Voices of a Factory, Voices of Work.
From Settimo to Piccolo Teatro
“The factory is a complex place of activities, relationships, and also of contrasts, but above all of original interaction and synergies. Elements that need visibility so they can be understood, making it possible to overcome old stereotypes and relationships that have been overtaken by events” (Marco Tronchetti Provera)
Settimo, la fabbrica e il lavoro, commissioned by the Pirelli Foundation and directed by Serena Sinigaglia, was performed in February 2012 at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano. The move from the old Pirelli Pneumatici factory in Settimo Torinese to the new Industrial Centre designed by Renzo Piano was at the heart of the story, which was based on hundreds and hundreds of interviews – compiled by Roberta Garruccio – with workers, technicians, and engineers who personally experienced the move.
Work as a core value of a society undergoing radical transformation, in the live voices of those who experience the factory first hand: an entirely original approach to business culture, through the symbolic representation of highly relevant values such as work, identity, integration, and the ethics of rights and duties. The interviews that the show was built around later came together in Le voci del lavoro, a book published by Laterza, further showing how the factory is a complex place, with its own unique dynamics and contrasts, interactions, and synergies.
