eszenAZ - Azkuna Zentroa Live Arts Season

Zentroa

Cover image: Instituto Stocos. Oecumene

Another way to feel theatre, music, dance and performance

Programme

2023

2024

Live Arts Season 2023-2024 Theatre, music, dance and performance

Azkuna Zentroa

Another way to feel theatre, music, dance and performance

Azkuna Zentroa – Alhóndiga Bilbao, Society and Contemporary Culture Centre, opens its contemporary stage with a stable programme of interdisciplinary and transmedia proposals.

Theatre is text, action and much more. New playwritings turn the body into a public signifier. Dancers and choreographers propose another vision of dance and performance with new forms of movement or by interacting with audio and visual entities, allowing them to alter and extend their bodily presence. Sound, placed as a means not as an end, welcomes voice, dance and other languages.

This insight into eszenAZ is made up of almost twenty stage productions with great body, musical and visual intensity. Their aesthetics range from contemporary arts to the most archaic forms, capable of revising a Greek epic through rap and hip-hop culture.

They are similarly an example of the transformative potential of the arts in society, promoting the participation and empowerment of audiences, and proposing spectators soulful experiences to bring us back to the world of sensitive intuitions in this dystopian moment of systemic collapse.

In some cases, they are productions on international tour. In others, they take the form of Azkuna Zentroa co-

productions with leading European performing arts venues, likewise premieres that have been developed in the Centre itself through the residency programme. Collaboration with programmes and projects such as Dantzaldia, Dantzan Bilaka, Dantzerti or Mitusu amplifies the intention to propose another way of experiencing the performing arts.

Children and young adults are also taken into account with intergenerational and inclusive artistic experiences that, from live music, movement, puppets, theatre and even silent films, try to awaken their sensitivity and curiosity through living arts.

From September to June, the Atrium, the Auditorium and Kubo Baltza become the stage for the most innovative works on the local and international scene. The shows place the public at the centre of immersive, contemporary, unique and unrepeatable experiences. IT is another way to feel theatre, music, dance and performance.

Matxalen Bibao

Fugas

September 28, Thursday

Atrium of Cultures

8:00 p.m.

Duration: 20´

Artistic information

Direction: Matxalen Bilbao

Performers: Olaia Valle, Miren Lizeaga, Aiala Echegaray, Natalia García

Music: Chopin Waltz Op. 64 No. 2, Bach Brandemburgo

Concierto, Concierto nº6

Wardrobe: Java Vintage

Collaborators: La FuNdicIOn, Utopian, CDART

Subsidised by the Basque Government Culture Dept.

matxalenbilbao.es

@matxalenbilbao

Fugas reflects on the relationships between the group and individual, what unites them likewise their discrepancies. Links, migrations and sculptural compositions are the inspiration. Choreographer Matxalen Bilbao has aimed to find herself, follow and represent a group scene that will undergo different situations.

Through this dance piece for urban spaces she continues to delve into the idea of group already undertaken in Gear, her previous work, created on images of gears, migrations and sculptural compositions as creation sources. Taken from another perspective, Fugas (Best Dance Choreography 2018 at La Espiral Contemporánea Festival) formulates new ways to relate, articulates different kinds of dependence and unfolds various situations under the same “Group” concept. Bach and Chopin’s music serve as creative triggers to put together a timeless atmosphere where classic references contrast with today’s.

Occasionally tied up, occasionally separate, yet always nearby. A fleeting emotional journey

// Dance

Matxalen Bilbao

Matxalen Bilbao is a dancer, teacher, and creator based in Bilbao. In these 20 years as a creator, she has been honing a personal vocabulary. She is interested in developing and delving into her own thoughts, whilst methodically and rigorously following her interests and tracing a coherent path focused on researching movement, the body and its uniqueness, the relationship with others, “the

in-between” and time-space organisation. Her works offer the audience fragility, safety, vulnerability, intimacy and daring. She has been co-directing the Mutis Espazioa project with Natalia García Muro for training and creation since 2022.

OSA+Mujika

Bueltaxka

September 28, Thursday

Atrium of Cultures

8:15 p.m.

Duration: 15´

Artistic information

Direction: OSA+MUJIKA

Choreography: Jaiotz Osa

Performers: Jaiotz Osa, Rafke Van Houplines

Wardrobe: Xabier Mujika

Music: Gartxot

Video / Photos: Etanowski

osamujika.com

@osa_mujika

How often have you felt you want something you do not have? How often have you gone round and round in circles looking for “that something” you need? The eternal human problem of dissatisfaction, in the belief our life would only be complete if…

Today this search is constant and insatiable, as we never feel we have reached a place that is worth. Therefore, we continue going round in circles. We think that by achieving a specific thing our life will be settled forever. Yet, to tell the truth, that never happens, since life is never truly “resolved” for we are always on the way.

Bueltaxka forces the audience to pause, stop going round in circles, and give up the search. It reminds us there is nothing more out there, because that is it, it is all it ever was. However, “this” is worth it.

Osa+Mujika’s latest work is a 15 minute piece that tells the story of two friends (Jaiotz Osa & Rafke Van Houplines) who manage to find joy in being together, knowing that by moving forward together and abandoning dissatisfaction and constant searching, failure will never exist.

Bueltaxka applauds the road, inviting us to the now. It is the exaltation of friendship

// Dance

OSA+Mujika

OSA+Mujika is the artistic encounter of 2 creative worlds, namely, Jaiotz Osa, dancer and choreographer, and Xabier Mujika, wardrobe and stage space designer, coming together to satisfy their interest in dance and audiovisual arts. The duo began in 2017 with their first piece Suddenly, a 13 minute solo created for unconventional spaces. This was the basis of Suddenly lll, a 50 minute piece chosen from the Danza a Escena 2019 catalogue. They created a second long solo

in 2020 called Loser, via the Azkuna Zentroa International Dance Residency in conjunction with Dansateliers Rotterdam and premiered in the Centre that same year.

