Cain in Absentia

DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENT:

"Cain in Absentia" is a performative installation by Jubilo Foundation, based on a performance "Cain" in Penitentiary Wrocław 1 in 2019. The sets, lighting and sound from the piece allow you to step back into a world created by the actors behind the massive walls of the prison. According to the creators, the space of the installation makes it possible to ‘delve deep into oneself, into regions that are painful, but allow you to better understand your essence’.

The notion of absence is a starting point for the creator’s audiovisual research, and a key to interpreting the work. By tracing the bodies of Cains, the video projections featured in the installation merge organically with recorded voices. Through a fusion of theatre and visual arts, the piece Cain is given new contexts and meanings. The actors are physically absent, but the creators manage to rediscover ‘a way out, towards society, far from our public subjectivity and status, finding a new level of presence ‒ a redefinition of ourselves’.

The installation received special non-competition award at the 6. National Competition of Prison Theater Works in Poznań and a special prize at the “Prison Movie” 2019 International Festival of Prison Films in Olsztyn. 

INFORMATION ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

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.

LINKS: 

• http://jubiloproject.com/cain-in-absentia/
  
  
• http://jubiloproject.com/en/