Visual Diary – May 28-June 1

In a project emerged from many trips across the United States, Fabio Cherstich – director and set designer for the theatre widely acclaimed for his ability to blend different artistic vocabularies – rediscovers forgotten stories of New York’s 1980s queer scene. The exceptional lives of the three underground artists Patrick Angus, Larry Stanton and Darrell Ellis are narrated through a blend of performance, exhibition, and conversation with the audience. An archive of mostly unpublished material brings to light the key locations of the queer scene of the time, the fears provoked by the first AIDS-related deaths and the thoughts of a community. “Over the past decade, alongside my roles as a theater and opera director, I have pursued a deep investigation of the Queer art scene that thrived in the 1980s in New York City, particularly in Manhattan. This research journey has unveiled the work and the stories of numerous artists whose lives were tragically cut short by AIDS. I have chosen to begin with Patrick Angus, Larry Stanton, and Darrell Ellis for an experiment in which, for the first time, I merge my theatrical experience with my passion for storytelling and visual art: a series of “intimate” lecture – performances intended to share with the audience these remarkable existences, lives that have been forgotten for too long and i narrate on stage using my private archives of photos and recordings. The tale of artists’ lives through the voices the images and the words of their custodians.”
Director and set designer for theater and opera, Fabio Cherstich has worked in numerous theaters including the Marinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, and the Opera de Marseille. He is the creator and director of the Operacamion opera-on-the-road project, described by the “New York Times” as a unique project capable of returning opera to its origins. He teaches the aesthetics of theatrical direction at the Scuola d’arte drammatica Paolo Grassi in Milan and at the International University of Languages and Media (IULM) in Milan. Always interested in contemporary art, with a particular focus on the New York underground scene of the ’80s and ’90s, since 2019, he has been the curator of the Larry Stanton Estate.