Milos International Theatre Festival
21 May / 12 June 2022

“Milos International Theatre Festival” 2022 edition imagines theatre as therapy,
after all the restrictions due to pandemic. The Island becomes a privileged place of experimentation,
for artists and for the Festival team. The island is imperfection. The island is distance.
The island is loneliness. The island requires adaptation, acceptance, a new awareness
of time and space. Time is dilated, last minute does not exist. There is no control,
everything is subordinated to the force of nature.
Performances start after sunset (otherwise the sunlight does not permit to see the scenography,
or even the actors on the stage). Wind rips off posters, and when this happens,
it’s up to the Festival team to hang them on, again. Bad weather can make connections
by sea difficult: everything has to be planned – and ready – long in advance.

In Milos, cure comes from the sea. Therapy is research, commitment, collection.
Not pills or drugs but shells and small things found on the beach, brought to the beach by the sea.
Donated by the sea to the Island of Milos. They’re the foreign artists who perform during
the Festival almost everywhere in the Island. The public has to look for performances
where they won’t expect to find them. Artists have been asked to create unexpectedly,
to rethink theatre spontaneously instinctively.

Milos International Theatre Festival is a guerrilla event, with different forms of expression
happening simultaneously in unexpected locations. According to the Festival theme,
visual design – from its concept to the billposting, to the diffusion –, has become a cathartic
process. All the members of the staff got involved personally, identifying a form of healing
in the process rather than in the result.

How do you cure nostalgia? And the absence? What does it mean to survive?
And to lose yourself? How do you fill the voids of your soul? Can theatre fill them?
And, more general, how can art heal? What about human beings? How do they react
towards accidents? Are they able to cure themselves, without drugs or medications?
Healing, perhaps, has something to do with time, and with dedication.
Healing is a slow, daily process.

Starting from this last assumption, and considering that Milos International Theatre Festival
is a participatory project, the visual design of the Festival was a team project, too.
It was partly “analogical”, involving at a different level all the members of the staff,
the artists, the public and the inhabitants of the Island.

Photocopies, collages, elements and details drawn directly on the printed stuff.
Every single poster, every leaflet, has been customised on the Island, adding 
hand-drawn, white elements. Communication items were turned into “actors” of
the Festival. Logo is hand-drawn, and then photographed.
Background pictures were conceived and shoot just for the Festival layouts.
They are compositions made of small objects (shells, seaweeds, fishbones…) found
on the beach, brought by the sea. All these lost and found objects were picked up
on the beach or taken from my personal collection of objets trouvés.
The photographer, who is Uruguayan, participated in the construction of the compositions
by bringing small shells found by her father on the beach of her hometown, in Uruguay.
Natural elements have been wrapped with plastic sheets: cure might have its chemical
side. Or, maybe, this is just a reminds of sea waves. Pictures have been turned into shade
of grey, then inverted, to make them appear more “dramatic” and “artificial”.

Communication has an unusual approach. Irreverent. Ironic. Experimental. PUNK.
According with the spirit of the Festival, we conceived a serie of guerrilla marketing
actions, to engage the public through a much more “pop” approach and to maximise
results while respecting our (low) budget.

We:
- used black ink on neon paper, as it happens for sales season in a mall
- designed hand-drawn elements, a recall to the punk scene and its visuals, but also
to the way the Festival approaches to art
- wanted communication to stand out, effectively, creating something in contrast with
the “summer vibes” of the Island
- massively distribute posters, leaflets and postcards everywhere, everyday, to allow
the public to get familiar with them, easily
- conceived a series of A4 announcements, sticked abusively on the Island.
What were we looking for? What was missing? Not a job, neither a pet, but the essence
of Theatre. Our performers, our ideas, our audience.

«The Theatre escaped on 21/05/2022. Born in Greece in the 6th century BC, it is shy
yet very affectionate. It is not aggressive and loves to be stroked.
If you ever find it, contact us ASAP».

«I lost my acrobat. He performs in public. He does acrobatics in front of people.
Without him I won’t be able to do my show. I only have a few days left before
the first show… If you ever find him, contact me ASAP».

«I lost my idea. To make a good show, you need good ideas. I had a great one
but I can’t find it anymore. Silly me, I should have written it down. If you have
any good ideas for a show, contact me ASAP».

«I lost the audience. I performed my show with nobody there. It didn’t work well.
The actors told me that they have never felt so alone. Such a pity: we worked hard
on our performance! If you ever find it, don’t hesitate to contact me».

Curious? Join us, and be ready for being surprised!

Watch the making-of video

Info festivalinternationalmilos.com


*** Exhibited@ BIPB B.I International Poster art Biennale 
Purdue University, Indiana, USA
21st August / 15th September, 2023
Gallery BI, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
1st October / 1st November 2023
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