Seeds of Art

Where art sows the seeds of the future, and roots nourish change

In 2026, Alberobello celebrates thirty years as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, while also taking on the role of Apulia’s Capital of Culture. Then, in 2027, it marks 230 years since it was granted royal recognition — a past that still breathes through its streets.

Staying or returning.

Three decades and two and a half centuries of history intertwine in a pendulum-like movement between who we have been and who we might become. Amid those stone dwellings that have defied time for centuries, we now turn our attention to the ROOTS of those still searching for a reason to choose.

With this theatre season, we are not celebrating anniversaries. We are celebrating actions. Because roots are not monuments. They are the everyday acts of care through which we water what we wish to keep alive. They are the trust required to plant a seed, knowing that we may never see it bloom. They are the determination of those who choose to stay and those who choose to return, united by a common purpose: to sustain the local area and prevent it from being emptied of its people.

What does it mean for a community to celebrate its past without ceasing to build its future?

In 1996, UNESCO recognised Alberobello as a World Heritage Site not to freeze its history in time, but to affirm that its unusual dwellings and the stories they hold bear exceptional witness to a cultural tradition that has disappeared.

An invitation to seek out and safeguard what cannot be seen, what lies beneath the surface and reaches deep down.

In Alberobello and Coreggia, through theatre that is not elitist but accessible, we seek to honour that commitment through art.

Here, theatre cannot be a luxury. It can be a necessity. A place where, this year, through outstanding works of art from Italy and around the world, we reflect on what divides us — emigration, war, corruption and property speculation — but also on what brings us together: memory and the dream of a shared future.

With this in mind, alongside performances, meetings and round-table discussions involving local associations, we will, for the first time, also engage children aged 0–6. Because if we want our children to love this land, they must feel connected to it before they can even understand it. We will do so through dance theatre, a language that speaks to the body and memory before it speaks to reason.

Roots do not grow downwards alone. They spread, intertwine and seek one another out: through new collaborations with local associations, not only cultural but also social; shared projects with Coreggia and neighbouring communities that are still waiting for a theatre and a season of performances of their own; and initiatives to improve accessibility, so that theatre can truly be for everyone.

These are the vital parts we cannot see. The parts that give the world strength, grounded in respect and faith in the future.

Roots

By placing possibilities in the soil, taking root allows them to grow and become part of a landscape, a community, an identity. Every seed needs specific conditions to develop roots. It is through this invisible yet decisive process that the strength of all genuine growth emerges. STATT chooses to look not at what rises to the surface, but at what sustains it. Four major theatre productions from Italy and the international stage explore this theme from seemingly distant perspectives that are, at their core, deeply connected by our shared humanity: what remains of our roots when life asks us to change?

War represents the most dramatic rupture, turning roots into a symbol of resistance and rebirth. Emigration tells the story of roots tested by distance. Memory is not nostalgia, but what makes evolution possible without losing our sense of where we come from. Dreams are the driving force that carries us towards the future.

The tradition of walls: is it a conscious passing down of what nourishes us, or a contagion that weighs us down instead of helping us grow?

Accompanying each performance, free talks and discussions return to offer audiences of all ages new perspectives and tools to engage with the language of the stage.

In an age that favours the ephemeral, ROOTS is an invitation to care. Because today, more than ever, we need to nurture within ourselves what we wish to protect in the world around us.

Giuseppe Palasciano
Artistic Director – STATT