What's happening in FiraTàrrega?

Novelty, richness of language and writing, an international orientation and a connection with today. These are, broadly speaking, the main ingredients of the FiraTàrrega 2013 programme and, by extension, they are also the common features of all the street art events on offer. They represent, in short, the real DNA of the Fira. Because FiraTàrrega and street arts have always been inseparable partners - ever since the very first edition of the Fira, 33 years ago. This year we can see 37 street arts shows (including shows in unconventional spaces), making up 74% of the entire programme.

And if FiraTàrrega and street arts go hand in hand, they also have a direct connection with the Creation Support Programme. The shows that form part of this project make up the majority of the FiraTàrrega 2013's street arts programming and. In fact, this is the raison d'être of the Programme, launched three years ago with the aim of exploring the infinite artistic possibilities of the street arts.

The Creation Support Program, proof of the infinite possibilities of public space

The productions which will debut in the current edition of the Fira share the desire to revitalise the current landscape, whether on the basis of an experimental or a more popular orientation. The most groundbreaking space comes thanks to the companies that have been participating since the spring in the Creative Labs. One of them is Insectotròpics, which premieres its multidisciplinary show Bouazizi, a co-production between the Fira and the CAET/TNT. Following La Caputxeta Galàctica, which the company - made up of by two painters, one musician and three videoexperimenters - presented at FiraTàrrega 2012, this year they bring us a show that goes deeply into the possibilities of artistic expression and the combination of media and languages. A presentation which leads us to reflect on current issues such as human perversity, the small-mindedness that hides behind the machinery of state, the manipulation of public opinion, and the creation and propagation of myths.

Also within the Creative Labs we find Pelat, by Joan Català, the first solo performance by this young multidisciplinary artist who trained in the plastic arts, theatre, dance and circus and has extensive international experience. This attractive piece is born of the observation of skilled craftwork and from introspection into the artist's own geographical and family origins, to experiment with space and movement, creating a dialogue between nature and the individual, while seeking to connect with the audience. This is a piece designed for public spaces, in which four unknown people will join the artist to work in a ritual around the ephemeral, with the ultimate goal of reflecting on our phenomenal and disturbing journey through life. Pelat is a coproduction between FiraTàrrega and El Graner, with the support of the Festival Sismògraf (Olot), the Teatre Municipal de l'Escorxador (Lleida), Trayectos (Zaragoza) and Festival TNT (Terrassa).

Macarena Recuerda Sheperd will also present a daring show at FiraTàrrega 2013. With the title, Whose are those eyes?, this Catalan company which specialises in new drama offers a new project that springs from its founder's passion for detective stories, film noir and the comics of the 1930s. The result is a role-play game in which the audience has to take on a role and became an active character in this plot of intrigue. A guided tour round the town that turns the street into a stage on which the separation between fiction and real life becomes blurred. A detective puzzle in which the audience helps to construct the show. Whose are those eyes? is a coproduction between FiraTàrrega, Escena Poblenou, BAD de Bilbao and Antic Teatre.

On the other hand, the words of Catalonia's currently most translated playwright, Esteve Soler -alongside Jordi Queralt - will resound throughout Tàrrega in an experience that is halfway between visual arts and performing arts, called Contra la ciutat, a work which makes a scathing critique of the dehumanised city that we live in today. The project, based on Soler's already well known literary universe - Contra la democràcia (Against democracy), Contra el progrés (Against progress) and Contra l'amor (Against Love) - is a physical journey that reflects the monsters and contradictions of everyday life, reflects on the dehumanisation of society and turns the spectator into an active player and spreader of the message. On the basis of a map, an interactive presentation and numerous actions, the audience will have the chance to go round the town and cross over between a questionable reality and a surprising fiction.

