TricksterP
Immersive scenic landscapes
Swiss Theatre Award 2017
TricksterP are a Ticino-based artist duo consisting of Cristina Galbiati, who was born in Italy in 1973, and Ilija Luginbühl, who was born in Schaffhausen in 1977 and grew up in Graubünden. The two met at the Accademia Teatro Dimitri. In 2002 they founded the casa del tabacco in Novazzano, near the Italian border, as a space and residence for research and experimentation. Since then they have tirelessly researched and honed their own unique form of theatre, a blend of installation, audio landscapes and scenic experiences. In 2009 they ceased ‘acting’ in the narrow theatrical sense and now orchestrate their settings so that viewers can experience things for themselves. In “Sights” (2014), for example, the audience make their way individually to various sound spots, armed with a city map and tokens. At the spots, blind people specially chosen for each new venue tell their stories.
TricksterP tour widely both nationally and internationally. With their innovative projects, they are today among Switzerland’s most exciting theatre practitioners, receiving support at home and abroad from Pro Helvetia. Their most recent project, “Twilight” (2016), has been performed all over the country as well as in Italy, Liechtenstein, Denmark and Iran. Subtitled “A choreography for the dying light”, “Twilight” is set to make a guest performance at the Swiss Theatre Encounter 2017. It is a spatial symphony in which the audience create their own reality on the boundaries between inner vision and outer sight. “B” (2012), a room-by-room audio journey based on the tale of Snow White, and before it “h.g.” (2009), a reading of Hansel and Gretel that has been performed over 200 times in a wide range of languages in Europe, Australia and the US, build on collective pictorial memories as the audience, equipped with headphones, move through various spaces. The duo’s creations, with their mixture of performance, theatre and fine art, are almost impossible to describe – you really have to experience them in your own mind!
“Precise and detailed narrative spaces, three-dimensional sound landscapes and a multi-layered, non-linear narrative technique – attending a performance by TricksterP is an intense and immersive experience. Driven by insatiable curiosity and uncompromising aesthetic perfectionism, Cristina Galbiati and Ilija Luginbühl have together developed an art form that is entirely their own. In their mysterious installations that combine fine art with theatre, the audience’s imagination interacts with carefully orchestrated spaces and sounds in a suspended, in-between world. At the interface of object theatre, scenography and performance, they work tirelessly to create their own unmistakeable scenic signature.”
Anja Dirks, jury member
