The motto for the 2021-2022 season of the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (TNC), under the new direction of Carme Portaceli, is "una porta oerta al món". This slogan now reaches its maximum expression in the closure of the theater season with the ZIP festival. The cycle, which will be held from June 15 to 19, is committed both to inviting new companies and to proposing innovative scenic languages and groundbreaking themes.
"It's ending the season by finally opening the door to a series of companies, artists and more hybrid productions that are often difficult to program in public theaters", confirms Carme Portaceli. "They are more in the way of research than when we do a conventional work," she notes. Thus, some of the names that will go through the festival are Doctor Alonso Society, PSiRC, Elena Córdoba, Xesca Salvà and Marc Villanueva Mir.
According to Judith Pujol, curator of the cycle, the ZIP "takes advantage of the entire theater with all its spaces" to deal with different themes, with ecology as a backdrop. They will address "from micro-organic views of our environment to macroscopic, large views," says Pujol. And precisely, its name refers to the fact that "it is a kind of compressed file where a series of things happen in the TNC for five days", explains its director.
In addition, the ZIP coincides with the celebration of ISEA2022, the international electronic art congress that Barcelona is hosting this year from June 10 to 16. With this excuse, the festival has scheduled several talks between scientists and members of performing companies, which will take place, with free admission, in the TNC bar. All to "establish a different link with the artists," says Pujol.
One of the shows that can be seen in the cycle is Hammamturgia, by the Doctor Alonso Society. The work explores how the bodies of the public vary and are related in different atmospheric conditions and environments, based on the biologist Lynn Margulis's theory of endosymbiosis.
Likewise, in the Sala Gran del TNC two new episodes of the Després de tot saga by the circus company PSiRC can be seen. In this case, they deal with liminal spaces and the extinction of the human species through classical mythology, for which they will speak with paleontologist Marc Furió. At the same time, the PSiRC is collecting, through Telegram, the gestures that human beings would make if we were the last living beings on Earth.
Within the framework of ZIP, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever will also be presented, in which Rosa Casado and Mike Brookes, along with a group of collaborators, will disassemble a second-hand car over five days. They will unfold and inventory all its parts, to reveal what can be reused and what remains of the vehicle.
Un pensament salvatge, by Xescà Salvà and Marc Villanueva, will place a plate of mushrooms in the Gardens of the Sala Tallers to investigate the growth of these spices, while the choreography And we will look like trees. Botanical Fictions by Elena Córdoba dialogues with plants, humans and their organization. On the other hand, Game of Kin by Laboratorio de Pensamiento Lúdico uses games as a tool for collective intervention.
Finally, the main hall of the TNC will host the installation The best or nothing by Elisa Martínez
Within the framework of the ZIP, a meeting will also be held between young spectators from all over Europe with the members of Scene 25, the Generalitat's theater platform for young people. It is organized to show that "spectators are not a mass," concludes Pujol, but also to bring the TNC shows to new audiences.