The most playful part of FiraTàrrega 2013's street arts programme comes thanks to the Italian Ondadurto Teatro, with their festive and ironic approach to folk tales, entitled C'era una volta. The show recreates a magic world that blurs the frontiers between good and evil, light and darkness, love and death. The public will discover the most hidden facets of the characters that have accompanied us since our childhood: Little Red Riding-Hood, Snow White, witches and evil stepmothers. C'era una volta is a multimedia allegory about our contemporary lifestyle, of great visual impact: dynamic, ironic and with hints of a musical review. It is a co-production between FiraTàrrega and the Italian festival Mirabilia.

Street events in the Official Section

Other notable premieres in the official street program are the following:

Transforma-T, by Nats Nus: This Catalan dance company, under the guidance of choreographer and director Toni Mira, will be responsible for the opening show at FiraTàrrega 2013. Inspired by the world that directly surrounds us, by the social and political context in which we are currently living, this piece has change as its central theme. Dance, acrobatics and video will be the central elements of this large scale performance which FiraTàrrega is producing with Zaragoza City Council for the 'Fiestas del Pilar' celebrations, jointly with El Graner Centre de Creació.

Street M[u]f by David Moreno & Cia: Following the international success of his first solo show (first performed at FiraTàrrega 2008), David Moreno has joined up with prestigious partners (Toni Mira, Leandre Ribera...) and presents a choreography for 3 performers and 33 instruments. An innovative proposal, with music and movement as the stars, in which theatre, circus and dance blur together. A journey through play and through emotions, with large helpings of humour and poetry.

Entre tu i jo, by Cia. Mar Gómez: This Catalan dance company makes a new incursion into choreography created for public spaces. This is a piece which delves into a private world full of contradictions, where a couple's life together is presented as a voluntary kidnapping, where it is never clear who is kidnapping whom. A story about an intimate relationship, shamelessly exposed in the street, for all to see.

Abscisse by Jordi Galí: This dancer is fascinated by the gestures and movements found in manual labour and which make up the raw material of the creative process. He premieres at FiraTàrrega 2013 this architectural fiction for public spaces which takes as its starting point three performers and some ladders, ropes and bits of wood. After bringing to FiraTàrrega 2011 his previous work, Ciel, Galí offers us this exercise of great visual magnetism that explores the tensions between contradictory forces (verticality, horizontality, elevation, inversion) and whose final result is the construction of a complex structure.

Carnaval, by Cia. Cielo Raso: Two men and a woman are absorbed by the frenetic rhythm of carnival. Magnetism, music and dance are the central elements of this beautiful piece from the Basque company which turns the body into a unique tool for expression, pleasure, beauty and the grotesque. A drunken binge of fantasy that ends up in a hangover of reality. This experienced dance company - directed by Ígor Calonge and made up of himself, Daniel Abreu and Dácil González - takes Brazil's most popular festival as a pretext to reflect on the human being and the extreme situations in which good and evil take on a new dimension.

In the streets and squares of Tàrrega we will also be able to see other pieces such as Todos al patio, by the choreographer and dancer Pere Faura, a show of multidisciplinary improvisation in which the audience proposes the different ingredients that appear on stage (the subject, actions, specific dances, music, videos); Push, from the British dancing duo Company Chameleon, a choreographic piece that explores interpersonal contact and its physical and emotional resonance; De miracles i meravelles. Conferència optimista, from Fundación Collado-Van Hoestenberghe, a very atypical "lecture" accompanied by live music; or 4x4, by the Basque company Ertza, an urban dance show that combines the virtuosity of the young performers with a demand for the right to be different.

Tickets for all theatre shows at FiraTàrrega 2013 have been on sale since 1 August through the Fira's website: http://www.firaTàrrega.cat/fira/venda-entrades/

* The times and places where you can see these events, and all the other street shows, are available on the FiraTàrrega 2013 programme: http://www.firaTàrrega.cat/media/upload/pdf/programa-fira-2013_ok_editora_14_50_1.pdf

* You will find fuller information on all of the street shows in the FiraTàrrega 2013 press pack: http://www.firaTàrrega.cat/media/upload/pdf/press-pack-firatarerga-2013_editora_14_46_3.pdf