Only by going to the margins can we expand culture". With this statement of intentions, Georgina Oliva proposed five years ago the first edition of Katharsis, the most radical festival of the Free Theatre. "What we want is to expand what we mean by theatre, with proposals that are considered minority. Programming them is a risky gesture, but as a public theater it must be done."
Until January 20, Katharsis will ask what theater is. The answer will have to be found in the seven scheduled proposals. "The Fabià Puigserver room will be divided into two spaces, and things will also happen in the lobby," announces Oliva, who has also scheduled shows at l'Espai Lliure, also in Montjuïc.
This week, Boudoir is presented, an installation where the public attends a boudoir. Steven Cohen, an artist from South Africa based in France, plays with personal objects, very fetishistic, and brings a colonial dimension to them.
Gaston Core makes an appropriation of the Iliad in Before Night Falls, which was already seen in Kosmopolis. "It is an approach to the classic, not a contemporization. The aedes of that time are today's rappers, who debate between hate and love, peace and war."
The Norwegian company Susie Wang brings Burnt toast, a proposal of blood and liver full of clichés. Trine Falch explains: “None of us have been educated in this kind of theatre, we are amateurs, and we try to make it as real as possible, using all the clichés. What we do is play and have fun, and we take the public to places they might not want to go."
Next week the installation Mount average, by Julian Hetzel, will arrive, which is a factory for creating totalitarian leaders. Losinformalls present Algo habrá que hacer, which they define as “dance with misspellings”. Luis García says: "We do things we don't know how to do but pretend we know how to do them. Our works are like football matches: we train a lot and on the day of the work we play the game, interacting with the public”.
Las Huecas perform their previous show, Those Who Don't Have to Die, which is a disruptive piece about the business of death. "It borders on the idea of death, treated from a political point of view, but with humor and following a ritual", says Júlia Barbany.
Finally, Neus Masdeu will debut a tasting of seitons in vinegar, with the help of his father, "the last analog auctioneer of Arenys de Mar", explains Seitons artist Masdeu Hola i Adeu. "We bought 30 kilos of seitans, just in case we were short".
