Francesca Grilli: RECORD

musical performance
(Italy, Slovenia)

The Italian artist Francesca Grilli featured in the 2020 edition of the Mladi Levi Festival with her performance Sparks, where children would read destiny as inscribed in the palms of audience members. This time Grilli, in co-production with Bunker, returns to premiere her performance Record. The performance zooms in on young adults who find themselves at pivotal moments in their lives, in precarious transitions between structures, faced with their own share of responsibility in building a future, a society and their own lives – walking a line where a fall is just a step away. As they attempt to rise up to societal challenges, some find the prospect of making the wrong step simply too daunting. The performance draws inspiration from the hikikomori phenomenon as observed in individuals who turn to extreme isolation in confinement of their own homes in order to escape the daunting prospect of life challenges and failure. The performance doesn’t speak on behalf of hikikomoris of this world – instead it provides space for a group of local youngsters to find their own voices in a sung composition that carries the words of a hikikomori that Grilli developed online correspondence with.

30 minutes
Performance is in English, libretto in Slovene is available.

Creation: Francesca Grilli
Words: Azzurra D’Agostino, Piffi
Choir director and vocal trainer: Jean-Baptiste Veyret-Logerias
Slovene performers: Eva Česnik, Marina Dolibets, Mojca Hrast, Tina Hrastar, Jure Juvan Vujević, Manca Kosi, Alja Krhin, Ronja Praprotnik, Zoja Žižek
Movement: Benno Steinegger
Stuntwoman trainer: Lisa Patoor
Sound designer: Christophe Albertijn
Video: Gianluca Mattei
Communication: Elena Regazzoni
Rigger: Esteban Etienne Vin
Production: Hiros
Coproduction: Bunker, Ljubljana, VIERNULVIER, workspacebrussels, Indisciplinarte Terni, Snaporazverein, Høstscena
Local producer: Mojca Jug
Partners: KAAP, Kaaitheater, BASE Milano, Høstscena
With the support of: Corpoceleste, WpZimmer, Ministrstvo za kulturo RS, Mestna občina Ljubljana
Special thanks to: Arturo Zanaica, Mira De Schepper, Loïs Heirman, Manon Joannoteguy, Néphéle De Bie, Marie Maloux, Joanne de Broux, Arnold Tamchom, Morgane Wadbled, Alma Rosado

Photo by: Liliana Simões