Abbecedario per il mondo nuovo – Justine
Justine by Tatjana Motta, with Monica Buzoianu
Podcast on Spreaker from Friday 7th May 2021
We are always working, often at any time and wherever we find ourselves. We are working when we publish a photograph, we answer emails in the middle of the night, and we are always available. There is no limit to what can be brought into play to ensure we are appreciated, recognised and employed. Within this scheme, Justine is an example of virtue: she is versatile, flexible, adaptable and fluid. Those who, like Justine, sell their virginity through an online auction manage to overturn the idea itself, selling and freeing themselves of something that is historically an instrument of social pressure and the pretext for a whole range of forms of violence, but which, at the same time, does not actually exist. Virginity does not exist in terms of a physical trait; it is intangible and is priceless because it cannot be owned. In fact, Justine is not selling herself, she is selling desire. In reality, there is no-one and nothing that surrounds us that does not sell desire. Our world seems to be moulded around her, and it is perhaps for this reason that Justine seems to be the only one capable of posing a challenge. On listening to Justine - and those who like her present themselves through the online agency that offers this service - we can sense the dark power that those who can buy have over those who are forced to sell, but at the same time we cannot deny the power that the vendor has over their potential clients. Tatjana Motta
Synopsis
Justine is a young woman who is selling her virginity through an online auction. Via a video, she addresses her potential customer. She dreams of having everything, of finding freedom in a single night. She is no prey. Justine moves and creates a story that entraps those who listen and want to buy.
Biography
Tatjana Motta graduated in Visual Arts and Entertainment at IUAV in Venice, and in playwriting at the Paolo Grassi Civic School of Theatre. In October 2017 she wrote the micro-drama I palazzi esplodono, Edgar compra la dinamite for the Metropolis - Promised Lands project run by the Milano Foundation. The same year saw her a finalist at the 12th Tondelli Riccione Award with the work Nessuno ti darà del ladro. Between 2018 and 2020 she was part of the permanent playwriting workshop Playstorm at the Teatro Stabile of Turin. She won the 55th Riccione Award for Theatre in 2019 with the text Notte Bianca. She was one of the artists chosen for the second edition of the Betsud international exchange programme in collaboration with El Cultural San Martin (Buenos Aires), INAE (Montevideo), Fundación Teatro a Mil (Santiago) and the Technis Karolos Koun Theatre (Athens), during which she created the Lago Carallacu Project together with Bruno Acevedo Quevedo and Guillermo Katz. In 2021 she collaborated on the project Orizzonte Postumo organised by the Teatro Stabile, Veneto. She lives in Milan.
Abbecedario per il mondo nuovo
a Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d’Europa productionin collaborazione with the Hystrio – Playwriting Award and the Riccione “Pier Vittorio Tondelli” Award
directed by Lisa Ferlazzo Natoli and Alessandro Ferroni