Milan Condominium Uses Experimental Theater to Build Community Among Strangers

In Milan's Gratosoglio district, the PimOff artistic factory at via Selvanesco 75 has partnered with Dynamis, a Rome-based performance research group, to launch 'Il mio cuore messo a nudo' (My Heart Laid Bare). The project aims to integrate new residents of the Selvanesco77 residential complex—a green-oriented redevelopment of a former paper mill by Gruppo Cassa di Risparmio di Bolzano—through experimental theater. Starting autumn 2022, night-time sessions in PimOff's theater will invite voluntary participants to engage in intimate discussions on love, sexuality, and personal experience, guided by Dynamis's methods of deconstructing group dynamics and blurring actor-spectator roles. The initiative seeks to create a 'community of strangers' through surrealist-inspired archival practices, emphasizing listening over interpretation. Dynamis members describe the process as combining character divergences to sharpen debate, with humor and discomfort expected. The project addresses the bank's challenge of fostering community in a semi-rural periphery.