From Priam begging for mercy kneeling at Achilles' feet to George Floyd lying face down on a sidewalk suffocated by the pressure of the police officer Derek Chauvin's knee on his neck, a single universe of violence and suffering.
The new performative action places the human body at the center and focuses on the position of the loser, the defeated, the victim who begs for mercy before the executioner - a condition horribly recurring in the war epic; getting down on one's knees is also the position of gratitude, of the body that wants to remain in contact with the bottom, the root, the invisible, the dark, the unknown and at the same time tend upwards, the air, the other by himself, spherical, luminous, vibrant, sensitive.
L’Iliade non riuscirebbe tuttavia ad assurgere a poesia,
sarebbe solo un monotono paesaggio desertificato dalla forza,
se in essa non vi fossero disseminati qua e là momenti luminosi, momenti brevi e divini nei quali gli uomini hanno un’anima.
Simone Weil
The long-standing dramaturgical and imagoturgical investigation into this founding work of Western thought is directed in search of these luminous moments.
Truth and beauty, between divine figures and heroes in perpetual struggle, seem to mark time brackets where time seems not to exist, or to be as infinite and immortal as the lives of quarrelsome and vengeful gods. Parenthesis where poetry rises above the ferocity of a war whose meaning has been lost, the ultimate goal of contention.
Truth and beauty of figures that emerge above battle, victory or defeat, honor and glory, of the hero whose powerful humanity emerges above all in the weakness of a weeping or the embrace of blood brothers as night falls, of the role imposed on the prisoners of the defeated city or in the implored pity of those who ask for the unburied body of their son. But then the war resumes even more violently, and victory is achieved through deception.
For Simon Weil, the Trojan War is the paradigm of every war; Homer was able to recount its Evil and the inability of evil to contaminate good, the constant struggle between force and bestiality, the hero's solitude and piety, because only in these interludes of mortal beings do one awaken one's soul and thought from the dark night of a ten-year war. The poem contains within itself all the elements that will give rise to the Tragedy in its most complex and accomplished forms.
Every ethical-aesthetic reference to our present requires a critical, dramatic thought that draws the boundaries between epic thought, heroic figure and form, between strength and power in the field in order to draw its true meaning: does one who has strength also have power? or is the true power of those who do not recognize force and violence, after having suffered them, as inescapable?
A theatre that has its own contests in contemporary times cannot ignore it, poetry - a terrible weapon of defense - cannot ignore it.
Installazione site-specific
Aula Giorgio Canuto, Ex Istituto di Medicina Legale
Ospedale Maggiore
Università di Parma
Dramaturgy, imagoturgy Francesco Pititto
Performance composition, installation, costumes Maria Federica Maestri
Sounds Andrea Azzali
Performer Tiziana Cappella, Francesca Grisenti, C.L. Grugher, Lorenza Guerrini, Aldo Rendina, Sandra Soncini, Carlotta Spaggiari
Performer on video Guglielmo Gazzelli, Paolo Maccini, Lino Pontremoli, Luigi Moia, Marco Cavellini, Massimiliano Cavezzi, Delfina Rivieri
Curatring Elena Sorbi
Organization Ilaria Stocchi
Communication, press office Giovanna Pavesi
Graphic design, promotion Alessandro Conti
Light design Alice Scartapacchio
Production manager Giulia Mangini
Technical set-up Lucia Manghi, Dino Todoverto
Photos Elisa Morabito
Video shooting, editing video Amedeo Cavalca
Video shooting assistant Niccolò Morelli
Production Lenz Fondazione
Premiere June 4, 2026
"The great Priam entered unseen, and standing beside him he clasped in his hands
Achilles' knees, he kissed that terrible, murderous hand, which many sons killed him."
«What do you want?» Floyd responded: «Please, the knee in my neck,
I can't breathe, sir».
Strength is what makes anyone who is subjected to it a thing.
The performance space of the second chapter of the dramaturgical project inspired by the Iliad is a classroom within the Department of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Parma within one of the historic pavilions of the Ospedale Maggiore.
The Aula Canuto is presented in the form of an anatomical amphitheatre with concentric wooden steps in the centre of which the human body will be studied and evaluated by the spectator/observer.
The architecture of the classroom demonstrates the triumph of the gaze as a new privileged means of accessing knowledge of the body subjected to violence in the tragic epic of war, and we learn about the expertise in assessing personal harm in the fields of criminal, civil, social insurance, and private liability.
The identifying space for the outcome of the violence perpetrated and suffered by the victims becomes, through artistic installation, the place where the perpetrators can be tried and the victims can be repaired, displaying the violated bodies, providing evidence, testimonies, and documents.
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Site-specific
Full fare 20 €
Reduced fare student / teacher / AUSL employee / under 30 / over 65 12 €
Reduced fare University of Parma and Toschi Institute students 6 €
Info and reservations: Tel. 0521 270141 | whatsapp 335 6096220 | mail info@lenzfondazione.it
Ospedale Maggiore, pedestrian entrance: via Gramsci 14, Parma
Viale Istituti Universitari, Traversa 3C, Aula Giorgio Canuto
To reach the Aula Canuto, you need to walk 300 meters, starting from the main entrance on Via Gramsci.
You can consult the map with the route indicated through this link --->
