Press releases

The leitmotif of the 2023 edition of FiraTàrrega is strolling, understood as a widespread and varied practice with the purpose of reclaiming life in the streets and public spaces as a framework for the development of stage creations. Some of the artistic proposals in the programme are focussed on this concept that is added to the four major programming axes of FiraTàrrega (territories, identities, commitment and reflection) that make up the roadmap of the current artistic management (which closes it five-year cycle this year). The programme has been drawn up taking into account the different views that coexist in the street, from the most elemental to the most sophisticated, and with the aim of betting on public participation and the recovery of large-format shows.

Plural speaker for the performing street arts

With 46 shows by 45 companies, the programme of FiraTàrrega 2023 has up to 25 premieres (54% of the programme), 12 of which are from the Support for Creation programme. 50% of the companies are Catalan while up to 28% are from abroad, from habitual countries like France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy or Portugal and other, less frequent one like Denmark, the Czech Republic or Lithuania, with which FiraTàrrega has established collaborative links in recent years. There will also be 22% of formations from around Spain from Navarre, The Basque Country, The Balearic Islands, Andalusia, Madrid, Galicia and the Valencia region.

Large format and participation

The bid to recover large-format shows will materialise in proposals by the companies La Veronal with Sonoma, Kaleider with Fish Mobile, Cie. L'homme Debout with Mo et le ruban rouge or the joint work Les nostres terres com planetes dansant with Alba G. Corral and the Orquestra Julià Carbonell.

The direct participation of the public will also be another of the key elements this edition with 14 proposals where the spectators have to involve themselves actively with the work so that it can be performed. At the same time, there will be up to a hundred people in the Escamot de FiraTàrrega, a small army of volunteers who will be asked to participate in various shows.

The expected and unexpected spaces of FiraTàrrega

The streets of Tàrrega will continue to be the protagonists of a good part of the programme, while the production of shows in closed venues and non-conventional spaces will continue with unique proposals. On the other hand, Sant Eloi park is consolidating itself as a space for pieces that need to be enjoyed calmly or that connect with the philosophy of strolling.

FiraTàrrega will also maintain the L'Inesperat section, one of the novelties of the previous edition with proposals that the spectator will come across without knowing the time or place of the performance. The initiative arose with the idea of recovering the spirit of surprise of the street arts and of what happens when you least expect it.

Wide artistic variety

The programming has been structured into 5 blocks that define the artistic variety of La Fira.

Public Space

The pieces focussed on the experience of the public space weave a large gran part of the programme with proposals like the joint performance by Alba G. Corral and the Orquestra Simfònica Julià Carbonell de les Terres de Lleida with Les nostres terres com planetes dansant, a great symphonic-visual poem with the spirit of twinning the Terres de Ponent and the Terres de l'Ebre; Agniete Lisckinaite with Hands up, a performative action focusses on the culture vindication; Be flat with Follow me, an itinerant parkour show; Big Bouncers with Plata, with a new proposal for the use of everyday spaces; Cia. Du'k'to with A Rienda Suelta and their vibrant circus; Eléctrico 28 with Definicions ambulants, an ephemeral live dictionary that proposes new definitions of the world we live in; Svalholm with Collective Matter, a site-specific experience of dance, sculpture and live singing; Teatro do Mar with Mutabilia, minimalist circus inspired in dreams, and Temporary Collective with Silent; a piece born during the pandemic restrictions and which makes the audience reflect on the orders they have to follow.

Entertainment

The more festive side of FiraTàrrega comes through names like Kaleider, with Fish Mobile, a large installation that transforms the urban landscape with a giant mobile hanging in the street; Guillem Albà with Ma Solitud, an intimate proposal to recall the importance of the human, simple and shared; Comedians - Joan Font with El venedor de fum, where he reviews his career over the 50 years of Comediants; Anto Rodríguez with Vivir en videoclip. Tú, yo nosotris y un karaoke, in which the Plaça de les Nacions Sense Estat in Tàrrega is turned into a huge popular karaoke; Compagnie 1+(1+1) with Wazo, a circus show by a trio of acrobats-ornithologists; La Casa Oscura with Uroboros and the energy of two dancers who go through the different stages of life; A-rítmiks with 360º, a proposal that combines tap dancing and percussion; Modo Grosso with Tout/Rien, a minimalist reflection about the passing of time and the symbolism of small objects; Holoqué with Steampinball, an installation which mixes the performing arts, artisanal work and immersive technology; Zum-Zum Teatre with Rhinos, where three affable rhinos incite the audience to dance and have a good time; Marga Socias & Els Mals Endreços with Orelles, an entertaining street show-concert which is presented as a research process; La Trócola with R.E.M., a circus show inside a dream and Produccions de Ferro with El jorn del judici, a comic text about the end of the world set on Majorca.

