LIFE Festival Returns to Milan with Focus on Information Overload and Polarization

The second edition of LIFE – Theatre Arts Media Festival will take place at Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan from April 30 to May 21, 2026. Organized by Zona K, the festival centers on the structural condition of information excess, polarization, and confirmation bias, exploring how these shape reality and relationships. The program blends theater, performance, visual arts, and research, emphasizing hybridity and the tension between document and imagination, public and private spheres. In an interview, festival organizer Valentina Kastlunger discusses the curatorial framework, noting that the festival addresses the paradox of abundant information leading to confirmation bias. She highlights the feminist slogan "the personal is political" as a lens for understanding the blurring of public and private life in the onlife era. The festival positions live theater as a space for real presence and direct confrontation, contrasting with algorithmic mediation. Works like "Three Times Left is Right" serve as narrative anchors, exploring how private life magnifies societal fractures. Kastlunger argues that art can provoke, exaggerate, and explore scenarios without simplifying or amplifying tensions. The festival aims to create dialogue between reality and imagination, drawing from real data and research.