Michele Pascarella on POLIS 2026, “Gagarin”, May 13 2026
On Multiplicity. A (Double) Gaze at Supernova and Polis Teatro Festival, “Gagarin,” May 13, 2026
“[…] Western cultural history is well acquainted with this tension. From Ramon Llull, who in the 13th century envisioned his combinatory machines as tools for generating thought through the rotation of elements, to Leibniz’s Ars Combinatoria, European knowledge has repeatedly fantasized about the possibility that meaning arises not from unity, but from arrangement. In his Mnemosyne Atlas, Aby Warburg created a dialogue between images through proximity, friction, and secret echoes; there was no hierarchy, only montage. Similarly, in the 20th century, the Avant-gardes — from Surrealism to post-dramatic theatre — progressively replaced the closed work with constellations of fragments.”
A contemporary festival, when truly successful, works precisely within this tradition: it does not program events, but rather constructs perceptual relationships.
Both Supernova and POLIS Teatro Festival seem to have operated within this tension. This is evident not only in the plurality of languages summoned but in the way these were made to coexist within a single experiential duration. Audiences traversed spaces, listened to different languages, and continually adjusted their sensory disposition. The festival day thus became a practice of internal montage: those present had to become archivists of their own impressions […]”.