto (Alegre 2021). He collaborates in the online edition of Internazionale, Together with his colleagues from the collective, the manages the blog Giap, www.wumingfoundation.com.