Theatre «A Kiss – Antonio Ligabue»

The rousing one-person play tells the story of the life of the long-misunderstood, marginalized and ridiculed Swiss-Italian painter Antonio Ligabue (1899 – 1965). Instead of breaking down because of his fate, Ligabue created his own universe of paintings and sculptures. His works, which have now earned him the nimbus of a local van Gogh in Switzerland and Italy, testify to a tremendous power and depth.

The Swiss actor Marco Michel immerses us in Ligabue's life with unusual means: large-format charcoal drawings of people and landscapes are created before the eyes of the audience, with which he enters into dialogue. Like Antonio Ligabue in his life, Marco Michel also creates a new counterpart on stage again and again – because only through his art could Ligabue build a bridge to the outside world and communicate with it.

The themes of exclusion, madness and isolation can be experienced and felt directly. This contributes to the destigmatisation of mentally impaired people and helps to communicate across cultural, religious and social boundaries.

The play lasts about 75 minutes (without intermission) followed by a panel discussion on the topic of resilience and an aperitif.

The event is free of charge (collection for the PDGR patient fund). Due to the coordination, we ask you to register for the event – thank you very much.

Photos: Jürgen-Ruckdesche, Luigi Burroni, Jean Daniel von Lerber


About Antonio Ligabue (1899 – 1965)

The Swiss-Italian painter was born in Zurich on 18 December 1899 as the illegitimate child of an Italian immigrant and was placed with foster parents at the age of nine months. Because he had attracted attention early on through so-called "feeble-minded behavior", he was sent to a youth home and later to a psychiatric hospital. At the age of 18, he was expelled from the country for vagrancy, among other things, and deported to Italy. In Gualtieri, the hometown of his alleged father, he lived from then on as an outsider and village idiot.
It was not until the late 1950s that a well-known painter promoted Ligabue and his work – he became famous overnight.
Ligabue died on May 27, 1965 in Gualtieri. Today, Switzerland and Italy are proud of "their van Gogh", while Antonio Ligabue is still largely unknown in other countries. Today, some of Ligabue's works are traded for six-figure sums.