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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.
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
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.