The return of New Year’s Eve to Piazza Maggiore with the words of Alessandro Bergonzoni. The protagonist tonight at 11pm of the first edition of the artist’s speech commissioned by the Municipality, «Udendo (speech for solo suspended voice)», available at the same time also on www.comune.bologna.it/notizie/capodanno-2023. First, at 10pm, the female DJ set with Laura Gramuglia. Then the traditional pyre of the Vecchione, that of the past year not burned, «Old as a tower», designed by the Parasite 2.0 collective. Followed until 1.30 by the music of PopPen djs.
Bergonzoni, a speech only to be listened to?
«After the performance I did five years ago during Art City’s white night, with an anti-aircraft siren that invited us to remember certain sounds, the idea was a vocal choice that would reach the streets of the city. Beyond the arcades, for passers-by who will have to stop to hear something they don’t see, to hear the voice».
“The question will be ‘Do you hear? Can you hear us?”, and not just eyes, eyes, eyes. The hope is the imagination, not the images in which we are increasingly immersed”.
Words that won’t stop in Piazza Maggiore.
«They will also arrive in spaces and realities such as the Casa dei Risvegli, the prison, the hospital, two RSA. Elena Di Gioia, culture delegate whom I want to thank, had also thought of a physical presence. Riccardo Rodolfi and I have chosen only the voice so that it reaches all the squares, even those considered minor. They are all connected.”
Will it be a greeting message?
«No, it is a more universal idea than the presidential speech, which in fact I am a resident of the Republic, not a president. Not a speech to the nation but to notions, made up of people, life, art, beauty, music, fears. I will be disarmingly clear, disarmingly simple, I like the word disarming».
«We can no longer call ourselves Italians, the whole earth is our homeland. Our young people protest for Regeni or for Zaki, as well as for the Iranians. There is a vibration that unites us to other people, a transmission, but different from the TV ones. It’s what keeps you together.”
It’s all connected, as she likes to repeat.
“What is untied today? I’m asking politics. The Ministry of Education is linked to health or culture, violence against Italian women is linked to other women who sacrifice themselves for the right to breathe. It’s a pity that the way things have taken is not that of birds and poets».
«Interiority, but we need to take care of ourselves and take care of others. With volunteering, spirituality, not sick religion as Iran dramatically teaches us. Going down the street, it’s a job to be done on earth. It is not only the environmental climate that is polluted, also that between men».
What do you feel most lacking today?
“We lack visions. With hearing, however, I see more, otherwise I only see what is in front of me and that’s it. It’s kind of the effect that music has too».
The community gathers again in Piazza Maggiore.
«There is a great desire to go out, share, not be divided between those who think differently, between men and women. We are all connected, the square and the other places where my words will arrive, which are a piece of a wider symphony. The Municipality has understood this desire, containing expenses, because the economic issue today is decisive for those who do not arrive at the end of the month. You can’t be excessive.”
Yet she has always liked the excess.
«In art, in writing, in the theatre. But now we can’t forget this situation, even if there’s a lot of volunteering in Bologna, it’s full of people who do a lot to help».
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© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
December 31, 2022 (change December 31, 2022 | 09:27)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
Bergonzoni’s New Year’s Eve: «I will disarm the squares with my voice alone»