Massimo Furlan
Remembrance of collective events
Swiss Theatre Award 2014
Massimo Furlan was born in Lausanne in 1965, the son of Italian immigrants, and studied at the École cantonale d’art de Lausanne from 1984 to 1988. He is also a stage designer, creating sets both for himself and for others, such as the choreographer Philippe Saire and the Théâtre en Flammes. In 2003 he founded his own production company, Numero 23 Prod, and has since created projects that refuse to be classified as either theatre, dance or performance and yet are invariably imbued with subtle humour. The fact that he has never trained as a director or actor gives him, as he himself says, the freedom to play the jester on stage. In 1988 Furlan received an award from the Fondation Irène Reymond in French-speaking Switzerland followed, in 2001, by a Prix culturel vaudois jeunes créateurs beaux-arts.
His works mostly start out with pictures or anecdotes from his childhood, such as looking forward to the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1970s in “1973” or recalling how, as a child, he played football alone in his room while listening to the commentary on the Italian Serie A on the radio. It was this that formed the basis for Furlan’s legendary football theatre: in “Numéro 10” he is the sole performer, accompanied by original sound material, re-enacting historic footballing events and minutely dissecting them in step and gesture. His 2013 production “Giacomo” on the Italian motorcycle legend Giacomo Agostini, in which he continues the tradition of the fantastical Tableaux vivants, was performed at the first Swiss Theatre Encounter.
“The first time I saw a performance by Massimo Furlan I smiled and laughed, overwhelmed by this unexpected method of presentation. The experience I shared with the other members of the audience at that moment was akin to theatre, a film, an exhibition and a performance, all at once. Massimo Furlan touches and surprises me, sparking memories and images veiled by emotion yet entirely without nostalgia. His performances are like a mirror in which my dreams and fantasies are reflected.”
Thierry Luisier, jury member
