Culture is an asset of inestimable value in terms of civilization, growth, and well-being. Therefore, the Fondazione Campania dei Festival is committed to making it accessible for everyone by implementing projects in the peripherical areas of the Campania Region and involving its communities.

Since 2016, the Fondazione pursues the project Quartieri di Vita, the social theatre and training festival conceived by its artistic director Ruggero Cappuccio. This project is aimed to support the cultural realities and theatrical companies trusting the performing arts as a tool for sharing, inclusiveness, and active participation. Since the 2021 edition, QdV has become an international project turning its name into Quartieri di Vita. Life infected with Social Theatre!, gathering artists from all over Europe to carry out artistic residencies in vulnerable social environments where the local associations stand as cultural strongholds seeking to improve community relationships through performing arts.

The 2022 edition is supported by the Campania Region, the Italian Ministry of Culture, and EUNIC Global – European Union National Institute for Culture, and it is organized in partnership with the EUNIC Clusters in Rome and Naples, and in collaboration with the European Commission Representation in Italy. This year the European networking will involve new countries: along with the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, and Austria, already featuring he 2021 edition, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Slovakia will furthermore join the project. In November and December 2022, 13 European artists (Lubomír Martin Bukový, Catarina Câmara, Christian Costa, Aurelie Di Marino, Swaantje Gieskes, Alexandru Gorghe, Mantas Jančiauskas, Andrea Jiménez García, Rimantas Ribaciauskas, Jana Svobodová, Raphaël Trano, Nele Vereecken, Roman Wegmann) will reach the communities of Naples, Avellino, Benevento, Salerno, and Caserta, dealing with their inhabitants about different kinds of fragilities, bringing out chances of dialogue, awareness, empowerment, accessibility and social inclusion in the working groups.

The project is presented in partnership with: Austrian Cultural Forum Rome, Czech Centre Rome, Embassy of Portugal in Rome, Flanders State of the Art, Goethe-Institut Naples, Institut français Naples, Instituto Cervantes Naples, Lithuanian Culture Institute in Rome, Polish Institute in Rome, Romanian Academy in Rome, Slovak Institute in Rome, EUNIC Associate Members.

The outcome of the workshops will develop into 10 open rehearsals, scheduled between the 30th of November and the 3rd of December 2022. The rehearsals will be staged in many venues of the Campania Region that have already hosted the artists during the on-site creative residency phase.

The project will get underway on the 16th and 17th of November kicking off its second international edition by remiering a documentary theatre performance titled Why Not Me? at the Archa Theater in Prague. The performance will also mark the beginning of the Akcent – International Festival of Documentary Theatre. The show represents the result of two residencies held at the NEST Napoli Est Teatro by director Jana Svobodová with its company of young actors, firstly in December 2021 and then in June 2022. The event also celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of the first Italian Institute of Culture (IIC), founded in 1922 in Prague, and supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Italian Embassy, and the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague. As part of the QdV project, the Fondazione will organize a conference dedicated to Pier Paolo Pasolini on the centenary of the birth of the great Italian intellectual.

On the 28th and 29 th of November, the director Jana Svobodová will meet the students from the Universities of Naples Federico II and Suor Orsola Benincasa to tell in two lectures on social theatre the research work she has been conducting since 1998 involving non-professional actors and artists in her creations.

Thanks to the implementing agreement concluded with the University of Naples L’Orientale, the students – who enrolled in the master’s degree programs of the Departments of Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean; Literary, Linguistic and Comparative Studies; and Humanities and Social Sciences – will also join the QdV project as part of their Educational Activities.