THE GAME
Collaborative Project, Film, 2013-14
Being precarious means getting something through pra- yer (from Lat. Precàrious d Prèx - preghiere (V prece) obtain upon prayer), a kind of concession granted on cre- dit, which establishes a relationship that is not only tempo- rary, but also unstable and fragile, where the indebted par- ty cannot exercise with adequate force that which should be an unalienable right. Being precarious is a bit like being adrift in perpetual se- arch for security, which often comes only temporarily. The respective state of mind involves the entire a ective sphe- re of the mind. Precarious individuals seek stability that is often achieved only temporarily through sharing with other individuals in similar conditions.
The term precarious is used especially to define employment contracts. This is but one of the many aspects of an increasingly widespread unstable condition: the state of one’s residence can be precarious, a relationship, the ability to obtain health care, the state of citizenship, etc. All such conditions e ect and are e ected by not only economic instability, but a larger condition of subalternity. Preca- riousness is dictated by the scarcity of rights appointed to those more subjugated, fragile individuals.
The question: “How to lead a ‘good life’ in this state of pre- carity?” This is a central theme of the project THE GAME, a complex journey that has involved employees from three different factories in the Sienese territory, enterprises di efferent in structure and type of production but united by the same type of quandary, which simply becomes uncertainty for those who spend their time and their lives working there.
THE GAME is a platform. It is where we tried to ask and answer questions, to witness a presence or express a subjectivity within a time and space, the space of labor, which is increasingly becoming a place of "non-encounter", paving the way for a new type of alienation, no longer dictated by rhythms or tasks but defined by the lack of honest intrapersonal relationships.
The Game has been a platform to revive that sense of self-organization, put asleep for too long by rigid corporate hierarchies. The game is an excuse. Soccer was selected among many possible games as the most suitable one through which to experiment with a different model of self- organization.
A precarious field, hexagonal, with three goals and three teams, independent, outside and inside the working place, everything organized in a time liberated from work. For the period of three months, our workshops created not only a place to speak about identity and community, but a place to "sweat", to test out the possibilities of playing, while remodeling new paths of relations, inspired by the complexities of the Situationist trialectics, which has been the underlying motif of the project, making custom "imperfect" rules for a game that is imperfect by nature.
Playing outside of dialectical patterns means being ready to question our roles, our "morale" assuming new positions, with the consciousness that those roles may change constantly, opening up new room for dialogue. Playing outside of the concept of defense or offense means creating a community that really thinks and behaves outside of those confines.
Breaking away from the idea that sport and leisure are practices exclusively outside of the political sphere is the first step to re-appropriating something that is inherent to man: the right to leisure, the right to not work, a right among many which risks becoming a privilege.
