What's happening in FiraTàrrega?

FiraTàrrega presents its 2016 Programme to Support Creation, now in its sixth edition. The fair will welcome 11 companies, that will carry out residencies held in the capital of Urgell to prepare their stage projects and subsequently present them at the 36th edition of FiraTàrrega from the 8th to 11th of September.

The fair this year celebrates the sixth edition of this programme, an initiative that promotes Catalan performing arts and offers international companies the opportunity to carry out co-production residences in the city. The programme is a space FiraTàrrega dedicates to artists who take risks in the performing arts in public spaces, accompanying these proposals with their appearance on the market, helping them with the creation process and advising them in various professional fields. 

Creation Support is a FiraTàrrega programme that promotes stage creativity and the production of street performances as well as performances in unconventional spaces. The fair establishes an artistic residence plan that involves three lines of action (Creation Laboratories, Artistic Residencies and Transnational Productions) and it offers citizens the opportunity to attend and/or participate actively in the process of creating several shows.

One of the distinctive features of the Creation Support Programme is precisely the aim of bringing the creation processes of the companies selected closer to the citizens of Tàrrega. The project became a programme of activities to complement the cultural offer of the city, offering between March and September a series of open rehearsals to the public. This year we have scheduled a total of 12 open rehearsals, where companies have the opportunity to interact with the audience and create a dialogue with the human and local landscape of the city. 

Also taking place from the 4th to the 9th of April is the Pre/Para Week, a biennial activity organized by FiraTàrrega also integrated into the Creation Support Programme, which focuses its attention on issues related to the formation and spreading of street arts with workshops, rehearsals and presentations, with the highlight being two open workshops for writing and movement in public spaces.

One of the new features of this sixth edition of the Programme to Support Creation is the rehabilitation of the space that occupies Nau 18 of Cal Trepat, which will host a zone of permanent FiraTàrrega residencies. This renovation represents an important step in providing the fair with a permanent infrastructure to offer a warm welcome to the artists participating in the Programme to Support Creation. 

The Programme to Support Creation is led by FiraTàrrega, with the support of Foment Targarí, the Tàrrega Merchants Association that includes 200 establishments in the city. Foment Targarí and FiraTàrrega have been working together for 13 years, a bond that is considered as a basic tool for boosting the city culturally, economically, commercially and with regards to tourism.

COMPANIES OF THE 2016 PROGRAMME TO SUPPORT CREATION

The programme remains committed to encouraging theatrical creativity and the production of street performances and in unconventional spaces. Thus, in this sixth edition a residency plan has been established with three lines of action (Creation Labs, Artistic Residencies and Transnational Productions), which will take place during spring and summer. These residencies, as mentioned before, will be closely linked to the city of Tàrrega, since we intend that our neighbours are a key element in the creative process of the projects selected, as shown in the possibility of attending open rehearsals. A programme that is set up to coincide with proposals on a number of key values: creativity, laboratory, territory, research, risk, networking, innovation, public service and community.

CREATION LABS 

A total of five proposals that are hosted this 2016 in the programme of Creation Laboratories. Maria Capell, former student of the Masters of Creation in Street Arts of FiraTàrrega and the University of Lleida, prepares Vacía, her first production, which deals with the current urban landscape, with a journey through the limits of an incomplete city that is susceptible to change. Roberto G. Alonso will present A Mí No Me Escribió Tennesee Williams, a dramatic piece from Marc Rosich, with forays into dance, physical theatre, classic text, lip syncing, live song performances, seeking proximity to the public in an unconventional setting. Finally the company Sienta la Cabeza offers El Diván De La Peluquera, an experience that comes from the intimacy and involvement of a hairdresser, inviting viewers to express their individual fears.

The Movement Laboratories are part of the Creation Labs and are the line of action of that FiraTàrrega and the Graner share in the support of emerging artists committed to moving works in public spaces. On this occasion we are presenting two works in a very advanced stage of creation by two young creators: Diana Gadish and Quim Bigas. Gadish will show Handle With Care, a street proposal, clown and movement, from fragility and vulnerability that plays with elements as simple as cardboard boxes that interact with viewers. Molar (Relating to Más) is an energetic and lively work by Quim Bigas, focused on happiness and in the business of emotions, with the body as the main protagonist. A piece that sets out collective emotions as a source of important movement by today's society.

ARTISTIC RESIDENCIES 

With regards to the line of Artistic Residencies, the performances that complete the production process after their creative stay in the city of Tàrrega, will have three Catalan companies: Escarlata Circus, La Industrial Teatrera and LAminimAL. Escarlata Circus presents Cor roC, a guided tour on the intrigues of the human heart, an experience that blends art and science where you can see a collection of heart-shaped stones that come to life and tell stories that we would never have imagined. For its part, The Industrial Teatrera will offer Náufragos, a clown street performance revolving around the small and large daily shipwrecks. A look at the daily disasters of each person that will help us laugh at ourselves. Finally, the company LAminimAL will work in staging Apocalypse Reloaded, a show that combines theatre, music and new languages on stage that amplifies, modulates and changes the apocalyptic actions of the characters. A trip to the future to think about the present.

TRANSNATIONAL PRODUCTIONS 

One more year the Creation Support Programme transcends borders and welcomes three transnational productions from Mexico, South Korea and Chile. The company Carretera 45 Teatro of the renowned Mexican playwright and director Antonio Zúñiga proposes Algo De Mí, Algo De Ti a participatory testimonial piece based on the life of 30 couples from Tàrrega who will share stories of their everyday life, thus overcoming individualism that characterizes contemporary society. On the other hand, the South Korean company CCOT. Visual Theater Company will present Massager, where an Asian masseuse sets up a stand on the street and begins his practices. A peculiar human work that will involve the families in the show by means of participating in a massage workshop during the residence phase of the company. These first two works correspond to FiraTàrrega commissioning the Mexican, Antonio Zúñiga and the Korean, Lee Cheol-Sung to give us their perspective on the issues of integration and regeneration of community life.

We will also have the presence of the Chilean company Teatro Niño Proletario that will develop the work Fulgor, which deals with the phenomenon of migration and survival in the context of a world bent on unlimited growth and a perverse economic system that perpetuates social injustice.