Good morning, mindful!

How the world changes in just one year! Or perhaps it is in continuous change, but we only perceive the sudden shifts. Like an earthquake that is the result of continuous pressure building between tectonic plates and which, at some point, suddenly ruptures for a few seconds — the change is in fact continuous, but for us, it is imperceptible.

In the end, we can only perceive the event. The developments that lead us to it, either we are unable to decipher them, or we do not want to accept the data presented to us as true. It is the continuous energies that lead to huge ruptures. The progress of changes that trigger disastrous events apparently happens too slowly over time to be perceived by humans.

Looked at from the other side: major (and minor) catastrophic events are always the result of processes that have developed over more or less long periods of time. The war in Ukraine, the climate emergency, the pandemic, financial market collapses are all consequences of long processes.

Strangely, looking back, we realize that the signs were there, the writing was on the wall, but at the time we were not able to read it, or grasp the meaning of what we were reading. We don't have many chances to escape disasters. Our only chance, I believe, is to do everything we can to understand the long processes that risk resulting in disasters and tragedies, and to take seriously the information we receive from those decoding attempts. And perhaps the most important point is: to have confidence in our ability to change the flow of energy currents, and in the fact that our actions have an effect on the development of small events, and therefore also on major events. It is us who can prevent total climate catastrophe, it is us who have the power to steer the economy, production, consumption, politics, and well-being of our neighbours as well as our brothers and sisters in other countries. It is us who have the power to prevent wars.

Everything depends on how we direct our vital energies and on how we act to influence the developments of the large and often invisible energy currents. Confidence.

A happy 2024, full of health, love, creativity, and joy!

Here are some of the projects we are currently working on

Beyond — Inside the mind of Adolf Wölfli

A show that is essential to us, a research project that has taken over a year. Post-production has finished, all the final calculations, reports, and financial closures fall within the old year. Now the distribution work has begun, planning the tours of this show. We are also working on repeats in Italian Switzerland. Last week was dedicated to documentation - setting up a dossier in English for international organizers and post-production of the video: in collaboration with Bianca of Primitive Films, we are creating both a 90-second trailer and a video of the full version of the show. You wish to receive more information? Send a message!

ODYSSEY in Lugano

Preparations have begun for the ODISSEA shows in early February (2/3/4) in Lugano, both for schools and for the public. A significant part of the preparation is public relations, communication, the other part is planning and, of course, rehearsals.

zohner.com: The homepage has finally come back to life.

After two years of dormancy, the company's homepage has awakened. All the most important and recent information about the company, its activities, and its projects can now be found on the landing page of the zohner.com website, by scrolling down. The aim was to implement and put into operation existing technologies and graphic concepts to present the most relevant and significant content to the public immediately. We have tried to consistently implement the maxim 'no more than one click between user and content.' Does it work? What do you think?

Book THE QUARANTINE

Last Thursday we met again with the graphic designer Edy Ceppi who has so far drawn the first 90 pages of the book. We are working on the content, correcting the texts and preparing the technique: it will be a multimedia book, with texts, photos, audio, and video. Incredible. Estimated number of pages: 444. We will finish production by June, with the book launch after the summer.

Sketch of the cover. Artwork by Christine Zohner.

The Daodejing

A new magical project on the ancient Chinese text of sometimes rhymed prose, attributed to Laozi and composed between the 4th and 3rd century BC. We are at the beginning of creation and are trying to design form, way of working, and production. It's too early to tell you more now, but if you're particularly interested, send us a nod with concrete questions and thoughts!

BACKSTAGE Magazine

We are evaluating whether and how to enhance both this newsletter and the BACKSTAGE Magazine blog. Together with a group of specialists, we are developing a new concept. If you are interested in this work process, or if you want to give us a hand in one way or another: Let us know what you think, if you have ideas, doubts, money. We need reflections on this.

Markus Zohner Arts Company

MARKUS ZOHNER ARTS COMPANY DEVISES AND STAGES WORLD-CLASS THEATRE FOR ALL AUDIENCES.

We write, create, and produce theatre performances, cultural events, radio shows, podcasts, books, and creative writing courses to share unforgettable stories with people in our community, nationally, and worldwide. We perform on stages all over the world, at schools, on the big screen, or virtually. Furthermore, we strive to be as inclusive and diverse as possible.

Our artistic starting point is an interest and curiosity directed towards theatrical forms based on… (read on)