Miguel A. García

Eyezorros

October 10, Tuesday

Auditorium

7:00 p.m.

Artistic information

Composition and electronics:

Miguel A. García

Trumpet: Luis André

Sound: Juan Carlos Blancas

Guitar: Diego Caicedo, Enrike Hurtado

Dance: Izarne Oyarzabal

Double bass: Alex Reviriego

Voice and choir direction: Ibon Rg

Body ruidism: Myriam Rzm

Voice: Marta Sainz

Percussion: Vasco Trilla

Saxophone: Fernando Ulzión

Chorus: Amparo Badiola, Candela Garazi, Álvaro Matilla, Ángela R. Sagredo, Unai

Requejo, Mar Seco, Susana

Talayero, Mikel Vega, Natalia

Vegas, Maia Villot, Jon Zearra

xedh.org

@miguel_a_garcia

Eyezorros presents a selection of all the sound production created by Miguel A. García as an Azkuna Zentroa Associated Artist. A “gold record” compiled in a vinyl record. This sound artist has developed the Comclapompos. Usar el flujo como un cauce project over the last two years. It is a musical composition work that embraces the environment’s synergies in order to deepen in the multiple possibilities of the structure. Starting with a highly experimental conception and closer to electro-acoustics, Miguel A. Garcia’s music folds and unfolds to incorporate voice, dance, other languages and other feelings, delving into the decomposition as a resource. As explained by the artist, “Sound is the medium, which for me is the origin, not the end. In parallel to working with musicians and artists who also start from that medium, I am likewise interested in expanding it to other disciplines, though always in an organic way.”

The album was created in collaboration with the artists Elena Aitzkoa (Azkuna Zentroa Associated Artist), Luis André, Fernando Carvalho, Ilia Belorukov, Alba Burgos, Ferran Fages, Garazi & Mikel Gorostiaga, Garazi Navas, Alex Reviriego, Ibon RG, Matías Riquelme, Marta Sainz, Beatriz Setien, Fernando Ulzion, Mikel Vega & Natalia Vegas. Eyezorros is the first vinyl record produced by Azkuna Zentroa, thereby expanding the formats supporting the Centre’s artistic creation. The LP is on sale at dendAZ, the Azkuna Zentroa shop and at dendaz.azkunazentroa.eus .

Sound is the medium, which for me is the origin, not the end

Miguel A. García

Miguel A. G arcía is one of the most inquisitive sound artists on the Spanish scene, whose work includes electro-acoustic composition and improvisation. He uses sounds obtained from electronic devices waste often inter-relating it with field recordings or acoustic instruments in the search for an immersive, intense and intimate experience. A “music” comprising adventurous forms filled with contrasts yet not without humour, which questions the frontiers between academic electro-acoustic music, industrial music, noise, and the so-called “outsider” music.

Verde Prato

Adoretua

October 18, Wednesday

Auditorium

7:00 p.m.

Duration: 60´

Artistic information

Verde Prato: Ana Arsuaga

Producer: Jon Aguirrezabalaga

Photographer: Maria Muriedas

Design: Sahatsa Jauregi

Record Label: PlanBrecords

@verdeprat0

youtube.com/@VerdePrato

verdeprato.bandcamp.com

Verde Prato presents her latest album, Adoretua, a word from the Basque adore. It means courage and bravery, that of someone facing single-handedly composition, stage, and nakedness with courage to bear one’s soul and sing as a declaration of intentions.

Adoretua has a light not previously present in Verde Prato’s songs, which is also a transformation from a more tragic tone to a bolero or pop. She has abandoned the conceptuality that united her previous proposals to fly free yet intimately, gathering personal experiences and expressing universal themes such as love, eroticism, disappointment, family, childhood, encounter with the world, loneliness, dreams, etc.

Adoretua is the confirmation of this unique artist’s evolution that ascents towards a paradise replete with unknown nuances and unsuspected colours.

Bringing Basque oral tradition to the future from the past

// Music

Verde Prato

Verde Prato is a unique talent that emerges from a wave of singer-songwriters who express their identity through the power of their voice. Her naked yet brash neo-folk leaves nobody indifferent. With her first album, Kondaira eder hura (PlanB-rec 2021), she reached the podium of the year’s best. Since then, she has released Jaikiera (Hegoa Diskak) and Euskal Pop Erradikala, an EP with 4 versions, which her audience is familiar with from the concerts given by the artist. It has taken its name from

Euskal Rock Erradikala i.e. Radical Basque Rock, an important musical movement that appeared in the Basque Country in the 1980s. Verde Prato sings in Basque and recovers the oral Basque tradition in her songs, bringing the past to the future. Her proposal highlights the presence of voice in the popular songs of many cultures, as a relevant aspect that takes on special importance in her compositions.

© Maria Muriedas Diez

Led Silhouette

Los perros

October 26, Thursday

Kubo Baltza

7:00 p.m.

Duration: 50´

Artistic information

Project direction: Led Silhouette

Idea and artistic direction: Marcos Morau

Assistant choreographer: Marina Rodriguez

Performers: Jon López and Martxel Rodriguez

Text: Carmina S. Belda

Translation: Gaizka Sarasola and Mattane Rodriguez

Voice-over: Oier Zuñiga

Sponsors: With the support of the DNA programme of the Department of Culture of the Government of Navarra and INNOVA Cultural of Fundación

Caja Navarra - Fundación "La Caixa". Lesakako Udala

This performance is part of the 2023 dance circuit of the Basque theatre network.

ledsilhouette.com

@led_silhouette

As people of their times, those born in the digital age witness an unstable and convulsive scenario that confronts them (and us) with a process of dehumanization and isolation, for which the most successful solution seems to be an individual shielding, the creation of a differentiated identity or a personal brand. We are more than ever a product for sale and youth is the most coveted value. Contemporaneity destroys fragile bodies, dismembers the most vulnerable groups and discards the misfits who debate (we debate) between rebellion or docility.

