– Il nonnulla
Il nonnulla
[The Trifle]
performance, 2014
At the end of the First World War, my great-grandfather, an Italian soldier on the Karst front (now located along the border between southwestern Slovenia and northeastern Italy), discovered a German manuscript in an enemy trench.
Upon having it translated into Italian, he discovered it was the war diary of an officer serving in the Austro-Hungarian army. The text chronicles the officer's progressive descent into madness, likely culminating in his death in battle on the Karst front.
By the time my great-grandfather died, the original German manuscript had already been lost, along with the first page of the typewritten Italian translation.
Il nonnulla is an attempt to create a new translation of a text that no longer exists.
In the performance, one person crafts a German translation of the Italian version of the manuscript, writing it by hand on sheets of paper.
A second person then receives these sheets and re-translates them aloud into Italian.
The performance was first presented as part of “Skillbuilding”, 34° performing arts festival "Drodesera" at Centrale Fies (Dro, Italy), where it was awarded the Live Works - Performance Act Award (Vol. 2).
Fragment from the Italian translation of the German manuscript (around 1945)
Performance at "Live Works. Performance Act Award (Vol. 2)". Centrale Fies, June 2014
Handwritten German translation produced during the performance, June 2014
Excerpt, "Live Works. Performance Act Award (Vol. 2)", June 2014
Documentation drawing by Antonio Marras