Conde de Torrefiel, one of the most provocative Catalan performing arts companies, is performing its new show entitled La Plaza on 29 and 30 March. The show is co-produced by Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Vooruit, Mousonturm, Festival GREC, Wiener Festwochen, Maria Matos Theater & Alkantara Festival, Festival de Marseille, Festival d’Automne & Centre Pompidou, HAU, Zurcher Theaterspektakel and Black Box Theater. Agrupación Serrano will be performing its show entitled Kingdom, co-produced by GREC 2018 Festival de Barcelona, Teatros del Canal, Teatre Lliure, Manchester Home Theatre, Théâtre National Wallonie-Brussels and Groningen Grand Theater, on 22, 23 and 24 May.
These companies were selected after the festival’s Artistic Coordinator Nicoletta Balestreri visited several Catalan events, including the Salmon festival and Sismògraf. Balestreri was invited to the events by Institut Ramon Llull, along with the Italian delegation from the Fine Estate network and the ONDA delegation in recent years.
The artists, Agrupación Serrano and Conde de Torrefiel
El Conde de Torrefiel is a Barcelona-based company led by Pablo Gispert (Spain, 1982) and Tanya Beyeler (Switzerland, 1980). They both studied theatre, directing and playwriting, as well as philosophy and the humanities. The company got its start in 2010 and has transcended on an international level since 2014. El Conde de Torrefiel is part of the artistic team for the dance company La Veronal, staging and writing text for its pieces.
La plaza is a piece set in a huge square full of monuments and human beings, who create tableaux illustrating the present and the future, and the violence that is not only part of our everyday lives but also a power that has been moving the universe from the very beginning of time. With El Conde de Torrefiel, the stage becomes a huge square where the future is shown as an unknown, unpredictable time that appears before the audience’s eyes through a series of unexpected situations. A reflection on stage on the future, the immutability of time and violence as the basis of existence. The stage aims to reveal itself as an agora to expand our concept of space and time, going beyond the physical limits of our surroundings and observing the tensions created by the forces governing the very idea of life. A circular space occupied by monuments and people, a specific place defined by the ability to think about oneself and project oneself into the future.
Agrupación Señor Serrano is a theatre company based in Barcelona that creates original productions on discordant aspects of the contemporary human experience. Señor Serrano’s performances combine live video, models, text, acting, sound and objects. The company’s productions have been premièred and toured internationally. Agrupación Señor Serrano won the Silver Lion at the 2015 Venice Biennale and is one of the most international Catalan companies.
Kingdom features bananas, consumerism, crisis, growth and hair, loads of hair. The performance explores new theatrical languages and speaks of capitalism through the most famous giant ape of all time.
About the festival
The festival is part of Palazzo dell’Arte, a multidisciplinary space that hosts the Triennale di Milano. The purpose of Triennale Teatro dell’Arte is to showcase diversity in theatre, performing arts, dance and music and, since 2018, it has been hosting the FOG Triennale Milano Performing Arts Festival, which is taking place from March to June in 2019.
Triennale di Milano is a cultural institution that hosts exhibitions and events on art, architecture, design, fashion, film, photography and theatre. The festival produces, co-produces and puts on shows from Italy and abroad, and this year is presenting roughly eighty performances. The festival has co-produced companies such as Jan Fabre and its international co-producers have included spaces like MC93 and international festivals like the Autumn Festival in Paris.
