[…] There is in this work an extreme attention to detail. Everything is extremely well thought out, from the scenic ambience to the sociological and anthropological references. Precisely, it is a work of condensation and not simplification.

Liminateatri.it (Italy)

Trickster-p

Eutopia

The stories of the Earth have changed in nature and scale: we do not write stories to tell about the creation or the course of the world, but to avert its end.

Book is a Book is a Book

Ts'ui Pen must have said once: I am withdrawing to write a book. And another time: I am withdrawing to construct a labyrinth. Every one imagined two works; to no one did it occurred that the book and the maze were one and the same thing.

Twilight

Choreography for the dying light

Sights

We met blind people. Some were born blind, others lost their sight over time. We asked them to tell us how they see

B

Room by room audio journey around the fairy tale Snow White

.h.g.

Installation in 9 rooms, one prologue and one epilogue

Book is a Book is a Book

Trickster-p — Projects — Book is a Book is a Book

A fascinating and mysterious object, the book is almost magical in its nature: an apparently simple set of sheets sewn together in the shape of a volume, it has the property of opening windows onto other worlds, transforming into a capsule that allows one to travel through time and space.
This observation, both linear and complex, was the starting point for the development of Book is a Book is a Book: after several productions investigating the use of the scenic space in its possible different variations, Trickster-p now considers whether the book-object can become itself a space of exploration, by placing it at the centre of this new project.
In the performance devised by Cristina Galbiati and Ilija Luginbühl, the spectator, equipped with earphones, moves through the pages along a path leading on an actual journey made of images, words, sounds, and is invited to live a deeply imaginative experience by means of an unprecedented and unexpected approach.
As a result, the book – or rather, THE previously unreleased book, created specifically for Book is a Book is a Book – is a place where one travels in the mind and with the mind. It is an object that creates connections between time, space, dream and memory, an experience that allows one to be projected elsewhere and to expand the perceptual sphere.
Exploring the book in sync with the audio and immersing oneself in the sound atmospheres it creates – while the surrounding physical space changes and becomes darker or lighter – become unique actions that connect us closely to those increasingly rare moments when space and time dilate and our mind gives itself to the pleasure of imagination.
In a historical moment that seems to favour major events and large numbers, Trickster-p thus reiterates some distinctive features of its poetics, firmly claiming the belief that the encounter with the artistic proposal must above all be immersive and personal.

Credits

Concept and realization

Cristina Galbiati & Ilija Luginbühl

Voice

Gabriella Sacco (Italian and English version), Dorit Ehlers (German version), Liliane Hodel (French version)

Dramaturg

Simona Gonella

Artistic collaboration

Yves Regenass

Original soundscape

Zeno Gabaglio

Editing and mixing

Lara Persia - Lemura Recording Studio

Graphic design

Studio CCRZ

Assistance and illustrations

Arianna Bianconi

IT implementation

Roberto Mucchiut

Trailer

Giulia Lenzi

Production

Trickster-p, LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura

Co-production

far° Nyon, Theater Chur, ROXY Birsfelden, TAK Theater Liechtenstein, BLICKWECHSEL - Festival am Puppentheater Magdeburg, FOG Triennale Milano Performing Arts

Supported by

Pro Helvetia – Fondazione svizzera per la cultura
DECS Repubblica e Cantone Ticino – Fondo Swisslos
Municipio di Novazzano
Fachausschuss Tanz & Theater BS/BL
Kulturförderung Kanton Graubünden / Swisslos
Percento culturale Migros
Fonds culturel de la Société Suisse des Auteurs (SSA)
Landis & Gyr Stiftung
Stiftung Dr. Valentin Malamoud
Schweizerische Stiftung für den Doron Preis
Boner Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur
Fondazione Winterhalter
Anny Casty-Sprecher Stiftung

Press review

Il Pickwick (Italy)

[…] A game of the world, among maps, images, sensations, sudden connections between unexpected things. One flips through the book, listens to the story that reaches the ear as if reaching from afar along with sounds that recall the images in a mirror through the senses, and embarks on a journey whose outcome is different for each one. In the end, one awakens as if from a daydream, enriched by a mapping of unexpected landscape, lost and found, the same yet different.

Rete Due (Switzerland)

[…] The spectators are invited to get lost in such a non-linear book, on one hand getting out of the book itself, widening their mental gaze and situating in the outside world, on the other hand sinking deeper and deeper inward, in their intimate voice. A kind of infinite book that reminds us of Borges’ Library of Babel.