VestAndPage

Since 2006, German artist Verena Stenke and Venice-born artist and writer Andrea Pagnes have collaborated internationally as VestAndPage, working across performance art, performance-based filmmaking, writing, publishing, and temporary community-based art projects.

VestAndPage explores performance art and filmmaking as interconnected creative practices through collaborative creation, artistic research, and curatorial projects. Their performances and films have been created in extraordinary environments, including beneath Antarctic glaciers, at the foothills of the Himalayas, across the vast landscapes of Tierra del Fuego, within military enclaves, and inside prehistoric cave systems. Their work has been presented in theatres, museums, galleries, festivals, and cinemas around the world.

They are the founders and artistic directors of the Venice International Performance Art Week. Their artistic research and poetic writings have been widely published and translated for international audiences. Through masterclasses in collaborative creation and performance-making, as well as guest lectures at art academies worldwide, they share their unique methodology and mentor emerging artists in interdisciplinary performance and film practices.

Monologues from Gaza

These monologues represent the raw, heart-wrenching realities of Gaza people living through the ongoing genocide in Gaza Strip.Each narrative is a testament to the resilience, pain, and complexity of human emotionsin times of genocidal war by the Israeli occupation. These voices reflect not only the struggle for survival but also moments of profound courage, love, and even joy that persist despite the loss of loved ones, homes, and the essence of what it means to feel human.They remind us that even in the darkest times, the human soul seeks light and  meaning.

The authors of these stories are brilliant thinkers and leaders full of agency and creativity in the face of oppression, and through their words, they most generously offer a glimpse into the human soul in its most vulnerable yet defiant form. These monologues are not just about Gaza—they are about the universal longing for safety, dignity, and a future where peace is an international duty towards humanity.. We invite you to read these stories with the understanding that the voices you are about to encounter are real, genuine, and in urgent need of not only the world’s attention, but the world’s decisive and persistent action to stop this genocide.

“Monologues from Gaza” is a production presented by the ASHTAR Theater and made available to  VestAndPage