The young playwright and director Leonardo Manzan, a two-time winner of the Venice Theatre Biennale, returns to the LAC with a biting and thought-provoking experiment on the role of the artist: by presenting himself as a work of art, he transforms the theatre into a museum gallery. On stage, a cabaret of absurdities, paradoxes and provocations that becomes a merciless satire of self-celebration.

Having previously fused theatre with rap and DJ sets in *Cyrano Must Die* and reinterpreted *Faust* to scrutinise the vices of contemporary theatre, Leonardo Manzan stages a vernissage that opens with a programmatic statement: “Every work of art could be titled *Self-Portrait*”. For this reason, he welcomes the audience whilst standing on a pedestal: “Welcome. It is a true honour to be here,” he says – implying: for you.
The result is a performance that unmasks the clichés of contemporary art and transforms autofiction into a savage parody. A reflection on the cult of the self in the absence of the self, on the drama of those who say “I” without finding anyone to answer “you”, on the mediocrity that self-celebrates to the point of becoming a system.
With sharp and provocative irony, Manzan attempts to re-establish the principle of the artist’s exceptionality, opposing the idea of a democracy of art. Because perhaps there is a reason why he is on the pedestal and you are not. An invitation to artists to reclaim the stage with arrogance, to kill the true protagonist of today’s theatre: the talented loser.