The unfolding of a passionate dance that finds its purest meaning in repetition and catharsis: Dance to exhaustion, bark to catharsis, live until fainting. The story of the man who introspects through the other to find himself.

Two men hugging. Two men who dance until it's all over and it all begins again.

The latest stage creation by the Led Silhouette company displays a proposal that travels from the trance of repetition to fascination through successive images. Images stolen from yesterday and thrown into tomorrow, from right now and daubed with the past, from contemporary arts to atavistic, earthly forms, in a constant crossing of times and languages.

In Los perros, Martxel Rodriguez and Jon López represent a dialogue between three generations accompanied by the projection of texts by the writer and playwright Carmina S. Belda, the voice-over of the actor Oier Zuñiga and the music of Cristóbal Saavedra.

Two men hugging.

Two men who dance until it's all over and it all begins again

Led Silhouette

Martxel Rodriguez and Jon López direct Led Silhouette, a creative collective of artists trained in different dance disciplines and spheres of contemporary art, in parallel with their activity at the La Veronal company. Their works have been included in festivals and

circuits such as Madrid en Danza, Temporada Alta, Escena Patrimonio, Festival Quincena de Dança Almada in Portugal, Festival Internazional Nuova Danza in Italy, Platea, Danza Escena or Sarea.

© Irantzu Pastor

L’Alakran INACTUALES

November 9 and 10, Thursday and Friday

Auditorium

7:00 p.m.

Duration: 100´

Artistic information

Creation and Direction: Oscar Gómez Mata

Performers: Juan Loriente and Oscar Gómez Mata

Artistic associate: Sandra Cuesta

Lighting design and technical direction: Leo Garcia

Set design: Vanessa Ferreira Vicente

Co-production: Grütli – Centre de production et de diffusion des arts vivants, Théâtre populaire romand – Centre neuchâtelois des Arts vivants, l'Arsenic –Centre d 'art scénique contemporain and Azkuna Zentroa –Alhóndiga Bilbao.

Sponsors: Loterie Romande Genève, Fondation Leenaards and Comédie de Genève (Residence)

Nowadays, it is increasingly difficult to trust. We doubt what we see and what we hear. We can't be sure that you and I will see the same thing. Can what is shown really give us a picture of reality? We see something but we don't really know what it is.

In this age of dystopia of systemic collapse and deficit in the recognition of the human being as a creative individual, we would like to propose an experience of the soul, a way of rebirth, a way of bringing back to the world feelings and hypersensitive intuitions that are often practiced beyond reason or Cartesian thought, which place our steps in innocence, for all this is a terrible lack in our society.

MAKERS, the latest creation by Oscar Gómez Mata –Compagnie L'Alakran, developed as an AZ Associated Artist, arose from an artistic complicity with the actor Juan Loriente. This is again the basis of the creative impulse of INACTUALES, where this duo of metaphysical clowns continues their search for feelings under the sensitive. This time, it is inert matter that is there to reveal some unproven truths to us. On this occasion, they count with the artistic collaboration of Sandra Cuesta, author of the sound intervention Lo adherente y el fuego in Azkuna Zentroa in 2020.

INACTUALES is a co-production of Grütli – Centre for the production and dissemination of the performing arts in Geneva (Switzerland), and Azkuna Zentroa –Alhóndiga Bilbao. L’Alakran arouses radical emotions on stage, creating playful, philosophical and always poetic performances. The political context, in the sense of a critical attitude, is inherent to the artistic project, i.e. to question the relationship between the individual and the collective, without a desire to give answers or establish the word and an ideology.

Oscar Gómez Mata

Oscar Gómez Mata lives and works in Geneva, Switzerland. Actor and director, his stage career began in Spain in 1987 when he cofounded Legaleón-T, a company with which he created shows until 1996. In 1997 he founded the company L'Alakran in Geneva and worked as director, creator and playwright for various works. Since 2013 he has been a regular professor at Manufacture, the French Swiss School of Theatre (HETSR). In 2018 he received the Swiss Theatre Award and has been an Associate Artist at Azkuna Zentroa between 2019 and 2022.

Juan Loriente

Juan Loriente is an actor from Cantabria, best known in the theater as he is a regular in the productions of Rodrigo García and La Carnicería Teatro. He has also made films sporadically, such as La espalda de Dios (Pablo Llorca) or Smoking Room (Cesc Gay).

The metaphysical clowns duo

-Oscar Gómez Mata and Juan Loriente- continue their search for feelings under the sensitive

Instituto Stocos (Muriel

Romero & Pablo Palacio)

Oecumene

November 23, Thursday

Kubo Baltza

7:00 p.m.

Duration: 40´

Artistic information

Conception & idea: Pablo Palacio & Muriel Romero

Choreography: Muriel Romero / Music: Pablo Palacio

Interpretation: Muriel Romero

Software & interactive technology: Pablo Palacio & Daniel Bisig

Lighting: Maxi Gilbert

Production: Instituto Stocos

stocos.com

@institutostocos

Oecumene is a piece that combines dance and music. It reflects on the individual’s place in the world with his or her senses expanded via technology, beyond the limits of their geographical origin and cultural identity of origin.

Oecumene is a term originating from the Alexandrian idea of cosmopolis, i.e. a world inhabited as a whole, as the common possession of a civilised humanity of free men and women. A concept developed in this dance creation for a dancer and an immersive 3D sound design. A work where the dancer navigates through a sea of sounds comprising phonemes from multiple places around the planet.

The development of expressive qualities of dance in relation to this constantly changing tapestry of universal sounds acts as a body reflecting the transcultural syncretism of this world we live in. This piece includes interactive technology aimed at enabling the dancer interact in real time with this sound reflection of the world surrounding us.

Oecumene is a transdisciplinary work that combines high technology with dance, electroacoustic composition and interactive visuals. It proposes a sensorial experimentation of the world via the body and reflects on the individual’s place in the world, with his or her senses expanded via technology, beyond the limits of their geographical origin and cultural identity of origin. It is an example of how it is possible to dance AI, biology, mathematics and experimental psychology.

