Biancofango

Never young is a project within a poetic constellation focused on the theme of Lolita. It is a docu- performance exploring pre-adolescence as a crucial yet often overlooked segment of our future society. It questions the whereabouts and manifestations of today’s “Lolitas/Lolitə” in our communities, aiming to bridge the gap to a complex present where individuals of all ages feel the need to assert their presence.

The project addresses the new questions and unresolved issues that contemporary society raises, spotlighting a new generation demanding dialogue. It draws on historical and cultural representations of Lolita, from Nabokov to Kubrick, examining their continued relevance today and critiquing the shift from Lolita to modern phenomena like baby prostitutes, sugar baby/sugar daddy/sugar mommy and OnlyFans. What does this new generation want to tell us? What do we adults want to tell them? What does politics want to tell them? What does social media mean to them? What new technologies?

Never young highlights how society has transitioned from the innocence-pornography dichotomy to more blatant forms of exploitation visible in everyday life, questioning our collective loss of innocence and the resulting social dynamics.

As Marisa Lombardo Pijola would say: these are ten, a hundred, a thousand stories of Peter Pan in reverse. Young Lolitas, new bodies playing at being grown-ups. They have lost Neverland, or maybe they simply no longer believe in it. They have smelled too early the stench of the wrong fairy tales their parents told them. They wish to return to the originals, to the harshness of the Brothers Grimm, which was—at some point—hidden from childhood because it was deemed excessive. Stuck in something bigger than themselves, they thrash around like ants. We observe them. They are no longer children. They are not yet adults. They are the future.

 The project includes a democratic chorus of citizens over 60, which will change from city to city, engaging local communities with its themes.