The theater of Casnigo, founded in the 1920s in the stables of the social club of the secular Mutual Aid Society, went through a long period of neglect before being restored and reopened in the early 2000s by members of the Circolo Fratellanza. The restoration maintained the original Art Nouveau layout, and brought back the pictorial decorations of the original period, thus restoring the theater to its former glory.
As part of the Thinking Like a Mountain program, the theater was the space where Marta Cuscunà (Monfalcone, 1982), an auteur and performer of visual theater, known for her research that combines environmental and social activism with figure dramaturgy, offered a space for critical reflection, questioning the audience about the possibility of a future capable of coupling technological progress and care for ecosystems, promoting an integrated and collaborative outlook.
This performative account brought together the reflections presented in Cuscunà’s recent work on the future of planet Earth exploring the links between species and environments, highlighting the relationships between natural forces and human actions.
This discourse echoed the thinking of anthropologist Anna Tsing, biologist Lynn Margulis, philosopher Bruno Latour, and especially the ecofeminism of Donna Haraway—who points out how the dynamics of environmental domination and exploitation often parallel those of gender oppression and social justice. The performance chronicled the artist’s imaginary journey across the increasingly blurred boundary separating the natural from the anthropic, through individuality and symbiosis, leading to the end and a possible new beginning.
The event is part of a series of initiatives staged with the support of the Club GAMeC—the association of friends of the museum which, since 2005, has supported the activities of the Gallery, aimed at promoting contemporary artistic research in all its forms.
Biographical Notes
Marta Cuscunà is an auteur and performer of visual theater, and her research combines activism with figure dramaturgy. In 2009 she won the Premio Scenario per Ustica with È bello vivere liberi! the first chapter of Resistenze femminili: a trilogy of which La semplicità ingannata and Sorry, boys are also part. In 2021, she participated in the Rai 3 TV show La Fabbrica del mondo by Marco Paolini and Telmo Pievani, for which she wrote and performed in a mini-series for mechanical crows dedicated to the themes of ecofeminism. In 2023, the series became a play entitled Corvidae. Sguardi di specie, co-produced by Muse, the Science Museum of Trento. From 2009 to 2019, she was part of Fies Factory, a project undertaken by Centrale Fies. Since 2021 she has been an associate artist at Piccolo Teatro in Milan.
