‘HOPE’ HOTEL

Posted by Maite

The Carceri Nuove (New Prisons) in Turin were occupied by the Germans after 8 September 1943, along with other nerve centres in the city. From the ‘German wing’, which housed political prisoners, partisans, Jews and often civilians arrested in reprisal, people left to face two fates: execution or deportation. In the block where Le Nuove Prison stands, until 1943 there was a small hotel: the Albergo Speranza, destroyed during the bombing.

Imagine one winter night a traveller walking in the fog holding a note with the address of the Albergo…. Who gave it to him? What will he find?

Gathering the stories of that time, we asked ourselves what remains when even Hope is bombed out, and we went in search of the ‘bright spots’ moments, experiences and encounters that shine and allow one to shine even when everything around is dark.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Foto di Antonio Bertusi.

Deragliamenti / Derailment

Posted by Danielle

The performance is inspired by the forced path traced by a track: the constraint of the journey for those who are deprived of freedom or choice, sometimes even of knowledge. The aim is to explore how this image resonates in our present through witnesses stories and youngsters ideas.

Tracks are perhaps a more abstract image in our present history but can have real impact when they translate a way of thinking or acting, not allowing alternatives or contradictions, imposing separation and exclusion.

Reflecting on tracks can help to imagine a precise path and the possibility of derailment: a change, a transformation.

Deragliamenti will take place inside Museo diffuso della Resistenza e della Deportazione in Torino: a guided tour mixed with the youngsters performance.

What about tomorrow?

Posted by Danielle

The performance ‘What about tomorrow?’ will compare two different times, two ways of being young and waiting for the future, with fears, hopes, uncertainties and dreams.

“And what about tomorrow?” asks a boy in 1943, leaving his city under the bombs as a refugee.

“And what about tomorrow?” a girl asks herself in 2023, while tomorrow has become today, the bombs are still ringing and great is the uncertainty about the future.

The characteristics of these different times emerge both in the interviews with witnesses and in the dreams of today’s young people.

What was and what could be the reaction to the war, or to other collective events that upset daily life, subvert habits and priorities? There’s a sense of helplessness but also new resources, inventions and unexpected situations.

Tomorrow will come, dreaming it better will help build it.