Italiano
Linguistic Atlas of Pangea
ATLANTE LINGUISTICO DELLA PANGEA
Una mappa delle parole intraducibili da tutto il mondoThere is a list of ‘untranslatable words’ from around the world – complex notions hidden inside unique terms that are specific to one language system. In the Inuktitut language, the word iktsuarpok indicates “the feeling of anticipation while waiting for someone to arrive, leading to intermittently going outside to check for them”. In Japanese, tsundoku means “letting books pile up, ready for reading sooner or later.” In Bantu, the term ubuntu means “I can only exist through and together with others”.
Sotterraneo selected dozens of these (universal as well as culture-specific) words, and had online conversations with as many native speakers about the meaning and use of these words in their native cultures. These brief “lessons of untranslatability” morphed into the outline for a performance, aimed to put the words on stage and transform a short dictionary into an atypical dramaturgy.
This linguistic Pangaea was conceived in the middle of the pandemic, and still today the performers on stage adopt some of the Covid restrictions, to preserve a trace of the historical moment in which we developed this reflection on human relations and incommunicability, that hard and dizzying moment in which our species was confronted with a problem that was shared by every latitude.
Credits
concept and direction Sotterraneo
on stage Sara Bonaventura, Claudio Cirri, Lorenza Guerrini, Daniele Pennati, Giulio Santolini
dramaturgy Daniele Villa
light design Marco Santambrogio
costumes Eleonora Terzi, Laura Dondoli
sound design Mattia Tuliozi
scenic elements by Laboratorio di Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione
stagehand and prop maker Sergio Puzzo
graphic design Lorenzo Guagni, Jacopo Jenna
producer Eleonora Cavallo
production Sotterraneo
with the contribution of ERT – Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione, Fondazione CR Firenze
supported by Regione Toscana, Mibac
artistic residencies Centrale Fies_art work space, La Corte Ospitale, Elsinor/Teatro Cantiere Florida, Laboratorio Nove, Associazione Teatrale Pistoiese
Sotterraneo is part of the Fies Factory, associate artist at Piccolo Teatro Milano and is resident at ATP Teatri di Pistoia
REVIEWS
Riccardo Corcione, Stratagemmi
timed assonances and surreal discrepancies between words and action – starting from culture-bound terms that refer back to universal emotions, but can only be translated through the use of long-winded paraphrases.”
Pietro Corvi, Libertà
being rendered on stage) – lead to a general effect of pointed and awkward irony. In turn, this leads to the ultimate intellectual reflection on how much is lost when dialects, languages, specific expressions die out, when the region-specific babel of words and riches will give way to global English as a lingua franca. A daring, age-old construction of verbs, nouns, adjectives will collapse under the weight of a lexical trivialization, of a desperate loss of priceless value. It is like witnessing the final days of the last elderly custodian of a language that will die with them, and who feels utter loneliness for not being able to speak with anyone in their native language. Darkness.”
Renzo Francabandera, PAC Paneacquaculture
Alex Giuzio, Altre Velocità
Nicola Arrigoni, Sipario
VIDEO CONTENT
Atlante Linguistico della Pangea TrailerGALLERY
ph. © Roberta Segata e Alessandro Sala courtesy Centrale Fies, Giulia Di Vitantonio courtesy di Marche Teatro
TOURING
2023
Atlante Linguistico della Pangea
Teatro Donizetti – Bergamo
Teatro Magda Oliviero – Saluzzo
Teatro dell’Argine – San Lazzaro di Savena
Teatro Balbo – Canelli
Teatro Piccolo Orologio – Reggio Emilia
Teatro Comunale – Pergine
Sala del Suffragio – Medicina
Insolito Festival – Parma
2022
Atlante Linguistico della Pangea
Teatro del Parco – Mestre
Teatro Mascagni – Chiusi
Teatro Nardini – Rosignano Marittimo
Spazio Kor – Festival Asti Teatro
2021
Atlante Linguistico della Pangea
Festival InTeatro – Ancona
Teatro Excelsior – Reggello
Da vicino nessuno è normale – Milano
Kilowatt festival – Sansepolcro
apap_Feminist Futures Festival – Centrale Fies (TN)
Opera Estate Festival Veneto – Bassano del Grappa
Teatro Storchi – Modena
L’Altra Scena – Piacenza
Teatro Cantiere Florida – Firenze
Teatro Astra – Vicenza
Festival Wonderland – Brescia
Teatro Bolognini – Pistoia