As it adds editions – and it is already in its 16th – the Sismògraf of Olot, the festival “that detects movement”, increasingly resembles a living organism that mutates, evolves and interacts with the public as it progresses in its mission to formulate a new culture of coexistence. It was 2009 when, coinciding with International Dance Day, on April 29, the capital of La Garrotxa became the scene of this celebration of living arts in communion with the landscape. And now, in its third post-pandemic stage, the contest assumes that it detects the movement of the body and the planet; a declaration that began after its director and ideologist, Tena Busquets, declined to continue being a strategic festival of the Generalitat.
It is the Verd Sismògraf, “a conscious Sismògraf that talks about how to inhabit the planet in better ways, promoting shared prosperity and better living conditions,” says Busquets. The event is from April 18 to 21 with an addendum, Sismodansa, days 26, 27 and 30. Among the thirty pieces there are five world premieres and five Catalan ones.
“We are not concerned about whether they have already premiered here or not, but rather that they are innovative and challenge us, that they raise challenges and important questions, although we are excited that Eva Durban's company or the Portuguese Circolando will premiere, since we have had a relationship for years.” , Add. Trickster-P, from Eutopia, is also the Spanish premiere.
The festival recovers itineraries that guide the public: that of the newcomer, the calm one, the family proposal and the exhaustive one. And it has two “eruptions” or plot threads: the first is Geopoética, about ideas linked to the Earth, in which you will see, among others, Sota terra, by Quim Girón and Moon Ribas, about the subsoil and the beings that inhabit it. . Spectators will wear headlamps that will illuminate the show and bracelets that will vibrate when there is an earthquake somewhere on the globe. “When we say that it is a sustainable festival, it is not only because it talks about sustainability but because it tries to ensure that the management is also sustainable,” says Busquets.
Circolando will speak poetically about life in environments with volcanoes and how humanity insists on living near lava even when knowing the danger. They also propose Geophonic, from the English company Lorna Reese, which invites the public to listen to the movement of tectonic plates through giant speakers and to ascend, accompanied by characters/minerals (pyrite, marble, calcareous rock), the Montsacopa path. to the crater.
Crafts and technologies is the other eruption: it addresses “what worries us about technologies but at the same time attracts us: a new tool can be used for good and evil, to advance but also to destroy…” In this sense, Cove, by Última Vèrtebra, is a choreography of artisan hands building a traditional wicker basket but over electronic music. And the Señor Serrano Group will reformulate Una illa, which premiered at the Grec: a dialogue about how we will inhabit this planet in the future if we have to do it with artificial intelligence. Furthermore, the audiovisual creator Albert Coma (collaborator of, among others, Isaki Lacuesta) launches a proposal that consists of a night walk through the Parc Nou with advanced flashlights.
From the young people of Projecte Ingenu to the pioneers of performing arts and technology Kònik, the generational range is wide. For its part, Sismodansa will revolve around the premiere of Fairy Tales, by the Czechs Pocketart, where they explore other endings for fairy tales: for a day and a half, Raquel Gualtero, Àngel Duran, Quim Bigas, Núria Guiu or Laura will take to the streets Alcala.
