REMEMBER

TRIBUTE TO pRIMO LEVI

Remembering what caused the pain is awareness of a feeling, constant vigilance, and memory that generates attention. And it is indispensable when the danger is still present, when the signals change shape and color, but reflect the same characteristics of what has already been experienced. The other from “us” as an enemy constantly recurs. An “us” that can take on a thousand adjectives: we whites, we Christians, we men, we Brahmins, we Europeans, we workers, we artists… Race, caste, religion, gender, ethnicity, different skin color within the same ethnic group (albinos in Africa), any element that allows us to gather around an “us” creates an “other from us,” an antagonist who, when necessary, can easily become an enemy.

And then REMEMBER.

Remember the infinite moments of inattention, of underestimating the signals, of a lack of depth in our voice, so that attention can be drawn where it is needed. And art, and poetry, and music. As elements that support the energy needed to never let our guard down. Music as a rhythm that accompanies our desire to stem tendencies that are initially foolish but are always ready, unfortunately, to take on unexpected connotations.

A music that accompanies the determination to ensure that scholastic simplifications give way to mature reflections, a music that promotes and supports ongoing training in collaboration between diverse yet always individually indispensable needs. Just as the harmonic tensions, in each composition, alternate to give life to the music itself. A “foreign” music that belongs to no community. It, like all the arts, is ethereal, intangible, far from the pain of the flesh. It transcends that chain at the end of which the Lager stands, and precisely for this reason is capable of giving voice to the Man in Revolt present in every witness to history repeating itself.

This project aims, through the language of art, to give voice to Primo Levi’s testimony, in a difficult historical moment in which the words of this great writer and poet prove extraordinarily timely. The project was born from an idea by Professor Adam Baruch of Israel and the Italian guitarist and composer Francesco Bruno, who called upon Professor Iginio De Luca and video maker Giovanni Bruno to collaborate on the video portion of the show. The show is a live multimedia performance in homage and memory of the great writer and poet Primo Levi. Readings of poems selected from the writer’s works are entrusted to actress Silvia Lorenzo and performed alongside live musical compositions by the Francesco Bruno Ensemble, featuring drummer Marco Rovinelli and double bassist Andrea Colella.

As part of the live performance, poetry and music alternate with video art creations by Professor Iginio De Luca. Iginio De Luca, a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Frosinone, involved in this project a group of young students from the multimedia installations course, and director Giovanni Bruno, a professor at the “Sentieri Selvaggi” Film School in Rome.

The project is coordinated by Donatella Salta, president of Hangar, a cultural association that has been active for many years in Italy and abroad with notable multimedia projects, such as “Le parole Altre. Il lungo viaggio di Tiziano Terzani,” a work published by the L’Espresso-la Repubblica group and sold over 30,000 copies.