FIT Festival 2024, the International Festival of Theatre and Contemporary Scene, now in its 33rd edition, returns to Lugano from 4 to 13 October 2024, with a preview from 28 to 30 September. In 13 days, the public will be able to attend 22 performances, 8 meetings with artists, 2 in-depth talks, follow the “on the road” radio Keep FIT with Radio and the live broadcasts of the young team and explore the editorial project Looks on the contemporary.
The festival also includes social initiatives such as the Ticket Suspended, the intergenerational tandem Stay FIT! and two training workshops. The FIT will take place in different spaces in Lugano, bringing artists from seven countries: Belarus, France, Italy, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland.
FIT Festival 2024, a festival that questions the present
FIT confirms itself as a point of reference for contemporary theatre and performance, bringing to the stage a variety of themes and reflections on the current world: “I think that the task of art is to read the world in its complexity – explained the artistic director Paula Tripoli, commenting on the 2024 edition -. Simplification is the trick with which one wants to indoctrinate, enlist, entertain the multitude at the expense of single individuals”.
The theme of rights and freedom permeates all aspects of FIT 2024, which proposes works that are intentionally different and dissimilar, but united by the intent to promote critical thinking on contemporaneity, offering the public "exercises in freedom" through artistic language.
A prestigious opening with Isabelle Huppert
The opening of the festival will be marked by a very important event: on 29 and 30 September, at the LAC, the Berenice, an opera by Jean Racine directed by Romeo Castellucci, with the iconic Isabelle Huppert in the title role. Castellucci, known for his total theater, brings to the stage a drama that investigates loneliness and abandonment, offering a reflection on the fragility of male power and on the awareness of life by women.
Exercises in Freedom: From Solitude to Rights
Among the most anticipated works there is also Scorezero by Elena Boillat (4 and 5 October, Teatrostudio LAC), a performance that explores pre-linguistic languages and solitary physicalities, trying to free itself from the weight of meanings.
The theme of freedom also runs through the rewriting of the Medea by Elena Cotugno and Teatro dei Borgia (5 and 6 October, Circolo Acli), which tells the story of migrant women who became slaves in the prostitution racket. This show, defined as an experience more than a simple performance, revisits the classical myth of Medea as a prostitute and a foreigner, offering a powerful reflection on the theme of marginalization.
Mohamed El Khatib, already a guest of the festival, returns with The Secret Life of the Old (October 5, Sala Teatro LAC), where he addresses the theme of aging and love in old age, questioning how society perceives the elderly.
Art, Technology and Activism
The relationship between technology and art is at the centre of Seer by Tamara Gvozdenovic (6 October, Palco LAC), which explores the world of digital images and online interactions, where “likes” become a new form of social gratification.
Gosia Wdowik with She Was a Friend of Someone Else (October 8, Palco LAC) brings to the stage the burnout of activists, reflecting on how rights, when not constantly protected, risk being lost, as happened in Poland with the recent illegalization of abortion.
Arkadi Zaides, a Belarusian artist engaged in activism, presents The Cloud (October 10, Palco LAC), a reflection on hyperobjects and artificial intelligence, central themes of contemporary technology.
Program dedicated to young people and collateral events
The FIT does not forget the new generations, with the section Young and Kids, which offers five shows for children and young people at the Teatro Foce. Among these, The Queen's Mirror (6st October), Clouds, at times (October 8) and Demeter/Olympus Kids (October 13), show reserved for children aged 7 to 11.
In addition to the artistic programming, the FIT offers numerous collateral events. The Ticket Suspended offers the possibility of donating a ticket to those who cannot afford it, while the project Stay FIT! promotes the participation of the elderly in cultural life through intergenerational tandem. In addition, two workshops and two in-depth talks will offer further food for thought, with the first talk dedicated to the relationship between art and activism and the second to a lectio magistralis by philosopher Bruno Milone on the crisis of democracy.
