Inspired by a citizenship class exercise originally developed in the United Kingdom, 35 volunteer students from Rome’s Manara High School were asked to think through relationships of dominance in contemporary Italy. The students were divided into five categories: journalists, politicians, workers, activists and bankers. The journalists were responsible for an hourly report on the advancement of the “society,” while the different categories responded to the scenarios by assigning each other “power-points.” The simulation was interrupted by planned moments of abstraction from the game, debates about the social conditions being created through the choices the different categories were making and the meaning and workings of power. Agency—Giochi di Potere was conducted in April 2014 at MAXXI Museum in Rome.
