On May 14, 1994, Radiohead, buoyed by the success of the single Creep, arrived in Ponderano, in the province of Biella, to open the programming of Babylonia, a club inside an anonymous shed, far from the big live music circuits. All that remains of that show is a poster that, cyclically, appears as a post on Facebook. That image triggers, in those who frequented the club, a series of strong feelings. The "Baby," as it was called, was of paramount importance to so many provincial kids: a place where they could find kindred souls, where they could feel less isolated from the rest of the world. Back to Babylonia aims to recount, 18 years after its closure, the importance and complexity of that experience by broadening the analysis to a historical period, the 1990s, which marked a major generational shift. Accompanying us on this journey are the direct testimonies of those who lived through that period, mixing the voices of artists, technicians and spectators.
For several years we have nurtured the need to confront a relevant piece of our lives: the period that we both lived through, during our adolescence, at Babylonia and that we could define as a small lintel of our youth. A "common feeling" that we share with dozens of people close to us and who, like us, keep a vivid and deep memory of both that period (1994-2005) and the venue. This prompted us to want to take on a complex but fascinating challenge: to try to tell a story of collective formation starting from a place that no longer exists, trying to bring it back to life through the voices of those who lived it and archival materials wrested from the wear and tear of time. All this moved by a purposeful and constructive idea, far from a nostalgic exercise: we want to explore, through the lens of remembering what revolved around Babylonia, the potential, hopes and dreams of a generation.
Vina Recprds (Studio di registrazione); Emanuele Segre (Postproduzione Video); FLavio Amelotti (Digital Imaging Technician)