The nameless at the edge of Europe

The title of Paula Blanco Barnés's work corresponds to the Latin phrase "Nomen nescio," which refers to people whose names are unknown or whose identity cannot be determined. The letter N is used in political and legal circles to protect the identity of a victim. On the graves of unidentified refugees who have lost their lives trying to enter the EU, there is a plaque with two n's: NN. These are the nomen nescio, the nameless.

Three heartbreaking stories that pay tribute to the lives of Son Chawa, Zala, and Olena

Blanco carried out research between 2021 and 2025, traveling to Poland. Now, La Gleva hosts this resident show at the Fabra i Coats in Barcelona, ​​the Teatre Nu, and the Nau Ivanow. The author redraws, or rather blurs, the eastern borders of Europe through three women to whom she gives names. They are Chawa, a refugee from the Chechen wars; Zala, the first Pashtun policewoman in Afghanistan; and Olena, a Ukrainian from the Donbass who has decided to abandon her artistic career to join the Ukrainian army.

These are three heartbreaking stories that, with the help of Susanna Barranco, remember and pay tribute to these lives. When she studied theater, Blanco went on Erasmus to Poland, and that led her to study Slavic Philology. She has returned often, and in this coming and going, she has gathered many stories that she has now distilled into these three, which she tells in the first person and which demonstrate that we Europeans live in a kind of capsule that could explode at any day. Honest documentary theater, to reflect on our privileges.