Festival Internacional de Teatro Clásico de Almagro
The Almagro Festival presents a large part of the program of the Spanish representation that has been shown during the Prague Quadrennial of Scenography and Stage Space 2023 (PQ23), which has proposed the theme of "the rare" as the thematic axis on which about work. From the Spanish representation, curated by Maral Kekejian, we have chosen to expand the concept of stage space and look at what happens in the festivals, traditions and folklore of territory, focusing on the celebration devices that they generate, such as the fact scenic, exceptional times and spaces. The knowledge that creates architectures, volumes and ephemeral decorations that are linked to time, the body and the space of rituality in its entire spectrum of meaning.
Our presence is materialized in a series of installations: in the Church of San Agustín we will be able to discover the Pavilion of Spain, in which we present the performance installation “¡Viva la montaña!” carried out by the multidisciplinary team formed by Maral Kekejian, María Buey, Javi Cruz, Raquel Buj, Lara Brown and María Jerez. The model of the show Yabba will be installed, an original performance by María Jerez in which we will witness a choreographed landscape made of many bodies. We will also present Terra, the Student Pavilion curated by Felisa de Blas and in which the Superior Schools of Dramatic Art of Vigo, Seville, Córdoba and Madrid participate. In addition, at the Lace and Lace Museum you can visit the exhibition “La Verbena de la Paloma. Cult, rite and zarzuela”, curated by Fernando Carmena.
A project supported by: National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM), Spanish Cultural Action (AC/E), State Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Cervantes Institute and Royal School of Dramatic Art ( RESAD)
PQ23
With the cultural manager Maral Kekejian as curator of the Spanish representation and director of the Spanish Pavilion, this edition of the Prague Quadrennial of Scenography and Stage Space 2023 (PQ23) is held from June 8 to 18 and Spain participates with a group of installations and parallel activities focused on the folkloric and popular festivals and traditions as collective rituals that connect with the stage and with "the rare", the thematic axis of this edition, understood as "the alteration of time, the exception, the rupture from the norm or routine”, as explained by the curator.
This edition of the Prague Quadrennial has proposed to all countries and regions the theme of "the rare" as a thematic axis on which to work and propose. The Spanish representation has chosen to expand the concept of stage space and look at what happens in the festivals, traditions and folklore of a territory, focusing on the celebration devices that they generate, such as the stage event, times and spaces exceptional.
In this way, the Spanish representation in the official sections of the PQ23 is led by the performative installation ¡Viva la montaña!, the cry emitted by a woman raised in the air by a group of people who dance together the Baila de Ibio, a piece traditional Cantabrian folklore; and "Terra", a pavilion proposed for the Student Exhibition in which five Higher Schools of Dramatic Art (those of Córdoba, Vigo, Madrid, Valencia and Seville) investigate the popular roots using the figure of the grotesque as a transversal element, inspired by in the work of a key creator in the history of the Spanish scene such as Ramón María del Valle-Inclán.