2024 edition
More shows than ever
We are moving forward in our third decade of existence, with an edition that presents a program with more shows than ever in our entire history. A total of 110 shows, of which 21 are absolute premieres, 23 international shows from 17 countries, nearly 185 initial performances and 58,647 tickets for sale. This year, the festival will last from September 12 to December 8, also reaching the widest extension of the 33 editions, where artists such as Romeo Castellucci, Isabelle Huppert, La Fura dels Baus, Tiago Rodrigues, La Veronal, Needcompany, Sergio Blanco, El Conde de Torrefiel, Mal Pelo, Slava Polunin, cabosanroque, the Ballet de Marseille or Toni Servillo, among others.
In addition, we host a new European project: Shared Landscapes, led by Caroline Barneud and Stefan Kaegi (from the company Rimini Protokoll), which invites artists from different disciplines to create shows in natural spaces. In this way, the public will be able to spend the whole day among the fields and forests of Celrà, enjoying seven creations of different styles.
Barcelona consolidates itself as the festival’s sub-headquarters, hosting the Age of content show by the (La)Horde company with the Ballet National de Marseille at the Mercat de les Flors. The rest of the sub-headquarters this year are: Banyoles, Bescanó, Celrà, Figueres, Palafrugell, Sant Gregori and Torroella de Montgrí. Finally, the two audiovisual projects of the festival. La Caverna and the podcast Això no és un càsting, they will have a second season with new guests and new interviews and reflections.
Documents
The 2024 poster, by Isabel Banal
Isabel Banal’s poster proposal derives from a series of photographic works where the artist relates elements of nature and everyday life to her body, such as the diptychs of bread and stone exhibited some time ago in the Canon of Vilabertran.
In this case, a water drum is placed at head level, as a mask. The mask is a symbol of the theater world, with the two faces of comedy and tragedy. The plastic water drum speaks to us of a natural element, absolutely essential for life, and at the same time of its industrialization and commercialization.
Before, you would go to the source to get water, with pitchers and vases, and carry it home. Now, paradoxically, despite having running water, we go to the supermarket to buy it and also carry it to our homes.
The artist asks us, aware of the times we are living in, of climate change and drought, about this relationship, about the loss of the sacred value of water, about how it has become just another consumer item, from the ‘use and abuse we make of it…
Who is Isabel Banal?
Isabel Banal i Xifré (Castellfollit de la Roca, 1963) is a visual artist and teacher at Escola Massana in Barcelona. She has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona.
She has been awarded a scholarship to the Academia de España in Rome (2013-14) and by Bòlit Residencia in Rad’Art-San Romano (Emilia Romagna) (2018).
His work reflects on the tension and coexistence between the natural world and the urban world and the representation of the landscape. In his career, the use of natural materials and their combination with elements linked to the world of creation and with everyday objects has been a constant, playing many times with changes of scale and miniaturization, where he takes the world as a reference of the manger The color white is always present, understood as silence and revelation.
The short movie of TA24: Les Etoiles
I have returned to direct the Temporada Alta short after two years. The reasons have been circumstantial, but this return has allowed me to address a topic that was on my mind: actors.
Although on one occasion I already put myself in their shoes (understanding them a little better), the actors have always been difficult for me to interpret. Although some of my friends are, when working I have often avoided them and almost always preferred to shoot with “real people”, either out of misunderstanding, out of fear or out of a strange respect that makes them distant to me. As if they were beings of light or some kind of indomitable unicorns.
The fact is that I wanted to break this barrier to put them in the center and give them the starring role in the inaugural short of the Temporada Alta Festival. Based on the basic idea that the best recognition (or tribute) would be to make them real protagonists, it was necessary to create an ecosystem where they had all the creative freedom (and responsibility) possible. That they were not (only) pieces at the service of a script, an idea or a director, but that they somehow became, at the same time, the screenwriters, directors and leading actors.
My contribution in this piece has essentially been to propose some rules of the game, establish some limits and invent a premise: the shooting of an advertisement on a sailboat with two main actors and a musician where the product had to be, basically, the actor himself There was never a script, no rehearsals, just a dinner (which went on for a long time) with the actors, to decide how we would make a short in a single day and without much more tools than everyone’s talent and the desire to play together .
The conclusions of the long dinner:
The filming would be closer to a performative act: one actor (Pol López) would be the director – and therefore the technical team had to obey him – while the other actor would be the model for sale (Oriol Pla) , we would also have a third actor/musician (Ramon Bassal) to liven it up.
There would be no barriers between the artistic and technical team, which would be very small. Everyone would do a little bit of everything, more in the style of a circus company than a film shoot. You never knew for sure when it was being filmed and when it wasn’t, we all had to move in front and behind the camera with the same naturalness, to try to generate a game of mirrors in favor of confusion. The July sun, dizziness and a kilometre-long journey would do the rest to try to get closer to doing something unique. To touch the light To find that look…
The final result is a sixteen-minute comedy with the ironic title of “Les Étoiles” (The Stars), and yes, it does indeed end up talking about the actors and their frailties, but I would say that also (and especially) about the directors and their miseries
Salvador Sunyer i Vidal
Credits
Direction: Salvador Sunyer i Vidal
Cast: Oriol Pla, Pol López i Ramon Bassal
Production: Temporada Alta i Materia Cinema
La Caverna: second season
For the second consecutive year, we will have a new series of episodes of La Caverna, the audiovisual project of the festival with the collaboration of Fundació La Caixa, where great directors and creators of the European scene who have been through the festival converse with personalities of the world of culture chosen by themselves. This second season will feature Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, cabosanroque, El Conde de Torrefiel and Lluís Pasqual as guest artists. Again, it can be seen for free on the CaixaForum+ platform and on the festival’s own channels.
Second season of ‘Això no és un càsting’, a podcast of Temporada Alta and Ràdio Primavera Sound
After a first season in the previous edition, in Temporada Alta 2024, we wanted to continue the initiative and make a second season of Això no es un casting, a podcast with the collaboration of Ràdio Primavera Sound, presented by Paula Carreras and Marc Tarrida Aribau. In this second season, we will cover topics such as theatrical second parties, backstage secrets, playwriting, scenography, cabaret, directing and many others.
