William Kentridge's Multidisciplinary Spectacle at Pompeii

South African artist William Kentridge debuted his film 'OH, TO BELIEVE IN ANOTHER WORLD' at the Teatro Grande of the Pompeii Archaeological Park on June 29 and 30, 2022. The performance integrated music, art, and cinema, featuring Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10 performed by the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester conducted by Michael Sanderling. The film overlays collage, performing art, and digital micro-camera footage of abandoned theaters and halls. The event was part of 'Pompeii Theatrum Mundi', a theater series conceived by the Teatro Nazionale di Napoli in collaboration with the Pompeii Archaeological Park and the Campania Teatro Festival, running until July 16, 2022, and inspired by the theme 'sentiment of the human'. Kentridge's work draws from the historical event of Stalin's death on March 5, 1953, and Shostakovich's subsequent composition of his Tenth Symphony, which served as a musical reckoning with Stalinism. The artist, known for critiquing colonialism, exploitation, and capitalism, recontextualizes 20th-century history to comment on contemporary dictatorships. Kentridge stated, 'The situation in which we find ourselves cannot be the final state of the world; there must be a better condition for everyone, artists included.'