“I am Swiss. A Switzerland with its underground and hidden places: bunkers, cavau, tunnels, secrets… Some say that Switzerland is a fiction. Some say it is a contradiction. My mum sometimes says it, and sometimes she doesn’t. My brother says I have lai di, lai di, lai di, lai di, ha ho. While my dad says that Switzerland doesn’t exist. So: I don’t exist?”

Through a narrative of memory and a one-to-one encounter, Camilla Parini composes and deconstructs an idea of family, identity belonging and memory. Are we what we remember? How important is the place we come from? And the stories we tell ourselves?

Cutting and stitching together photographic memories and wearing a polar bear costume, Camilla shares an unpublished version of her personal story, playing between reality and fantasy, between the inability to define herself and the need to express herself. A game with the memory of herself as a child, with words spoken and unspoken, with traces erased and traces left behind. “One day my grandmother said to me: remember to look for the bear! Then life got in the way, and I forgot so many things.”


by and with Camilla Parini
artistic collaborators Francesca Sproccati, Simon Waldvogel and with the participation of Elena Boillat, Anahì Traversi
dramaturgical support Jessica Huber
photos and videos Amos Pellegrinelli, Camilla Parini, Francesca Sproccati
graphics and printing Complice Press, Lugano
technical support Alessandro Macchi
production Collettivo Treppenwitz
co-production far° Nyon and Südpol Luzern as part of the Extra Time Plus programme

in collaboration with LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura, Cima Città, FIT International Festival of Contemporary Theatre and Performance with the support of Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council, DECS Republic and Canton of Ticino – Swisslos Fund, Ernst Göhner Foundation, Landis&Gyr Foundation, Edith Maryon Foundation, Johnson Foundation, City of Lugano, Municipality of Agno

duration 30′, for two spectators at a time


The people who animate Collettivo Treppenwitz create a harmonious diversity of individuals, thoughts, practices and arts in different expressive fields. In her artistic practice, Camilla Parini (co-founder of Collettivo Treppenwitz) often works with the composition and deconstruction of images and with the presence and subtraction of the body, placing at the centre of her research a multifaceted reflection on identity and its vulnerability. She is interested in creating spaces and experiences that blur the boundaries between the viewer, the work and the artist. She moves between show, performance and installation, creating works that listen to what she defines as a “politics of intimacy”.