17th edition of live arts and new formats festival

The lack of a picture on this year’s poster is a statement. In the face of excess, it’s a fade to white. The philosopher Bifo Berardi describes the nature of our times as “the wasteland where social imagination has been frozen.” Hence our invitation to imagine, to immerse ourselves in a less prescriptive, less controlled world, where we can invoke slippery concepts such as instability, disorder and collapse, where we can abandon ourselves to a less rational and less narcissistic state. “Let’s be realistic and imagine the impossible,” we could say, like one of the demands made in May 1968. We aren’t in the same situation, but we believe in the power of the gesture, no matter how small, and in expansion into places that the naked eye doesn’t see. We are in a moment of involution that is hard to ignore. So, we have no choice. As a manifesto, we’re raising a white flag. 

The artists on this year’s programme are also raising their flags and sharing their creations, which are especially intimate and profound, born from very personal concerns. Creations, however, that shun solipsism and look to connect with a broader pain that transcends their self. Some express contemporary malaise, others the need to go where language doesn’t reach, but they are all responses to a present that is difficult to describe. And when we see them, we might feel discomfort, enthusiasm, shock, bewilderment or (dis)identification. And there’s a lot to choose from. The important thing is to feel. 

For this reason, the programme is permeated by the idea of mourning, with some pieces exploring ways to cope with loss, breakups or crises. To start with, there is work by some of the most unique, irreducible artists on the bill: Katerina Andreou, Núria Corominas, Alberto Cortés, Gaya de Medeiros, Rosa Romero and Inés-Sybille Vooduness. Six radical performances that poetically use body and word to find ways to deal with collapse, drawing on humour, but also anger and pain. But this is a pain that is eased when it is invoked and shared. Mothers, fathers, lovers, teachers, ancestors, cultures and myths appear on stage to illustrate everything that shapes and disfigures us. And grief is depicted as a practice that should be critical and collective, almost a kind of healing. 

Like tributaries leading to the central idea of mourning, some of the pieces defy representation and invent new ways of redistributing knowledge and learning. They narrate the ineffable, and aspire to deprogram the operating systems inside us, so things stop being the way they have always been. Here we have performative conferences by Norberto Llopis and Brigitte Vassallo, a confessional piece by the musician Nilo Gallego, and the latest offering from Conde de Torrefiel, which invites us to stop looking, faithful to his persistent research into what the theatre of the future should be. 

Many of these shows use poetry as an opening to multiply interpretations and desire, where what is lost in terms of definition is gained in revelation. Eminently plastic proposals that ponder existential questions around the human condition. We are talking about the Basque group Tripak, as well as Park Keito and Monte Isla. 

New formats are also present in several pieces. There are two exbibits on display throughout the festival. We have the Portuguese company Teatro do Frio with an immersive installation, an ephemeral jungle created from house plants provided by the people of Terrassa. And at sunset, Jou Serra will be in the patio of Casa Soler i Palet to present a spectacular light show featuring a laser beam projected into the sky, based on a study of light and gender. Choreographer Marta Izquierdo will be performing her original creation in two different squares in the city, a solo on skates that explores fear and the strength needed to face it. A special mention goes British-based Palestinian artist Basel Zaraa, who reconstructs his childhood home in a refugee camp to show his five-year-old daughter what the place he grew up is like and why they can’t return. A beautiful, intimate and shared exercise in memory for a single spectator around one of the most abhorrent conflicts of our time. 

Our collaboration with Terrassa’s own creative space El Corralito CAA is getting richer and richer with every edition in its joint endeavour to provide a platform for local creation. This year we will be presenting the work of two young and emerging artists, María Jurado and Elena Carvajal, both of whom have something especially unique to offer that connects nicely to this year’s theme.

This year TNT KIDS features two brilliant artists who are directing their performances at a family audience, even though they were not originally designed that way. Laia Estruch is presenting an inflatable sculpture inspired by playgrounds that will be on display throughout the festival. There are two variants, one of which is aimed at families who want to experiment with the voice and materials. And Le Parody will be giving an intergenerational concert to close the festival on Sunday morning. It’s a preview of their upcoming album, which pursues the folklore of the future and asks how we will carry on partying when the world is no longer what it is. 

This year’s pieces are like candles in the dark. Fragile, flickering, naked light that creates shadows and blurs contours, but is nevertheless enough for us to keep moving forward through the shadows because it tells us where we are, where we can tread, and what we have around us. Sometimes the shapes are scary, other times they cause excitement, intrigue, amusement or unease. But they are almost always clues, suggestions or answers. In this era of so few ideas, of frozen imaginations and of paralysis due to over-saturation, art can be an act of radical imagination. 

Marion Betriu, TNT director.