"The great-grandfather was a blacksmith, the grandfather was a blacksmith, the father was a blacksmith, and I learned the trade by force and reluctantly. But when I entered the world of the circus, where metal structures are used, then it turns out that I knew how to cut iron, weld it... and I saw it in a different way". It is Joan Català who explains his family history to La Vanguardia to finish by explaining the seed of his show Idiòfona, which he presented at FiraTàrrega, in the Sant Eloi park.
The artist and dancer from Barcelona explains that it was precisely the fact of belonging to a family of blacksmiths that gave him the idea of Idiòfona, which begins with the full weight of the metal tubes he carries, until, guiding the audience through different places of the park and asking for their collaboration, he ends up building a giant xylophone, where the audience composes a piece of music. "Let's go from the heaviness, the weight of the iron, to this light and ethereal thing", explains Català as a hint to understand his exciting montage, loaded with poetry.
Joan Català's show responds directly to the theme of this edition of the street theater fair, "Passejar", like others that have already been seen these first two days of the festival. This is also the case of Hands up, the performative and dance proposal brought to Tàrrega by the Lithuanian dancer Agniete Lisickinaite. In front of a spread of posters on the floor, where you can read phrases such as "Let's make America think again", "Palestine" or "Waging war to preserve peace is like carding to preserve virginity", the artist invites the public to take the posters and raise them (hands up) while explaining the different meanings that this gesture has in each culture.
The surprise comes when, with the posters up, the viewer can read the other side, which has the exact opposite message. On the other side of "Palestine", it reads "Israel". Or on the sign that says "Animals are not food, they are friends", on the other side you can read: "A vegetarian is a bad hunter". With all this messaging artillery, the public takes the walk with their hands up through the center of the city, to end up reflecting on the absurdity of it all, on "non-constructive protest", because "there is no single truth or only answer", declares Lisickinaite.
If you want to delve deeper into the absurdity of life, then you must see the proposal of the Atzucac company, which premieres at the New Spiritualities for Atheists fair. Also counting on the active participation of the spectators, the company raises the sadness that it means for a non-believer, non-religious person, not knowing what will happen when they die. The imagination soars and the poetic loves everything, trying to find answers to the absurdity of life "for those who do not have a piece of heaven waiting for them: the heaven of Christians, Muslims or Jews".
By searching, we can find poetry in a piece of stone, in a piece of wood or in a piece of wood that looks like a stone. It is La pedra de fusta, the show brought to Tàrrega by the "eia" Circus Company, where the three artists masterfully combine balance, small acrobatics and humor, all done with stone and wood and, also, counting with the absolute complicity of the public, who go to the capital of Urgell completely devoted to street art.
Much more intimately, Guillem Albà performed his mini-show or mini-whatever it is in Tàrrega, Ma solitud, which only lasts 25 minutes, but which makes you want more. Roberto G. Alonso has premiered Jo, travesti, a tour through the history of transvestism, accompanied by the musician Jordi Cornudella, which premiered at the Grec in the former Model prison.
Finally, in this random tour the Farrés Brothers could not be missing with their first street show, Hohihu. The horrible history of humanity, directed by Marta Sitjà. From some works, the excavations will end up bringing out the worst in the history of humans, which the Igualadina company will denounce with great humor.
