The two ‘alchemist’ directors of the Theatre Biennale, Ricci/Forte, have unveiled the names of the Lions of the 2024 edition, which will take place in Venice from June 15 to 30.
The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement goes to Back to Back Theatre, a leading company in the theatrical renewal in Australia and among the most renowned in the world for making disability a tool of artistic investigation. For the first time in Venice, they present the creation Food Court, accompanied live by the music of The Necks, the legendary Australian band.
The Anglo-German group Gob Squad, champions of new ways of combining media and performance that place the spectator at the center, instead receives the Silver Lion. The artistic collective, born in Nottingham in 1994 and awarded at documenta X in Kassel just three years later, will open the 52nd Festival with Creation (Pictures of Dorian), an original reflection that starts from Wilde’s work to reflect on youth and the passage of time. Throughout the festival, they will also be present at Forte Marghera with Elephants in Rooms, one of their most intriguing video installations, emblematic of Gob Squad’s work with images.
Founded in 1987 by artists Simon Laherty, Sarah Mainwaring, and Scott Price, who identify as differently abled, joined in 1999 by Bruce Gladwin as artistic director, Back to Back Theatre has captured audiences worldwide over the span of thirty years and with over thirty productions. Their works tackle social, political, and philosophical themes, challenging the construction of our imaginations and our perception of normalcy. A journey studded with awards, from the International Ibsen Award in 2022 to the Herald Angel Critics’ Award at the International Edinburgh Festival in 2014 and the Bessie Award in New York in 2008, in addition to numerous Green Room Awards collected domestically.
“Back to Back Theatre, under the guidance of Bruce Gladwin – write Stefano Ricci and Gianni Forte – expose the vulnerability of organisms to amplify the meaning of a communication that is restriction, obstacle… The differently able bodies on stage of Back to Back, in the dystopian landscapes of a roaring reality, beyond the artistic representation are truly present and acquire other meaning. A visionary parable of communication that with poetic ferocity disintegrates every prejudice, every stigma of compassion: if the body has expressive limitations, on stage these demarcations themselves become a different grammar. Our fears, our puritan tolerance, our moral blindness are blown away by Back to Back Theatre’s cruel tales of dangerous worlds, where diversity carries with it the amplification of knowledge, of inclusion, to heal the deformities of our awareness as apparently abled people… Because no matter what limitation a person may feel, it is up to us as the human consortium to remove it; this is what culture does, this is theatre to be deserved, this and much more is Back to Back Theatre”.
“Anything can happen and usually everything does. Every show is absolutely unique. Danced, played, sung, their works, which leave you feeling like you have a hangover, are an unrepeatable opportunity to share passions and desires”, state the directors Stefano Ricci and Gianni Forte about the shows of Gob Squad.
The directors continue in their motivation for the Silver Lion: “Their personal explorations, defined as Live Art, or better Life Art, are permeated by a sharp vision of society, in relation to contemporary urban existence, where authenticity and illusion, utopia and banality, immediacy and theatrical machines, real life and media, are constantly set on a collision course. Thus, improvising, relying both in theatres and in site-specific environments on the four Rs, the four master keys (Risk, Rules, Rhythm, Reality) to develop unexpected strategies, to surprise themselves, challenge themselves and learn to react to random events within a dramaturgy, playing with the perception of what is familiar and transforming daily life into an epic, the Gob Squad offer audiences – by inviting them to move beyond the traditional role of passive spectator – the possibility of shining as direct witnesses and principal actors in this ritual”.
