Giuseppe Stellato - Mind the gap

“Do not cross the yellow line”
The voice from the loudspeaker blends in with the noises in the station.
Voices, steps, conversations, phone calls.

Just a few steps from the yellow line, a snack and beverage vending machine observes the people passing by, listens to their thoughts, records their memories, ready to fulfill trifling desires in exchange for a few coins. Then suddenly, without anyone activating it, the machine begins to spout all kinds of objects: a shoe, a book, a toothbrush...
Lost items, the memories of someone who has just walked in front of it, each for a different reason: some going to work, others returning home, some escaping. And every object tells a different story, so many different journeys, all of which may well have a minimum common denominator: the attempt to improve one’s own existence. Including the most difficult journey of all: the journey of survival.
Like the preceding Oblò, of which it may be considered chapter two, this work also explores the boundaries between installation and theatre performance. Starting with the relationship between man and machine, it touches on the themes of migration and travel, attempting a reflection on the perception that contemporary society harbours of itself and the “other”.