Azkuna Zentroa presents the Instituto Stocos work as part of Dantzaldia, the International Dance Festival of La Fundición.

// Dance, music, technology

Instituto Stocos

Choreographer and dancer Muriel Romero together with composer Pablo Palacio make up this company focused on the transfer of concepts between art and science. They research movement on a 3D stage where bodies interact with sound and visual beings as they develop the interaction between corporal gestures, sound and visual imagery.

As a result of their imaginary, Instituto Stocos produces works which act as an artistic dissemination of their research, incorporating abstractions taken from other disciplines like AI, biology, mathematics and experimental psychology into a stage context.

Dance AI, biology, mathematics and experimental psychology

Tripak

Platea

November 29, Wednesday

Auditorium

7:00 p.m.

Duration: 70´

Artistic information

Idea, texts, staging & scenography: Natalia Suárez, Marina Suárez, Andrea Berbois & Maite Muguerza

Performers: Natalia Suárez, Marina Suárez, Andrea Berbois, Maite Muguerza & Garazi Navas

External aspect: Mayi Martiarena

Music: Andrea Berbois & Garazi Navas

Texts: Tripak

Scenographic assistants: HAIEK Koop.

Lighting design: Inga Cerro

Distribution: Tripak

Photos: Arriguri

tripakkolektiboa.wixsite. com/website

@tripak.k

Starting from the idea of limbo or the transition state of souls, Platea is presented to us as the representation of an imaginary limbo, a banquet table in the midst of a wetland landscape. The tides highlight the capacity of life to give and take without any explanation or ties. A God, as the master of ceremonies, welcomes the bodies arriving in this mutable environment. Dragged in by the sea, they arrive disoriented or fainted, like shipwreck survivors or mermaids. They all had a life and death before. The place has been prepared for the final celebration, the great mutation, although they must first rid themselves of their previous wills, which still resonate.

Platea is the Basque company Tripak’s third production, an existential reflection on what takes place between life and death with room for humour and the absurd. In this work, the images of pain and anguish are pierced with humour and the absurd. Polyphonic singing, along with the sounds of the accordion and violin, wander from the classical to the experimental and bring together abstract and poetic visions. The piece, resulting from a profound aesthetic intention, goes beyond conventional narrative and becomes a means to take the audience on a journey between tears and laughter.

The images of pain and anguish are pierced with humour and the absurd in Platea

Tripak

This Basque theatre company, made up of plastic artists Mayi Martiarena, Maite Mugerza and Marina Suarez, together with the violinist Andrea Berbois, was founded in the Sala Baratza (Vitoria-Gasteiz) in 2013 in the context of a Creation Laboratory. Its purpose is to provide creations based on its particular view of the world and aesthetics.

Cielo RasO

Hâmaïkà

December 14, Thursday

Auditorium

7:00 p.m

Duration: 56´

Artistic information

Choreography & direction: Igor Calonge

Interpretation: Ainhoa

Usandizaga, David Candela, Emma Riba, Joan Ferré

Director’s assistant:

Gabriel F.

Lighting design: Sergio García

Wardrobe: Amaia Elorza

Scenography: Igor Calonge

Photography: Dani Blanco

Video: Kensa Produzkioak, Asier Garcia

Distribution: AstaKardu / Beatriz Churruca

Production: Igor Calonge

Grant: Basque Government

Sponsors: Dantzagunea & Donostia Kultura Egia K.E.

ciacieloraso.com

@ciacieloraso

Sometimes, what used to tremble in a darkened museum bursts into brilliance. Hâmaïkà is a stage piece that breaks down and emphasises eleven years of creative career. It is flexible and enhances difference, gender and freedom. Whilst the choreography is powerful, language requires an expert’s gaze, which can only happen thanks to you.

Hâmaïkà frivolously plays with fiction and reality, forcing us to look. Magic appears when fiction and reality blend together. Magic has tricks but tricks usually do not want to reveal themselves for if they do so, magic is lost. However, illusion only dies if imagination disappears.

Hâmaïkà celebrates the anniversary of choreographer and dancer Igor Calonge’s company, Cielo RasO. It has been created from the essence of film and theatre, where the characters performed by Ainhoa Usandizaga, David Candela, Emma Riba and Joan Ferré flow. Both the beginning and end are assembled from the same scene, which evolves to become a discovery for the audience.

Hâmaïkà frivolously plays with fiction and reality forcing us to look

Azkuna Zentroa presents Cielo RasO´s work as part of Dantzaldia, the International Dance Festival of La Fundición.

// Dance

Cielo RasO

This company was founded in the Basque Country in 2010 by choreographer and dancer Igor Calonge. Its identity and transformation towards contemporariness represents the basis of its work, which uses tradition, the body’s strength, resistance, primitive struggle, symbology and poetry to always offer a new physical language and a daring result. Cielo RasO has also achieved a style of its own as regards stage treatment and its commitment

has earned recognition on the national scene. Eighteen creations prove the intensity of their work. Their productions have travelled to France, Italy, Poland, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Panama, Paraguay and Finland.

Cris Blanco

Grandissima illusione

January 18, Thursday

Auditorium

7:00 p.m.

Duration: 90´

Artistic information

Directed by: Cris Blanco

Performed by: Cris Blanco and Óscar Bueno

Artistic accompaniment: Anto Rodríguez, Óscar Bueno

Stage play: Cris Blanco, Rocío Bello, Anto Rodríguez, Óscar Bueno

Theatrical advice: Roberto Fratini

Lighting/technical coordination: Montse Piñeiro & Cristina Bolivar

Sound: Carlos Parra

Direct video: Andrea Balaguer

Costume assistant: Oriol Corral

Photography and recording: Mila Ercoli

Production: Ariadna Miquel

Production Assistant: Andrea Balaguer

Co-produced by: Grec 2022

Festival de Barcelona, Cris Blanco and Conde Duque

Madrid

With the support of: El Graner, Teatre CCCB, recipient of a 2020 Premis de Barcelona grant and an OSIC 2022 research and investigation grants.

