Poly(is)topography

Participatory performance in public space

Keywords: script-based, collective biography, public space, throwntogetherness, collaborative poetry

Ideation and project diretion - Carlo Sella

Supervised by - Danae Theodoridou

Performed at - 

Scuola di Politica di Torino, Oltre la crescita

UAB Masters in Political Ecology

Alt-Shift, a Degrowth festival

Poly(is)topography - writing collective biographies through reading the urban public space is a participatory performance and research project that explores the intersections between personal and collective biography, and the material and symbolic dimensions of public space. Through embodied exercises, guided storytelling, and poetic writing, participants trace the ways in which their lives have been shaped by, and inscribed into, shared environments. The process unfolds through a series of performative prompts in urban or rural spaces. Participants are invited to select elements from the space that resonate with their memory or lived experience. These elements become entry points into a process of recollection, reflection, and re-inscription, building toward a poetic composition that reflects the collective biography of the group.

The work asks: how does space store and shape memory? What happens when personal narratives meet in public space? How do we carry place inside us, and how do we leave traces behind? Each performance culminates in the co-writing of a poetic text, shaped by the memories, affects, and spatial dialogues that emerge. Poly(is)topography is both a method of research and a gesture of negotiation to place, to others, and to the fragmented landscapes of the self. The project has been developed with diverse communities, including elder women in Montbau (Barcelona), international students at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, degrowth activists from the School of Politics in Turin and the Alt-Shift Festival (Germany). An online artistic research article about the project is available here.