Exhibition ‘Self-penetration’ by Eugenio Barba / Odin Teatret

Eugenio Barba (Brindisi, 1936) founded the Odin Teatret and spearheaded the ‘Third Theatre’ that emerged on the peripheries of the major European and Latin American capitals in the 1970s. This movement, outside institutions and avant-gardes, focuses on searching for its own roots. Its hallmark is collective creation and a non-hierarchical organisation of labour.

The playwright and theatre researcher Eugenio Barba and his company Odin Teatret share with modernity a zeal for exploring the depths while also exploring what is distant. To this Nordic company, both the interiorities of the body and remote cultures are prime terrains for exploring oneself.

Between the founding of the company in 1964 and the creation of the International School of Theatre Anthropology in 1979, Barba highlighted, through the ‘Third Theatre’ manifesto, the hundreds of groups that operated on the fringes of the capitals in the 1970s. They are groups on the fringes of the first theatre in theatre institutions, and the second theatre, led by the avant-gardes. The foundation of third theatre companies is the quest for their own roots; ornament, collective creation and a non-hierarchical division of labour.

Even though the Odin Teatret is still operating, the show surveys its activities between 1971 and 1979, when it spearheaded dissident forms that began in what Barba called ‘collective self-penetration’ and ended taking to the streets of Europe and Latin America.

Co-produced with the Polo Biblio-Museale di Puglia.