Hello, I am Cris Blanco. Today is 12 March 2022 and I am writing this text from my mother's house, where I grew up, looking out of the window at my school, Bravo Murillo, which I attended for eight years. They just said on TV that it was two years ago yesterday that the pandemic was declared. So two years ago I started thinking about this play (well, I do not know if it is this play you are going to see). I started to think about a very big play, Grandissima Illusione it was called, with very good actorsqw (sorry for the typo, while I was writing this sentence my dog stepped on the keyboard), a group of dancers, a live chorus. It was a largeformat play with big recycled sets from big productions of the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya.

Cris Blanco's latest production is the result of researching and creating a large-format stage piece where several theatrical genres coexist. According to its creator, Grandissima Illusione is a tribute to theatre and the theatrical conventions that are her obsession. The play begins when a 17th century theatrical character, a Marquise from Lope de Vega, for example, meets the theatre's tattooed technician and falls in love with him. From then on, chaos takes over and all conventions are thrown into disarray.

On the morning of the premiere, Cris Blanco will share with schoolchildren the creative process of this work.

A tribute to theatre and theatrical conventions

BASQUE COUNTRY PREMIERE

Cris Blanco

Born in Madrid, Cris Blanco lives in Barcelona. She has been creating her own stage plays and working as a performer in dance, theatre and film since 2003. She has worked on stage with Cuqui and María Jerez, Amaia Urra, Juan Domínguez and Xavier Leroy, and in film with Roser Aguilar and Icíar Bollaín, among others. She collaborates on artistic projects, lectures at the Instituto del Teatro and participates in educational projects. Some of her stage plays include

cUADRADO_fLECHA_pERSONA

qUE cORRE (2004), ciencia_ficción (2010), El Agitador Vórtex (2014), Bad Translation (2016) and Pelucas en la Niebla (2018). In 2019 she wrote Lo mínimo y lo pequeño with Jorge Dutor and Guillem Mont de Palol. Her work has been seen at European, American and Asian theatres and festivals.

Laenananaranja

Zimurren artean kontukantari 3

January 20, Saturday

Auditorium

6:00 p.m.

Duration: 60´

Audience: children and young people

School session:

January 17 & 18, 11:00 a.m.

Artistic information

Singer: Sandra Fernandez

Agirre

Musician: Roberto Castro “Boti”

Puppeteers: Itziar Fragua, Marta Álvarez del Valle, Jon Koldo Vázquez

Music: Roberto Castro “Boti”, David Nanclares

Stage play, set design, costumes and puppets: Laenananaranja

Text: Jon Koldo Vázquez

Direction: Iker Garcia

Lighting design: Paco Trujillo

Lighting technician: Victor Palacio

Graphic design: Aritz Garcia

Production: Solobe Art

Original idea: Sandra Fdez.

Agirre and Mikel Pikaza

Ma has been quite busy lately and has left the children at their grandmother's house. Nanuk and Granuk listen attentively to the stories hidden among grandma’s wrinkles, but Kanuto interrupts, barking: he hass been inspecting the house and has found his grandfather's old beret. A cap full of wisdom.

Kontukantari was created in 2014 with the aim of creating a quality stage and musical show for children. With the help of puppets, this musical takes the songs hidden away in our memory and transforms them into new reggae, rap or blues rhythms.

Following Kontukantari (2014) and Kontukantari Bi, mendian ibiltari (2017), the Basque puppet company now premieres Kontukantari 3 Zimurren artean kontukari, a concert envisioned as a new tribute to old generations, with ten new songs full of wisdom and humour for girls, boys, fathers, mothers, grandmothers and grandfathers to dance and sing along. An intergenerational journey where the puppets are the main characters.

An intergenerational journey through music, full of wisdom and humour

Laenananaranja

Laenanananaranja, puppeteers by vocation, was created in Bilbao in 1999 with the intention of making a critical-constructive family theatre through contemporary puppet theatre, but without overlooking the historical tradition of this discipline. Its trajectory includes the Kontukantari musical trilogy; tabletop puppet shows: Lolo; 215. Eskatzen, Imundo; Hesi-

Puskatzailea and Ma; Tren Taupadak; and the puppet opera Altzoko Handia, produced in collaboration with Donosti 2016, Topic, and the Tolosa International Puppet Centre.

Caspervek Las aventuras del príncipe Achmed

January 28, Sunday Auditorium

12 noon

Duration: 65´

Audience: children and young people

Artistic information

Director: Lotte Reiniger

Composer: Brais González Pérez

A wicked African sorcerer uses a magic horse to hoodwink the great Caliph and kidnap his beautiful daughter, Dinarzade. At that moment, her brother, the brave Prince Achmed, will set off on a great adventure to rescue his sister, which will take him to all the corners of the earth. He will be forced to deal with terrible dangers but he will also find love.

The Galician ensemble Caspervek puts live music to The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), the oldest cartoon feature film in the world that still exists. The director, Lotte Reiniger, created a technique of silhouettes out of manipulated cut-outs made from cardboard and thin lead plates under a camera. The German filmmaker needed three years to make this film aesthetically based on the ancient Wayang shadow theatre.

Caspervek’s score for The Adventures of Prince Achmed is one of the band’s greatest successes (European benchmark for films/concerts) and one of the most interpreted over the years with performances in Spain, Slovakia and Latvia. The score breaks away from its usual style to delve into the sounds of the different regions appearing in the film. Brais González has composed an arrangement for orchestra of this work, where the east African rhythms, oriental melodies and typical Arabian harmonies stand out.

