...I do so in the sincerest hope that, amid the suffering and agony this war has cast upon the world, there is still room for the conviction that humanity’s constructive forces remain active nonetheless; that their action will work towards fostering a better understanding among people and, ultimately, among nations. Pyotr Kropotkin

Andavamo tutti (We Were All Going) is a work for five performers, born from an encounter with Giancarlo Majorino’s poem Andavamo tutti come fosse un’emigrazione (We Were All Going as Though It Were a Migration). It is a visionary and immensely powerful text, capable of condensing the present, the near future and that “continuous near future” which never seems to find resolution.

The poem portrays a humanity “with/without an axis”, having lost its centre: ideologies, religions, and its relationship with the nature that contains it. A chaotic, surreal migration runs through Majorino’s verses: humans and animals advance together, alarmed and disoriented, merging until distinctions of species, role and memory dissolve. “It was necessary to pass through”: going becomes necessity, urgency.

On stage, a humanity takes shape—perhaps merely pausing after a frantic, disorderly advance—driven towards an undefined yet unavoidable direction. A vast collective march in which animals, people and things intermingle without conflict, crossing a devastated landscape no longer able to receive or sustain them. The proximity of fierce and vulnerable bodies, the confused struggle of paws and legs, the smell of burning and the loss of orientation shatter the rules of survival and of territories as we know them.

From these images emerges a strongly dynamic, urgent choreographic language, marked by disorientation, by being swept away and by sudden stillness, as if gestures could overlap and be exchanged. The action is governed by an inescapable sense of “going”: a migration with no clear direction, yet with an urgent destination.

Bodies cross the space, overturning planes and perspectives, sweeping over the gaze of the observer in an attempt to evoke a multitude in full motion. Nature, though wounded, seems to suggest a call to togetherness in an emergency: a saving imperative that drives towards a possible reassembling.

Andavamo tutti takes shape as a manifesto of life: when necessary, we flee together; we stand united—or at least are compelled to intermingle. The well and water become symbols of a search for salvation, of a stubborn attempt at finding a way through. Resilience and continuity run through the work as vital forces.

The creation explores the relationship of belonging among human beings, animals and nature, bringing to light a profound equality: like among like, particles assembling and disassembling, generated by the same urgency. An urgency close to the skin, questioning a humanity called upon to save itself, awaken and reassemble.

DIRECTOR’S / DRAMATURGICAL NOTES

The performance asks us not to fall into the trap of its title or its immediate reference to migration. Its concern is not the representation of a phenomenon, but what happens when humankind reaches such a state of emergency that it is compelled to intermingle, into an unexpected and profound form of belonging—even in separation.

The stage is inhabited by overturned planes and perspectives, by the dismantling of hierarchies, and by an insistent engagement with movement “towards”: momentum, breathlessness, movement without memory.

The scenography is built through objects and signs evoking an inescapable march: traces of the animal world and remnants of consumption, objects no longer useful or usable. No dominant structure, but fragmented presences: tails, heads, paws.

A central element of the project is the lighting design, conceived as a sensitive landscape. Naturalistic, almost colourless light, with tones recalling dawn and dusk, accompanies sharp environmental shifts, creating a place/non-place in constant transformation.

Andavamo tutti emerges from the desire to translate into choreographic form the visionary force of Majorino’s poetry, recognising in it an urgent reflection on contemporary humanity: disoriented, propelled within an unstoppable collective motion, yet still capable—in an emergency—of rediscovering an unexpected sense of commonality. The work presents itself as both a political and poetic act: a shared flight, compelled yet vital.

KEYWORDS

paws/legs, well, belonging, interminglingdisarming and wonderfulsuspended timeno place, no direction

SUGGESTED READING

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution by Pyotr Kropotkin, Elèuthera EditionsTorme di tutto by Giancarlo Majorino, MondadoriCollected Poems by Wisława Szymborska, AdelphiAtlante delle migrazioni by Giovanna Ceccatelli, Stefania Tusini and Stefania Tirini, ClichyGeografia delle migrazioni by Maria Luisa Gentileschi, Carocci Editore