RINAT IZHAK
 

 

Collaborative project and artistic residency

 

FiraTàrrega (Lleida, Catalunya) 

International market for performing arts

 

 

COMPAÑIA SILERE

TERRA CONDERE

Site-specific project

2016

 

 

In May 2016, the director of the Silere theatre company, Maria Capell Pera, sent me a proposal to collaborate in creating installations in a 61,000m2 space, for a work she planned to present to the FiraTàrrega festival in Lleida, Catalunya.

 

The challenge was to use the materials that the space was made of, and possibly to add others related to it: traditional building materials, clay, wood, stone, etc, components that harmonised with the space, and which would create subtle images.

 

The research process was very interesting. With the help of Rocío Cardero Romero, who works with social projects, we compiled information on the different emotions that the space provoked. Along with viewing documentaries, reading and Skype conversations, we created the concepts for some of the interactive installations, with text and images.

 

When I arrived in Tárrega, we went to visit the site, and while walking around it in silence, I identified places which stood out because of their special characteristics in terms of the landscape, with which we created the rest of the installations and the theatrical elements of the project.

 

The time in residency was fundamental for the creation and execution of the work.

 

 

 

Performances:

Public rehearsal - June 2016

FiraTàrrega, finished work – September  2016.

 

The installations stayed in place on the site during the summer months. In September the earth was very hard and much drier, and we had to restore them, to make them ready for FiraTàrrega.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis  

 

An empty space, a wasteland, uninhabited. A project that was never undertaken, a city outside the city, on its edge. A journey through its invisible walls. What is left on the edge of the city? What is hidden on the border between that which is city and that which is not? And, by the same token, are those on the margins of society are still part of society? Only by going further inside and by recognising them can we feel them, understand them, question ourselves about them.

 

Performance without seating which involves a route on foot through waste ground, outside the city. Comfortable, closed shoes are recommended. Not recommended for those with limited mobility. On presentation of their tickets, spectators will be taken by bus to the performance area. Duration includes the return journey and the performance itself.  

 

Direction and script: Maria Capell Pera

Director’s assistant: Andrea Paz

Artistic direction and spatial conception: Rinat Izhak

Ambient sound: Musgö

Voices: Cristina Canudas, Núria Casado, Andrea Paz, María Rives

Technicians: Andrea Paz, Cristina Canudas, Lluki Portas Manager: María Rives

Photography and video: Andrea Paz  

 

Thanks to: Brigada Municipal de l’Ajuntament de Tàrrega, Ràdio Tàrrega, FiraTàrrega team, fellow Masters students, Maria Capell Pera’s family, Eva Marichalar, Carme Bellet, Hagit Titievsky, Pedro Fraile, Natàlia Lloreta, Rocío Cardero Romero and everyone who contributed to making this possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review by Manuel Pérez y Muñoz

The labyrinth of the imagination

 

A bus takes us from the gates of the cemetery in Tárrega to a field full of half-dried almond trees. With the minimum of instructions and the appropriate clothing, the participants enter a labyrinth of dirt paths, with nothing to accompany us but the silence we are asked to keep. On the way we find fragments of a brainteaser that the reflection and quiet of the route help magnify, objects and installations half way between sculpture and conceptual art. Through a subtle mix of insinuations, the imagination of the small groups of travellers takes off in a thousand directions.

 

Towards the end, meeting and explanation, everything comes together and almost every fragment fits into the reality that is revealed. The sensation of epiphany magnifies the message and, at the same time, is accompanied by nostalgia for the interpretations the participants have constructed along the way. A work as imaginative as it is mathematical, as suggestive as it is stinging. More please!