Live music for adventure and shadow play

// Silent film with live music

Caspervek

Since its foundation in 2023, Caspervek Trío has offered over 300 performances in more than a dozen European countries. The group has composed Soundtracks for thirty classic films from the silent period, ranging from the great masterpieces of German Expressionism to Buster Keaton films, including American adventure films. Among other places,

Caspervek has performed at Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Capitol Multiplex Cinema, Estonia’s National Art Museum (KUMU), Latvia’s Baltais Fligelis National Auditorium, Budapest’s Flux Gallery and Copenhagen’s Lytgen Station.

Paul B. Preciado

Yo soy el monstruo que os habla

February 15, Thursday

Auditorium

7:00 p.m

Duration: 90´

Artistic information

Production:

ElenaArtesescenicas

Cast: Paul B. Preciado, Bambi, Victor Viruta, Andy Díaz, Fabi Hernández

Text & Direction:

Paul B. Preciado

Artistic Stage Collaboration: Tanja Beyeler & Natalia Álvarez Simó

Artistic Assistant: Alexandru Stanciu

Technical Collaboration: Béla Nagy

Lighting Design: Paco Ariza & David Checa

Co-ordination: Gabi Belveder

Stage Management: Conde Duque, Gema Monja

@paulbpreciado

Paul B. Preciado gave a speech in December 2019 before 3500 psychoanalysts attending the Conference of l’École de la Cause Freudienne in Paris. Reprising Franz Kafka’s text in which an ape that had learnt human language addressed an academy of scientists, Paul B. Preciado addressed the assembly of psychoanalysts as a Trans man with nonbinary gender, not only to denounce the structural violence exercised by psychiatry, psychology and psychoanalysis over people considered homosexual, Trans, intersexual or non-binary gender, but also to invite psychoanalysis to open towards the gender and sexual mutations taking place. The result is a monologue that is both intimate and political. It is not only aimed at psychoanalysts but also at each and every one of us and our ability to accept change and imagine a new Utopia.

Yo soy el monstruo que os habla is neither a work nor the theatrical adaptation of a text, but rather something different according to the author. It is a text in several voices, with which he endeavours to generate an oral community and bring to light what he finds interesting about theatre, e.g. the possibility of a body becoming a public signifier and how it can address other naturalised spaces. Paul B. Preciado is the curator of A voice for Erauso. Epilogue for a Trans time exhibition by the artists Cabello/ Carceller, produced by Azkuna Zentroa – Alhóndiga Bilbao and exhibited from March to September 2022.

Imagining a new utopia

Paul B. Preciado

Paul B. Preciado is a philosopher, art curator and film director, internationally known for his work on body, gender and sexuality politics. He has been the Director of Public Programmes and the Independent Studies Programme at the Barcelona Museu d’Art Contemporani, curator of Public Programmes at documenta 14 Kassel and Athens, and curator of the Taiwan Pavilion in Venice, among other institutional tasks. He is the author of Manifesto Contra-sexual; Testo

Yonqui, Sexo, drogas y biopolítica; Pornotopía; Un Apartamento en Urano; Yo soy el monstruo que os habla and Dysphoria Mundi, all published by Anagrama. His first film, Orlando: mi biografía política was acclaimed by the critics and received for 4 awards at the 2023 Berlinale. He was born in Burgos and lives in Paris.

Gaston Core

Antes que caiga la noche

March 2, Saturday

Auditorium / Kubo Baltza

7:00 p.m.

Duration: 55´

Artistic information

Concept and director: Gaston Core

Con letras de Eskarnia, Celia Bsoul y Breaker

Sound Space: Eskarnia

Academic advising: Mònica Miró Vinaixa

Collaboration: David Espinosa

Lighting: Valentina Azzati y Manuel Ordenavia

Stylist: Eva Bernal

Documentation, photo and video: Alice Brazzit

gastoncore.com

@gastoncore

I think that the Iliad is, above all, the confrontation between a certain society and the value system of a legendary and heroic world that preceded it. On the other hand, it is also the story of a man who challenges himself to assume the functions he is called to fulfil in that group and which give him meaning as an individual. Reading this text is always nostalgic. And this is one of the many things that continue to connect us to it: the puzzled look at a world that is slipping away from us and that we imagine is better than the one that is to come. But how can we explain the Iliad ?

Its importance in history, the modernity of its narrative resources and the themes it addresses, but above all, how to convey the power of the words in this text in a one-hour performance, how it dignifies the other in order to dignify oneself. I think the best way to explain it is through our contemporary artists of the word: rappers. That is what this piece is: a theatrical look and an aesthetic reflection on the foundational work of Western literature through the language of rap and hip-hop culture. Choreographer Gaston Core's latest creation is a contemporary re-reading of the Greek epic transformed into a rap battle.

The Iliad through rap and hip-hop culture

// Dance, Rap, Hip hop

Closure of Gutun Zuria Bilbao. International Literature Festival

Gaston Core

Choreographer, theatrical creator, curator and artistic director. Born in Buenos Aires, he trained as a performer at the University of Buenos Aires, where he also studied audiovisual communication. He has lived in Europe since 2001, where he obtained a degree in play-writing and directing at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona. He created the Sala Hiroshima project in Barcelona in 2012, which he directed until it closed in 2021.

He was the director of the Centre d'Arts Escèniques de Terrassa and has collaborated as a curator on various projects. As a choreographer, he directed the composition entitled El díptico del desierto, consisting of a solo piece (The Very Last Northern White Rhino) and a group piece (Chorus).

© Alice Brazzit

Nazario Díaz

amanecer alto cielo

April 11, Thursday

Auditorium

7:00 p.m.

Duration: 55´

Artistic information

Concept & choreography: Nazario Díaz

Co-creation & performance: Julian Pacomio, Ibon Salvador, Nazario Díaz

Dramaturgic assistance:

Carolina Campos

Lighting: Leticia Scrycky

Production: Kurzuth

Silverstone

During its stay in Lisbon, amanecer alto cielo was a research project accompanied by Nina Botkay, Bruno Brandolino, Lucas Damiani, Carolina Campos, João Fiadeiro, Julian Pacomio, Daniel Pizamiglio, Santiago Rodríguez Tricot, Alina Ruiz Folini, Ibon Salvador, Leticia Skrycky & Forum Dança/PACAP5.

