Desireless, an exhibition and performance by Nicola Genovese curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, arrives in Milan. Weaving together elements ranging from speculative science fiction to commedia dell’arte, from death metal to troubadour music, the project inaugurates atrium Durazzi, a new space for cultural exchange opening in the headquarters of the eponymous

Milanese fashion house.

The performance — promoted by Stadt Zürich and produced by Fabriktheater Rote Fabrik – will be premiered in Milan thanks to the collaboration with the fashion brand Durazzi and Case Chiuse by Paola Clerico. It will last approximately one hour and will take place at the Durazzi headquarters, via Rosolino Pilo 14, on June 26, 27, and 28 (by reservation only). 

The brand’s creative team contributed to the design of the props and its mise-en-scène, including costumes and accessories.

The stage is also accessible as an exhibition: the objects, screens, and furnishings that compose the set are conceived as artworks and can be experienced independently of the live performance from June 20 to July 31. 

Synopsis

In a post-capitalist — and perhaps post-war — Europe, the CEO of a digital corporation unveils a new product called Warp: a service that allows users to manipulate the space-time continuum and access a new Lebensform. It promises to dissolve nostalgia and the ambiguous passions that color the future, folding them into the fabric of a never-ending present.

Through an interplay of monologues, choreography, and live music, Desireless reveals the masks, codes, and emotions of a semi-privileged humanity caught between the ruins of a late-imperial world, the bondage of a technocratic hell, and the fantasy of a biomedical Nirvana.

In creating Desireless, Nicola Genovese collaborated with artists Dustin Kenel, Patricia Meier,

Dauen Park, Maria Sabato, Thembeka Sincuba, the goth rock band They Die, the musician Magda

Drozd (Sopraterra), and various artificial intelligence software. A critical text by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi is integrated into the staging in the form of a multiple-choice questionnaire, which will be handed out to the audience before the performance.