We went to Italy, and it was a blast!
The project hit another milestone when the partners and their teams all met up in Montebello della Battaglia near Voghera in the beautiful countryside of Italy from 04.04. to 08.04.2022. Welcomed by the sun and warm weather everyone tried to spend as much time outside as possible, so we decided to adapt many of our plays and practices to the venue’s big courtyard and garden.
And what number of activities there was! The timetable was packed, and everyone got to contribute their prepared plays, practices, and talks. With our headlined topic of “Activism” we experienced very different techniques on how to approach the topic as well as working on our own understanding of it by playing larps, using methods of the Theater of the Oppressed, and traditional rounds of discussion.
Two larps are worth of mention: The first one being “First They Came”, written and directed by Chaos League and Laboratorio 41, focusing on oppressed and persecuted people under the regime of 1942 in Berlin, Germany. The other one the more lighthearted larp “Time Agents”, written and adapted by LajvVerkstaden, directed with the help of the LMU Munich team, which took the participants on a journey through time into different settings of activism with relevance to this day.
During the early hours Zavod BOB got everyone moving and expressing aspects of activism with just their bodies and movement. Outside of the field of playing solar e.V. sparked general discussions on activism on behalf of the Chilean protests in recent years. Safety is always a big priority during social events, but especially the psychological aspect of it gets easily overlooked, so we took our time and implemented talks and a lecture about techniques and methods, hosted by the LMU team. The whole event got rounded up by all the socializing and small gatherings in between breaks and in the evenings, where intercultural exchange and friendships got lived and renewed.
Now everyone is looking forward to the next TTL in Slowenia!
all images produced by Niklas Nieminen