Meeting with Jubilo Foundation

DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENT:

As part of the study visit, Diego Pileggi - the founder of the Jubilo Foundation, and members of the Foundation, will present materials documenting the 10 years of experience of Jubilo in the discipline of theatre work aimed at people threatened with social and cultural exclusion. They will discuss various aspects of their projects, with regard to the research and practical dimensions of their work in the European perspective. They will also talk about the Foundation's original approaches, techniques and methodology, as well as the challenges related to artistic intervention as a tool for building a social change. 

INFORMATION ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS:

Diego Pileggi - founder and leader of the Jubilo Foundation, director, actor, theatre educator. Graduate of MA in Acting at Manchester Metropolitan University and Communication Science (Theatre) at Università degli Studi di Milano (2007). Since 2011, he has been the founding member and leader of Jubilo, a theatre company based in Wroclaw, that develops work with marginalised groups. With the company, he has directed and developed theatre projects in different milieus including prisons, Roma communities, facilities for people with intellectual and physical disabilities, and refugee camps.
Since 2014, Pileggi has been the co-founder and leader of "Unlocking", an innovative theatre project addressed to inmates of closed and half open departments, developed in collaboration with the Grotowski Institute and penitentiaries throughout Poland. The main aim of the project is to develop a horizontal platform of cooperation with the participants of the work, based on theatrical techniques, in order to open a process of self-definition, personal growth and support their reintroduction to the outside society. Within "Unlocking", he directed the performances "Reflection" (co-director 2015), "Kain" (2019), "Kain In Absentia" (2020) and "On the Other Side / Passage" (2020).
He is a founding member of the International Network of Theatre in Prison (INTiP, with the patronage of Unesco) and collaborates with the Italian Network of Theatre in Prison (Coordinamento Nazionale Teatro in Carcere). In the last years he has developed national and international projects with institutional, theatrical and academic bodies, related to the topic of Theatre in Prison (i.e. Creative Europe, Erasmus+, Università la Sapienza di Roma). For many years, his work is run in collaboration with the Wrocław-based Grotowski Institute, where he develops his personal theatrical research and a formation program for performers and actors, whose main focus consists in the development of theatrical training techniques within the frame of physical and ensemble-based practices. As a theatre researcher and educator, his approach is rooted into research theatre and process-based work, with a specific interest in body-voice, psycho-physical training and personal expression. As a director, performer and workshop leader he has been cooperating with theatrical institutions in Poland and abroad (i.e. Tehran International Festival, Polski Theatre, National Academy of Theatre Arts). He is a founding member of the Italy-based theatre company Il Giardino delle Ore.

Jubilo - is a theatre group born in 2011 in Wrocław, Poland, driven by the need for artistic intervention as a protest against cultural exclusion. Jubilo aims to topple social, economic, language and cultural barriers through artistic encounters where the platform of exchange is the language of theatre and music. The group leads long-term workshop encounters and directs performance pieces that build a space for theatre dialogue between the participants and Jubilo. Since its inception, the Ensemble has worked with physically and mentally disabled, Roma minorities, homeless, refugees, and prisoners. Jubilo collaborates with many arts organisations and theatres in Wrocław, including the Grotowski Institute.
For many years now, the company has been leading, in collaboration with the Grotowski Institute the project "Unlocking", adressed to inmates of closed and half opened departments, which has produced the award-winning performance piece "Reflection", (2015), "Kain" (2019) and the performative installation "Kain In Absentia" (2020). Within this project, the company develops different platforms including theatre training for inmates, a professionalization programme within the disciplines of theatre and academic research. Jubilo has also been a founding member of the International Network of Theatre in Prison (INTiP, with the patronage of Unesco) and collaborates with the Italian Network of Theatre in Prison (Coordinamento Nazionale Teatro in Carcere). Within the different activities of the company, Jubilo cooperates with professional theatres in Poland and abroad leading international workshop programmes and artistic projects. Since 2017 the Ensemble has been participating in international projects such as Erasmus+ and Creative Europe. Jubilo presented its work in many international festivals and theatre events, including the festival Dreams Before Dawn in Paris, the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, the National Festival of Theatre in Prison Destini Incrociati and the International Conference of Theatre in Prison I Teatri delle Diversità in Italy. The company collaborates with academics and researchers throughout Europe, including doctoral students from Università La Sapienza di Roma and the University of Reading, where research is being done on the subject of professional theatre in prison.

Zofia Smolarska - is a Research and Teaching Assistant at the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw, Poland. She is a member of the editorial board of the ‘Polish Theatre Journal’ and a Vice-president of the Polish Society for Theatre Research. In 2019 she was a Young Fellow at the Institute for Humane Sciences in Vienna. The participatory aspect of the creative and production processes is among her main interests, practical as well as research. As a dramaturge and director’s assistant she had collaborated with Edit Kaldor and the Berlin-based collective Rimini Protokoll, which she later described in her book ‘Rimini Protokoll. Blind Alleys of Participatory Theatre’ (Warsaw 2017). She has recently submitted her Ph.D. thesis ‘Ecologies of Theatre. Relational Analysis of the Publicly Funded Theatres from the Theatre Craftsmen’s Perspective’.

LINKS: 

• http://jubiloproject.com/en/