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2015 » Catalonia » Section of Countries and Regions
Curator: | Bibiana Puigdefàbregas |
Authors of Theme: | Montse Amenós, Ramon B. Ivars |
Designer / Architect of exhibition: | Ignasi Cristià |
Institution: | Institut del Teatre de Barcelona |
Catalan Ways. Alfons Flores, international stage designer. Franc Aleu and Lluc Castells, shared projects
Catalan Ways has two meanings: Catalan styles or Catalan paths. A way as a route, a track, a path, a trajectory… but also as a method, a style, a manner of doing something.
has two meanings: Catalan styles or Catalan paths. A way as a route, a track, a path, a trajectory… but also as a method, a style, a manner of doing something.
Can we still talk about Mediterranean, Scandinavian, Catalan or Czech stage design? Do different cultures still have their own attributes in this increasingly global world, where we share common references, or have these features become blurred?
The PQ, with representatives from more than 60 countries, is a good place to compare and discuss this issue.
We will present some of Alfons Flores’ recent works in the opera genre, made of which he created in collaboration with video artist Franc Aleu and costume designer Lluc Castells.
Like stage design, music is a language that needs no words to express itself. Although operas have librettos, words are not as important as in the theatre – operas are traditionally sung in their original language wherever they are being performed – and are often only a pretext for music and singing. And for the performance space, since they call for new worlds in which to express themselves.
And this is exactly what Alfons Flores creates. Invented worlds, universes ready to be shared with us, the 21st-century audience. They are linked directly with our concerns, our anxieties, our fears.
Strongly contemporary spaces to house the universal themes of classical operas and reveal them in a new light. Harsh or poetic, but never complacent. Spaces that spark questions in us, disturb us, hypnotize us. Huge, overwhelming places. Enormous machines where the individual is often swallowed up by the group or the device. Places like impassable mountains.
Often actors and the space form an inseparable whole, and humans and mannequins are mixed together, all in the same skin.
Projected images change the textures of spaces. Sometimes they tell us other stories that overlap with the originals, and sometimes they transform them, folding them deep into the skin.
The costumes create characters, but above all, groups. Individuals belong to communities. Communities may appear uniform, but if you look closely, each individual reveals small, distinctive differences.
Costumes play a decisive part in the drama, sometimes integrated into a common proposal, sometimes suggesting another reading, another point of view.
Alfons Flores can also show us many faces. As he works with different artistic teams, he himself changes. He can build different, unexpected worlds. In some projects an angry colour suddenly appears, and he once again seduces us, while also unsettling us.
The pieces on show in our exhibition – such as the sculpture Clàudia, which is the model for the set of Le grand macabre, or the tree which is a scale model of the sculpture from Daphne – have a life beyond the shows for which they were conceived. They become autonomous works revealing the value in themselves. Franc Aleu is creating a new video to show on Clàudia and the clothes by Lluc Castells will become artwork. There will be a video montage on a large screen showing images of several recent operas. This exhibition will form part of a three-way-dialogue with the Colloredo Palace and the model Clàudia.
Music, Architecture, Stage Design
Roundtable: Worlds without Words
Roundtable: Worlds without Words
We would like to talk about stage design as a language, as a form of playwriting. In its broadest sense, stage design includes costumes, lighting, projections…
To do so, we are joined by three Catalan designers who are represented on the national stand: Alfons Flores, Lluc Castells and Franc Aleu.
Exhibiting artists / ateliers
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- Lluc Castells
* 1975, Cardedeu
Specialization: set designer, costume designer, scenographer
Continuing collaboration with directors: Àlex Ollé, Xavier Albertí, Lluís Homar
Additional information: He comes from a family with close connections to stage design. In 1995 he finished his drawing studies and dedicated himself to costume and set design for theatre, musical, cinema, dance and opera. He often works as costume designer with Alfons Flores.
Exhibiting works
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George Enescu, Dmond Fleg: Oedipe (Oedipe),
La Monnaie
(La Monnaie),
2011, Director: Àlex Ollé (La Fura dels Baus), ; Identification of exhibit:
costume ;
Comments: Based partly on the work by Sophocles, this is the only opera in the repertoire which tells the story of Oedipus from cradle to grave. Costumes play a decisive role in the drama. Humans and mannequins are mixed together, all with the same skin.
- Claudia Schneider
Roses (Girona)
Specialization: actor, sound artist
Collaboration with theatres: Liceu
Continuing collaboration with directors: Carlos Santos
Awards: New chamber opera voices of Catalonia
Additional information: Studied music at the Marshall Academy of Barcelona and singing with Montserrat Aparicio. Debut at the Liceu came with D.Q. Don Quixote in Barcelona. She has often collaborated with Carlos Santos.
Exhibiting works
-
: Cant de les Sirenes (Song of the Sirens),
0 ; Identification of exhibit:
music performance ;
Comments: Mezzo-soprano Claudia Schneider was the model for the set of Le grand macabre. She will perform a Baroque aria with string accompaniment. Her presence and warm voice ranges from Baroque to groundbreaking contemporary works.
- Franc Aleu
* 1966, Barcelona
Specialization: media artist, visual artist
Continuing collaboration with directors: Àlex Ollé, Fura dels Baus
Awards: Audiovisual Award at the most recent Premis Nacionals de Cultura, organized by the Catalan Government
Additional information: His best-known work from La Fura dels Baus, in collaboration with Àlex Ollé and Carlos Padrissa, includes the video compositions La Atlantida; Faust 3.0 or Le Grand Macabre.
Exhibiting works
-
György Ligeti: Le grand macabre (Le grand macabre),
La Monnaie
(La Monnaie),
2009, Director: Àlex Ollé (La Fura dels Baus), ; Identification of exhibit:
model , video ;
Comments: György Ligeti's opera Le grand macabre portrays a society on the brink of apocalypse. The story, taken from Michel de Ghelderode's play of the same name, is inspired by the Surrealist, Absurdist theatre tradition.
Frank Aleu projects images onto Alfons Flores' stage designs, transforming them.
- Alfons Flores
* 1957, Near Barcelona
Specialization: set designer, scenographer, visual artist
Continuing collaboration with directors: Calixto Bieito, Àlex Ollé - Fura dels Baus
Awards: Flores' acclaimed work won the Barcelona Theatre Critics’ Award in 1996, 1998 and 2009. In 2000 he received the Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Set Design for Barbaric Comedies.
Additional information: Active since 1978, Flores' work includes sets for theatre and opera, urban set design and the design of major events. He has worked with directors such as Calixto Bieito, Carlos Wagner, Joan Anton Rechi, Guy Joosten and La Fura dels Baus.
Exhibiting works
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Richard Strauss, Joseph Gregor: Daphne (Daphne),
La Monnaie
(La Monnaie),
2014, Director: Guy Joosten, ; Identification of exhibit:
model ;
Comments: In this Daphne – a ‘bucolic tragedy’ about the beautiful Daphne, who is loved both by the simple shepherd Leukippos and the god Apollo – director Guy Joosten sets the world of an ecologically-inspired ‘hipster’ on the fringes of the mainstream against hard, economic reality.
The main element of the stage design is a huge tree.