Theatre «A Kiss – Antonio Ligabue»

This captivating one-person play tells the story of the life of the Swiss-Italian painter Antonio Ligabue (1899 – 1965), who was long misunderstood, excluded and ridiculed. Instead of being shattered by his fate, Ligabue created his own universe of paintings and sculptures. His works, which have meanwhile earned him the aura of a local van Gogh in Switzerland as well as in Italy, testify to an enormous power and depth.

The Swiss actor Marco Michel immerses us in Ligabue's life by 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 is always creating a new counterpart on stage – because it was only through his art that Ligabue was able to build a bridge to the outside world and communicate with it.

The themes of exclusion, madness and isolation are directly experienced and tangible. This contributes to the de-stigmatisation of mentally impaired people and helps them to communicate across cultural, religious and social boundaries.

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

Registration is not necessary, the event is free of charge.

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 given to 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 and deported to Italy. In Gualtieri, the hometown of his presumed father, he, who at first did not speak a word of Italian, lived from then on as an outsider and village idiot.
It wasn't until the late 1950s that a well-known painter promoted Ligabue and his work – he became famous overnight.
Ligabue died on 27 May 1965 in Gualtieri. Today, both Switzerland and Italy are proud of "their van Gogh", while Antonio Ligabue is still largely unknown in other countries. Today, Ligabue's works are sometimes traded for six-figure sums.