Combining intelligence and fun, on the part of the artist for the benefit of the public, is a difficult undertaking. Unless he gets on stage Alessandro Bergonzoni with a show like Here comes the therefore (at Elfo Puccini in Milan until 1 December), a triumph of wit, irony, common sense, humanity and empathy, in which thoughts are put up for auction…
Only a table on the stage, around which Bergonzoni moves, wearing black trousers and shirt, a white coat on top, which could make one think of a doctor: and what else is he, the one the spectator finds himself in front of, if not an artist who by playing on language tries to awaken our brain and stimulate our dull soul? The color of that coat, then, is not accidental, because against the white the tears and blood stand out, it is impossible for them to be ignored, and therefore (indeed, therefore!) the chances that habituation to the worst will not take hold increase. And then it is easier to start again from the white to imagine – starting right there, from the theater – a new reality, or, better to say, a creality: yes, because that new world that each of us carries inside our hearts, but which we have most often given up on under the blow of frustrations and disappointments, has to be invented, everything created, from scratch. In short, we need to create a new reality.
To do it Bergonzoni uses our language: with a more unique than rare ability he gives life to associations and inventions which, while surprising and making us smile, are transformed into healthy neuronal gymnastics. Among the dozens of possible examples (an hour and forty minutes without breathing), one stands out for everyone: more than genocidesays the artist,. we should talk about geniusin the sense that we are destroying the genius – the daimon – that is in each of us and therefore – therefore! – throughout society. The true, free, constructive, positive forces are extinguished, hidden, put aside rather than becoming the lever on which to build the new reality.
Where does all this refined and ingenious juxtaposition of words and images lead? Bergonzoni says that more than artists today there is a need for othersthat is, people who know how to look beyond themselves, beyond their own backyard. The dimension of otherness, of attention to the other, is upon closer inspection a common thread of the show, as is the conjunctivitiswhich is not a variant of the conjunctivitisbut the joyful and authentic attitude of coming together, of joining forces to do something beautiful together.
In the end the audience doesn’t want to leave, Bergonzoni continues to come out on stage and give new hilarious sketches and anecdotes.
A show not to be missed, which is good for the mind and heart.
