Don’t Go To Dongo
These past couple of weekends the weather on the lake has been sunny, which has allowed V and I to head up along the lake and begin work on our project Don’t Go To Dongo. Originally conceived in response to an invitation to develop an audio piece for Radio 3 in Italy, the project is an action/ performance crossing the border from Italy to Switzerland, following the trail that Italian dictator Mussolini took sixty six years ago before being caught and executed at the lake side town of Dongo. The Project description follows:
Don’t Go To Dongo
This past year we moved to the lake Como area for some work opportunities. After a couple of months we had some visa complications and had to find a way to quietly slip out of Italy. Since immigrants are allowed a maximum of 90 days within the Schengen Community of European Countries, we decided to flee to nearby Switzerland.
Taking the route along the western shore of the lake, we attempt an escape from Italy through the route that Mussolini attempted sixty-six years earlier before being captured in the town of Dongo.
The real need to leave the country is interwoven with an artistic performance, from which we extract an audio segment documenting an escape attempt from current day Italy.
The audio segment documents an attempted escape from Italy. It is a combination of documentary and storytelling, reality and fiction. A real necessity to leave the country is interwoven with an artistic performance.
The 20 minute radio piece brings together moments from the enactment of the action, including voices encountered along the way, the atmosphere of place and suggestions of the “historic drama”.
Through this action we hope to get a feel for the current political situation of Northern Italy and confront it through a hypocritical act: the flight of illegal immigrants through an infamous route.
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