El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido

There are two of them, both originally from Italy but who have made Brussels their home, polymorphous artists in their fifties and old friends. Their close ties produced the piece Happy Hour in 2016. Alessandro Bernardeschi and Mauro Paccagnella are now joining forces again on a new work, this time with the English dancer Lisa Gunstone. They definitely have dance in common, but theatre and performance as well, and a heightened sense of self-mockery. At the heart of El Pueblo unido jamás será vencido – the title comes from a song by the South American group Quilapayun who urge oppressed peoples to come together in the struggle for a freer and more equal world – is a mixture of personal and collective memories, the role and fit sought by the individual in the group, the group’s ability to integrate and sublimate the individuals of which it is comprised. Movement, speeches, songs and witness statements therefore converge in an equally choreographic and theatrical poetry. As a populist wave sweeps through, this piece questions the reverberations now being felt of the revolutionary fervour of the past