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“Ricognizioni multimediali nel Surrealismo europeo” (Multimedia investigations into European surrealism) consists in a series of cultural events to take place at the universities of Oxford, Parma, Barcelona, Berlin and Erlangen-
Nürnberg as well as in theatres at Berlin and Oxford. It is the result of one
year’s literary research involving myself and academics from the above-mentioned
institutions.
Literary themes will focus on the work of the surrealist author Ivan Goll, in
which he looks beyond the boundaries of national culture thereby contributing
to the notion of a European ‘Culture of Bridges’. Many considerations form the
background and the point of departure for the programme of research From
Europe - For a Culture of Bridges brought into being by myself in 1992.
The Euro is probably the most visible symbol of the political and economic
unification of Europe. Cultural connections within Europe, however, are perceived
by the European family of nations only partially or only in traditional
clichés, so that broad areas of social reality within individual countries remain
entirely unknown. In my opinion, the cultural and political goal of broadening
this narrow range of vision should not be formulated in a purely abstract way;
I rather feel it is a task which is of primary importance for the cultural creators
and scholars of a unified Europe. After all, a consciousness of our cultural
links does not automatically follow from encounters between national cultures.
On the contrary, without a sufficient knowledge of the historical particularities
which have favoured the development of cultural multiplicity on our continent,
it will be difficult to evaluate appropriately regional differences and to perceive
areas of cultural commonality, and consciously to integrate these into artistic
creation.
The ‘bridge’ can be developed into a definitive metaphor for describing and
understanding our specifically European culture in both a historical and futureoriented
perspective. A bridge, of course, is not only a border point; even more
importantly it is a connection across apparently unconquerable divides. At the
same time, it is also a place in its own right inviting you to linger and allowing
your gaze to roam freely in all directions. Standing for a moment on the bridge
over what is – from a cultural-political perspective – a transnational land between
spaces, the longing is awakened for belonging, connection and communication
between what is already known and what has just been glimpsed on
the horizon.
The specific nature of this European Culture of Bridges emerges thus not
from the construction of borders of whatever kind, but from the freely chosen
perspective of the stranger who is able from a distance to reflect critically on
the regional particularity of his heritage. Like the bridge itself, a European
Culture of Bridges is also simultaneously local and translocal. It is in this
regard that the intellectual position of the European, the representative of
this Culture of Bridges, is fundamentally different from the cosmopolitan
consciousness which was first expressed in the literature of the Fin de Siecle
and later on in literature written in exile.
After nearly five years of literary and theatrical work the Teatro Tra Le
Righe, located at various European universities, does not claim to be able
to create such a European Culture of Bridges. On the contrary, through the
research work, text translations, performances, exhibitions, video productions
and conferences, we have proved that since the beginning of the Modern period
in Europe, artists have given their own expression to their consciousness of
being part of a Culture of Bridges.
The author chosen this year by the Teatro Tra Le Righe, Ivan Goll (as the
other years Alberto Savinio, Edoardo Sanguineti and Dino Campana), has in
his creative work (and also in his biography) succeeded in freeing himself from
a provincial fixation with his own place of origin and settling intellectually and
culturally on the bridge. This expansion of his personal identity has found new
forms of artistic expression in his poetry, prose and drama. The Teatro Tra
Le Righe aimed to examine the meaning of this new form of expression and to
experience and represent its linguistic gestures in a multimedial, concrete form
through the medium of theatre.
As long ago as 1922, Ivan Goll asserted: “Drama can no longer exist in
today’s world!” – that is, the dramatic dialogue has long since ceased to take
place. Nevertheless, the potential for dialogue remains the motivating force
behind the theatre, so that now it is not the (new and still-evolving) ideas which
matter, but the way in which they are given form.
The experimental part of our project Drei Originale (Three Originals) is
one such attempt at giving form to ideas. The selected original text from the
realm of surrealism has been transformed by Thomas Martius into a video,
which in turn provided an “original” for adaptation as a theatrical piece by
René Pollesch. Thus Pollesch, in his work, did not proceed from the “text of
the piece” itself, but from the video. In other words, the play that we will perform
with the students of Oxford, Barcelona and Parma Universities will not
refer to Goll’s original of the play “Methusalem”, but to the film “by Goll”. The
text of this performance will not only, or not at all, be generated by the verbal
text, but by the text which the film portrays, that is, only by its “translation”.
It will be exiting to re-examine the relationship between “play” (Pollesch)
and “video” (Martius) on stage: to see what has ultimately been generated from
the original text in this way, as opposed to a pure stage adaption of the text of
the piece.
Ricognizioni multimediali – The theatrical experience with multimedia
support is an exciting new method for instruction in language and European
culture.
We live in a multimedial society. Multimedia is often misunderstood as a
simple increase in the number of pictures available to us. Viewed positively,
one of its remarkable features is that it involves both visual and auditory stimuli
(and we can expect that in the future other forms of sensory perception
will be included as well). To be able to speak about today’s “multimedia
society” involves becoming conscious of the fact that a mere accumulation of
different kinds of media does not automatically change our structures of
thought in the multimedial scene. In fact, it is quite the contrary. Precisely this
unconscious accumulation of different media within our monomedial form of
thinking can contribute to a worsening of that situation about which educators
so often complain, namely, that today’s society suffers from a fragmentation of
thought, speech and behaviour – for surely the new knowledge-gathering possibilities
open to a society based on multimedial communication will also effect
changes in the forma mentis of the members of that society. These changes
need to be taken into account when developing new methods of language
pedagogy in order adequately to prepare the younger generation for future
opportunities. A multimedia-based system of language learning is far more
relevant to the needs of young people growing up in our multimedia society
than merely learning from books. This means, therefore, that an integrated
method of knowledge transmission must be found.
Theatre is ideal for fulfilling these needs, because the language of the theatre
is continuously moving between monomedial and multimedial methods of
knowledge transmission. The written text, anchored in the literary tradition,
represents the area of abstract discourse, while the scenically-organized communication
structure and the picture-like symbols of body language correspond
to the multimedia characteristics, i. e., the simultaneous transmission
and processing of information and analogous thought. The particular combination
of the written word with all other theatrical elements, which comes into
being during the play itself, creates the harmony between abstraction and
immersion which is characteristic of the theatre. This means that theatre is not
only able to overcome the contradiction experienced in monomedial society,
between what people say and think and what they do; it is also, as an integrated
part of language and theatre instruction, able to impart theoretical and
practical linguistic knowledge and sharpen sensory perception. Insofar as it
demands of all participants the involvement of their entire person, it makes it
possible for them to rediscover the multidimensionality of language and thereby
saves the latter from the danger of intellectual ossification.
The challenge for the future is, through an expanded definition of multimediality,
to arrive at a consciousness of the endless variety of the forms of sensual
perception and expression, and thereby to counteract the current tendency
towards a dulling of our sensibilities.

Dr Teresa Zonno
Berlin