The majority of the works by choreographer Nazario Díaz are set in the area of the performative arts, focussing on the tension generated between body, gaze, and writing. amanecer alto cielo, he proposes the fading away of language as a stage element through a series of different textual practices that intertwine its material forms. Furthermore, he tackles the different qualities of vision and how these alter people’s bodies and perceptions of them, inspired by some of the practices surrounding the gaze proposed by the choreographer and video-artist Lisa Nelson. We have a dance of hands that look, eyes that touch, and bodies that erase themselves.

‘Whereas before I dealt with objects and with my own body in order to wear them down through insistent action, my current work revives the idea of the wearing-down and disappearance of a body – that totem that is seen as a physical, moral, and spiritual entity – but this time it is also a slippery body, i.e. textuality’, explains Nazario Díaz.

Nazario Díaz

Nazario Díaz mainly develops his work in the field of performing arts and focuses on the tension generated between body, look and writing. In recent years he has participated in several collective learning contexts (Master in Performing Practice and Visual Culture, Madrid / 2016-2017; PICA, Azala-Vitoria / 20182019; Invitación, Bilbao / 2019-2020) exchanging methodologies and tools pertaining to the field of dance and living arts.

He currently resides between Lisbon and Bilbao, where he develops the projects Conversation Pieces, with the sound collective Metal performers, founded with the Basque choreographer Isaak Erdoiza, and Another erasure through insistence, within the framework of the Advanced Program of Creation in Performing Arts, Curated by João Fiadeiro for Forum Dança, Lisbon. As a result of these experiences, the pieces fuego verde (BAD Bilbao, 2021) and amanecer alto cielo (Azkuna Zentroa – Alhondiga Bilbao, 2024) were born.

// Dance

BASQUE COUNTRY PREMIERE

Make language invisible, walking until the word disappears

© Lucas Damiani

Led Silhouette

Halley

April 25, Thursday

Auditorium

7:00 p.m.

Duration: 60´

Artistic information

Concept & direction: Jon Lopez & Martxel Rodriguez

Performers: Katalin Arana, Lucia Burguete, Marina

Fullana, Laura Lliteras, Marcos

Martincano, Nicolas Martinez, Edoardo Ramirez & Diego Pazó

Texts: Gaizka Sarasola

Dramaturgy: Marcos Morau

Sound & music arrangements: Ibai Gogortza

Lighting & technical direction: Andoni Mendizabal

Stage management & machinery: Iban Alguea

Scenography: David Pascual

Costume design: Iñaki Cobos

Photography: Irantzu Pastor

Video: El Estudio, Adela Moreno & Ana Escario

Production: Led Silhouette

Distribution: Rocío Pindado, Portal 71

Sponsors: Azkuna Zentroa, Malandain Ballet Biarritz, Centro Coreográfico Canal & Gayarre Theatre, Dantzalabea

- Teatro Barakaldo

As children of this era we are fed up with having to constantly justify our existence. We have learnt to speak in the way the rest want to listen.

When trying to find the origin, we cannot help feeling that irretrievable sense of not being able to know the stories preceding us. We are bodies made from other bodies that have joined together innumerable times since the beginning of time.

Our story is also one of those lives that were here before us and existed long before the stories. What is modern about our identity when we truly reach awareness of what our story is? We are not modern, we are much older. We realise everything is millions of years old, and we notice that the world is reborn with us, because before us nothing existed and yet we knew who we were before we were born.

Human experiences and man’s most relevant questions, those which have not changed since the beginning of time, serve as poetic manna for this project according to its creators, Led Silhouette (Martxel Rodriguez & Jon López). As they state, it is a place of construction or dismantling, an allegory to the society in which we live, where these characters, who bear heavy loads and have a journey to undertake, likewise a desire to overcome the setbacks separating them from happiness, come together to tell a new story. For, although you cannot eat illusion, you can nourish yourself on it. It is a place that never gives them anything from everything they desire. And because of that lack and that desire for the infinite, they find themselves forced to look for a crack and open up the niche.

You cannot eat illusion, but you can nourish yourself on it

// Dance

BASQUE COUNTRY PREMIERE

Led Silhouette

Martxel Rodriguez and Jon López run Led Silhouette, a creative collective of artists whose training in various dance disciplines and contemporary art influences run parallel to their artistic activity in La Veronal company. Their works have been performed in festivals

and circuits such as Madrid en Danza, Temporada Alta, Escena Patrimonio, Festival Quincena de Dança Almada in Portugal, Festival Internazional Nuova Danza in Italia, Platea, Danza Escena and Sarea.

Pablo Viar Confines

May 23, Thursday

Auditorium

7:00 p.m.

Duration: 95´

Artistic information

Direction & Dramaturgy: Pablo Viar

Performers: Eguzki Zubia, Txubio Fernández Jáuregui

Confines is the result of a scenic investigation around identity, scientific progress and the permeable boundaries between reality and fiction, which moves between tenderness and comedy, appealing to the complicity of the spectator.

Pablo Viar's new play proposes a reflection on the various purposes or limits that condition our existence as human beings in the world, and on our capacity and desire to transcend them.

Confines is a poetic show, a game of mirrors based on the physical and vocal work of its performers, an adaptable staging and an evocative lighting and sound design, which invites us to explore the limits of our existence.

Azkuna Zentroa co-produces this theatre piece starring Eguzki Zubia (La dinamika) and Txubio Fernández Jaúregui (Legaleón-T & Kolektivo Monstrenko).

