Sorrentino and the cure: 'waiting for the report becomes a journey not anguish'
'Sweet Expectation' is the director's installation - A large beating heart illuminated by a red light as patients plunge into the future
2' min read
Key points
- "When we await our destiny, all we can do is wait".
- The set design was by Margherita Palli, the sound by Max Casacci
- The actors are the students of the 'Luca Ronconi' School of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano
2' min read
When the lift doors open, all doubts vanish. All in all we are inside a hospital. Mirrored silver, white stripes at the level of the gurneys. A boy turns the key and presses the number one button. On the upper floor, you pull out the card with the numbers to wait your turn.
Thus begins the journey into 'La dolce attesa', or rather 'The sweet expectation', the installation by director Paolo Sorrentino inside the Salone del Mobile in Milan, accessible only by two people at a time, with the consequence that it is almost impossible to find a free slot to visit it.
'Waiting is one of life's worst misfortunes,' writes the director of La grande bellezza and Parthenope in describing his work. "We speak of waiting for a report, for a medical response. When we await our destiny, all we can do is wait. When our future depends on a doctor, on a laboratory, here we are left hanging and anguished'.
A reflection that may seem strange if it comes right in the midst of the noise and bustle of the 2100 exhibitors at the fair, from 37 countries around the world, and amidst the hubbub of the thousands of visitors who fill the halls of the Fair. Or perhaps because of this, it is even stronger and more provocative.
As the experience progresses, when the nurse-actor opens the ward door, the sound is just that of the pulsations of a large heart reflecting lights and images. Lying on large leather armchairs, the journey of waiting begins and we approach the centre of the corridor whose blood-red light slowly gives way to half-light.
