To see life, to see the world.
[cit. Henry R. Luce]
LIFE is ZONA K’s festival
LIFE is a direct reference to the famous American photojournalism magazine that documented the defining moments of the 20^(th) century, and to the authorial perspective that transformed photographs into iconic images and powerful visual narratives which have become part of our collective memory.
Like the magazine, LIFE seeks to encourage reflection on the present by offering an incisive narrative that navigates the ambiguous boundary between reality and fiction. It explores the interpretations and interplay that govern the relationship between truth and falsehood, exposing the shameless exploitation of the media and highlighting the power of storytelling.
LIFE presents theatre that observes and interprets the present. Drawing on real-world data, it brings this to vivid life on stage through a combination of performance, visual art, film, journalism, science and research. This relationship with reality becomes the subject and tool of an investigation that blends narratives and languages, re-examines the concepts of authorship and performance, redefines criteria for space usage and appropriation, and establishes explicit connections with sociology, urban planning, statistics, history, economics, and technology.
This is a critical approach to storytelling that focuses on representation, or rather the negotiation between reality and its depiction. This approach involves historical and political investigations, deconstructing documents to the point of stripping them of their meaning, involving people as experts on reality, re-enacting historical events and losing their connection to reality, and telling stories and accounts that remain as close as possible to what actually happened. It also involves non-academic lectures, films and talks.
LIFE Festival 2026, second edition
Locked in our echo-chambers, bombarded by a relentless stream of news that leaves no space or time for reflection, we move inside a reality that fights with itself. The information stumbles, social network amplify, in-depth analysis becomes a domain of the few, the truth hides itself in winding paths and the comparison with the other becomes increasingly heated.
Victims of disinformation and fake news, we find relief in those who can reassure us that we are on the right side. Emotions become more influent than facts in the determination of our positions and our interactions. Our cognitive system tends to select and accept only the information that fit with our view of the world, conserving energy according to an economic mechanism of self-preservation. Experts refer to this as Confirmation Bias.
In the contrast between us and them, even the entire concept of democratization debate disappears, transformed into an arena of almost tribally-like conflict. How can we coexist with those who think in a diametrically opposed views? How can we live alongside those who embody beliefs that are irreconcilable with ours?
In this rather unsettling scenario, LIFE offers its perspective on the contemporary reality through original, ambiguous, irreverent and uncomfortable narratives. The stage becomes a laboratory to explore these fractures that cross society, politics, our most intimate relationships, our bodies and our desires. Art, when directly compared with information, undermines convictions and reappropriates the codes of entertainment, which are often at the mercy of the worst media performances.
Polarisation ceases to be an abstract concept and becomes a living, visceral, emotional experience. Theatre can do what algorithms cannot: create a space of shared presence, where interaction is not mediated by a screen but happens in the here and now, in real encounters between people.
Theatre can do what the algorithm cannot: create a space of shared presence, where dialogue is not mediated by a screen but takes place here and now, in the real encounter between people.
A festival that moves itself between reality and imagination, facts and fiction, giving art the power to be a critical device and the possibility of being a space for resistance, participation and questioning.