An invitation to explore the limits of our existence

Pablo Viar

Pablo Viar is a theatre, opera and zarzuela director. He graduated in Music & Performing Arts at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and earned a Bachelor of Arts in History Degree from University of Deusto. Standing out among his most recent works are La vida es sueño, Almagro Festival 2021; Enigma Pessoa, Abadía Theatre, Madrid, recently performed in London and several international festivals; Madame Butterfly by Puccini, Villamarta Theatre in Jerez; A Midsummer Night’s Dream / Uda gau bateko ametsa by William Shakespeare, Arriaga

Theatre in Bilbao, Ercilla Award for the Best Basque Production 2016; and the zarzuelas El caserío by Guridi and Iphigenia en Tracia, at the Zarzuela Theatre in Madrid.

He has likewise designed musical shows for the Royal Theatre in Madrid and Arriaga Theatre in Bilbao, including Etxea, with Kepa Junkera, the Juan March Foundation and the opening sessions of the new Performing Arts Centre Muxikebarri in Getxo, Bizkaia.

Rosario Toledo

Cuarteta

June 6, Thursday

Auditorium

7:00 p.m.

Duration: 60´

Artistic information

Directed by: Rosario Toledo

Dramaturgy and direction assistance: Idoia Zabaleta (Azala)

Dancer: Rosario Toledo

Singers: Inma "La Carbonera" y Eva Ruiz "La Lebri"

Costume design:

Carlos Díez

Lighting design: Antonio Valiente

Technical direction/sound:

Manu Meñaca

Photography: Carmen Kahlo

Video: Calde Ramírez

Accompaniment: Pedro G. Romero

Cuarteta takes the audience through a rehearsal of the songs and dances of the “carnival quartet”, a carnival group from Cadiz composed of three or five components, never four.

In this context of role reversal, Rosario Toledo, Inma “La Carbonera” and Eva “La Lebri” insist on dancing backwards, singing backwards and laughing backwards. They do so with their ovaries on their cheeks, their lungs on their noses, their heads on their behinds and their backs on their foreheads. A traditional repertoire that is flipped, reversed, altered, disrupted, contradictory and antagonistic.

“In the process of researching what it means to dance flamenco backwards, we realise how much flamenco is already inverted. We therefore view carnival humour as a way of shaking up the established structure, as a place and time of inversion, where everything can be in front or behind”, explains the artist.

Rosario Toledo is joined on stage by Inma “La Carbonera” and Eva Ruíz “La Lebri”, two traditional flamenco singers who accompany her with curiosity and a willingness to contribute their knowledge to this work. It is a research project from a feminine perspective that leans on Cadizcarnival humour, with the assistance of Idoia Zabaleta and accompanied by Pedro G. Romero.

Dancing backwards, singing backwards, laughing backwards

Rosario Toledo

With a degree in Spanish Dance from the Seville Dance Conservatory, Rosario Toledo (Cadiz, 1977) began her professional career under the guidance of her teacher, Charo Cruz, and is currently part of the dance company of Manuela Carrasco and Antonio El Pipa. In addition to performing at well-known tablaos in Seville, she also appears as a guest performer in shows with artists such as Javier Latorre, Javier Barón, Antonio Canales, Israel Galván, Joaquín Grilo, Miguel Poveda, Arcángel, Dorantes or José Antonio Rodríguez, among others. She performs as a soloist with Mario Maya in his show De Cádiz a Cuba, la mar de Flamenco.

Working with these masters has shaped the development of her own very personal vision of flamenco dance. A deep, conceptual vision of dance, but at the same time with her feet on the ground, clinging to nature and going out into the street. It was in this context that the Cadiz-born dancer immersed herself in the development of projects with her own company, garnering enormous success with critics and audiences and rising to the status of must-see dancer on the current flamenco scene.

Lari Produkzioak

Zaintzaren dantza

Coming soon

Auditorium

Audience: children and young people

Artistic information

Text: Maria Urcelay

Songs: Yogurinha Borova

Wardrobe: Miguel Biurrun

Creation and direction: Yogurinha Borova, Na Gomes, Maria Urcelay

Sound technician: Na Gomes

Graphic design: Pedro de Madrazo

Scenography: Yogurinha Borova- Maria Urcelay

Production company: Lari Produkzioak

yogurinha_borova

meri_urcelay

Meri is a new mother. For nine months she carried a child inside her that she cared for and protected. But that child has also become a source of many questions and concerns: Will it be a boy or a girl? How am I going to raise him/her? What will he/she be when he/she grows up? Will he/she be happy?

Now the time has come to face these fears and there is no choice other than to move forward. But the weight of responsibility and fatigue will fall on her and there will be new questions: How did I learn to take care of myself? Who taught me? Will I be able to take care of the child on my own? Who carries the burden of care in society?

Along with her friend Mari (a non-binary character) and thanks to their inclusive vision, she will try to answer all these questions on a journey that will culminate with lively melodies and animated stories.

A look at diversity suitable for all audiences

Lari Produkzioak

Lari Produkzioak is a platform for the development of children's plays that focuses on diversity. Its first production was Meri, Mari eta Lari, which premiered at Azkuna Zentroa in 2019. It is a play that examines the multiplicity of sexes and genders, of different family models, of overcoming our fears, in short, of freedom. Zaintzaren dantza continues

in this vein, focusing the message on the different spheres of care: establishing models of co-responsibility, promoting self-care and self-esteem, defending the environment and advocating for the protection of those who are different through an inclusive model of society.

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Stage spaces

The Centre’s diverse equipment and spaces makes it possible to offer each show in the most suitable place for the audience to live the best experience.

The Auditorium can hold 400 people and its 13x5m 2 stage has the necessary dimensions for large scale stage productions.

Kubo Baltza is a non-conventional space where the distribution of audience and artists may be random. It offers different perspectives and fosters an immersive experience in the artistic performance.

Its versatility favours audience closeness to the stage action, going beyond its sole role of spectator to enter into a dialogue and generate complicity with the work.

Both Kubo Baltza and the Auditorium are equipped with digital technologies that improve the experience and space thanks to the European Next Generation Funds for performing arts in the Basque Country.

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