ANECDOTES OFTEN RELATE “BIZARRE” FACTS TO PROMPT REFLECTION. CHRISTOPHE HANNA DESCRIBES THE ANECDOTE AS THE VERBAL FORM OF AN EXPERIENCE THAT WE HAVE DESIRED TO FIX BECAUSE IT CONTAINS THE POTENTIAL OF A CONCEPT THAT DOES NOT YET EXIST.
My proposition is that we use this insight to create new narratives about our situations and use these to empower their transformation; use narrative to open up spaces that question the actual notion of citizenship and imagine/construct a future one.
The task, then, is to write an anecdote about a citizen that does not yet exist. Write about a citizen that is beyond the concept of national identity: s/he feels human and not a citizen of a nation. S/he considers origins and roots an enrichment and not a way to discriminate in virtue of difference. A New Citizen with a European VAT that lives in a time when the newcomers are really accepted for what they are.
Frequently, I have asked myself whether interdisciplinarity is a choice, a will, or a consequence of the societal model in which we are living. In a world that gives us more possibilities and knowledge than ever before, we are sometimes lost and undecided, even if well trained and equipped. Perhaps we are caught in a drift that is no longer a choice, just a way of life for my generation. My proposition is that the New Citizen will need to find a way of navigating this continuous migration of geographies and competences without getting lost. The New Citizen belongs to a nomadic population but experiences a profound need to belong somewhere, somewhere different to its place of birth. S/he will probably have to forfeit the pride attached to belonging to a specific place and the need to display it.
Drumming geography Mazzaro
Artist and director, I question the conditions of becoming collective beings, working on the threshold between witness and performer with a focus on collective performances and sound pieces. Graduated in Environmental Engineering, I studied Visual Arts at IUAV University and performance in different workshops. Initially pursuing a career as a performer, I co-founded different collectives and I was an assistant of Petrit Halilaj at Biennale d’Arte di Venezia. When someone asks me where I come from, I do not usually reply “I am Italian”, instead my answer is “I was born and raised in Italy”.