Literature

Literary proposals will also have their place at FiraTàrrega with the pieces by Alex Peña with Recreativos Federico, an installation of recreational machines customised with the works and figure of Federico García Lorca; La Compagnie des six faux nez with Fiammiferi, an adaptation of the tale "The Little Matchmaker" by Hans Christian Andersen but without a happy ending; Cia. Pagans with El valor de res, a ritual and participative work where everyone will read a surprising book, and Oriol Sauleda with Llumeneres, in which this Catalan poet acts as master of ceremonies in a festival of words, music and dance.

Memory-Roots-Rituals

FiraTàrrega also looks to the past to understand the future and connect to those roots and rituals that define us as a society. Thus, some notable proposals stand out, like those by La Veronal with Sonoma, a show that sets out from the human need to return to the body and which is exhibited in public for the first time; Cía. Estefanía de Paz Asín with Olvido flores, that tells the story of a circus from Navarre that disappeared without trace during the Spanish Civil War; Joan Català with Idiòfona, a delicate piece where the audience help to build a plastic and sound installation connecting with their roots; Farrés Brothers i Cia with Hohihu. L'horrible història de la humanitat, which deals with humanity's worst atrocities through humour; Pol Jiménez with Lofaunal, contemporary dance in transit through the interspecies; Cia. Atzucac with Noves espiritualitats per a persones atees, a participative proposal to try to resolve transcendental, transgenic or trans-human concerns; Zum-Zum Teatre with El Testament, in a reflection on the legacy we will leave; Companyia de Circ Eia with La pedra de fusta, an experience through the circus languages of balance, trust and humour; Moon Ribas & Quim Girón with Ramat simfònic, an immersive stroll where the audience is invited to form part of a human herd; Cia. Roberto G. Alonso with Jo, travesti, a homage to the art of drag and some of the most famous transvestites in our culture, and Viktor Černický with Pli, a powerful work between dance, circus and the visual arts with the competition of 22 chairs.

Identities

The programme also has different spaces to assert identities and ways of understanding life, through the following companies. Cie. L'homme debout with Mo et le ruban rouge, a large-format itinerant proposal about a child's imaginary journey in which the audience plays an essential role; ButacaZero with Lo único que verdaderamente quise toda la vida es ser delgada, a text work about fat-shaming; No Way Back with Wa7ch Morocco, urban dances where the dancers defend pride in their roots; La Baldufa with Amal, a piece that incorporates circus language to tell a story about migration; Maria Palma with La veu submergida, the artist's first personal project that seeks answers in a large fish-tank; La Dramàtica Errante with Altsasu, a fictional show based on events in the Altsasu case; Akira Yoshida & Lali Ayguadé with Together to get there, an intimate meeting to create their own world through dance; Impulsos with Lenguajes, which presents a collective delirium of shared loneliness through circus and movement, and Lökke with Dopplegänger, which proposes a game of mirrors where nothing is what it seems.

The professional side, a reference in the on-line and face-to-face fields

FiraTàrrega continues with its mission to serve performing-arts professionals with the aim of connecting, accompanying, generating and extending the different agents in the sector. The FiraTarrega.Pro digital tool improves the user experience and is consolidated as a virtual space for connecting the professional performing arts community, with over 1,300 professional entities and 450 projects published.

The numerous habitual professional representation is maintained and there will two international delegations, from France and the Wallonie-Bruxelles region. At the same time, new agreements have also been reached with professional associations from Catalonia and the rest of Spain (CDAEC, ADGAE and La Red) to continue with the aim of being an agent that energises the performing arts sector.

In addition, during FiraTàrrega, the organisation has planned thirty activities for professionals. Notable among these is a round table with the leading names in the street arts in France, the traditional Lunch Meeting of the ICEC and a meeting to promote small-format theatre.

Consolidation and entrepreneurship of new projects

FiraTàrrega continues with the European (Un)Common Spaces 2020-2024 project of the In Situ network for artistic creation in public spaces, with the Stalkers project of professional training for young people for curating live arts. It has also joined a new European project led by the FEDEC and Jump. This is Speak Out, which is aimed at preventing discrimination and gender violence in the circus and street arts sector.

For her part, interdisciplinary Mexican artist settled in Prague, Cristina Maldonado, will also publish the podcast "Lo que Tàrrega me enseña de la muerte" (What Tàrrega teaches me about death) as part of a project that began in 2022 as an In Situ artist and part of FiraTàrrega's Creative Territory programme and which she has combined with a Creation, Research and Investigation Residency in the Urgell District Archive in 2023. The artist investigates the practical aspects of how we manage death on a day-to-day basis and this will end with an artistic piece that will be seen at FiraTàrrega 2024.

Budget and ticket sales

The global budget for this edition of FiraTàrrega is €1,204,250 and tickets for the general public will go on sale from Saturday, the 22nd of July through the web www.firatarrega.com.