STUDENTS section

Far from wanting to do an institutional exhibition, on this occasion we wanted to create a context where students have their own voice connected with the absolute present of their concerns. For this reason, we organised a contest open to all students of higher schools, the Escola Superior d’Art Dramàtic (ESAD) and the Conservatori Superior de Dansa (CSD).

We only asked for two things: that they formed creation groups that in addition to scenographers included other professional backgrounds from the performing arts, and that they outlined an idea they found interesting to work on in the framework of an international scenography exhibition. An idea that comes from their interests as performing arts students, in relation to how they see or understand the profession or in relation to their creative processes.

Projects presented

– Fàbrica de Quimeres by Míriam Alemany-Garnés, Nina López-Le Galliard, Xavier Oró Archs and Xènia Sendra Luna.

– Project by Marta López Figueras, Ona Sallas Batlle, Mª Magdalena Garzón Torrandell and Oriol Corral Meroño.

– Fals quadern de viatge by Carlota Grau Bagès, Clàudia Serra Mas and Cristina Viñas Marcus.

The winning project is Theáomai, by Lola Belles, Sergi Cerdan, Sara Espinosa and Lluc Ubach. A project on creation, contemplation and the involvement of art with the present context and that calls on the audience’s intimate experience.

THE STUDENT CREATORS OF THE INSTALLATION

The creators of the installation Theáomai are a group of 4th year students at the Institut del Teatre. Lola Belles, Sergi Cerdan and Sara Espinosa are Scenography students, and Lluc Ubach is a student of Stage Directing and Dramaturgy. They met at the school while sharing subjects and courses.

All four have other very diverse training. Sara and Sergi are musicians, Lola is a designer and Lluc is an illustrator. From this variety of backgrounds they share the same way of understanding theatre; a field where the creative processes are not pigeonholed, where the limit of language they explore is no more than the limit of their theatre universe in a constant process of discovery.

Beyond the curricular projects, they share artistic concerns and reflections that they have already had the chance to experiment with in their own extra academic projects that gradually give them a distinctive voice as a creative group. Before this participation in the Prague Quadrennial, the group created Dramatúrgies de l’ull compost, an installation based on Kafka’s novel Das Schloss.

THEÁOMAI

CREATION OF YELLOW SPACE IN A CENSORSHIP-FREE ENCLOSURE

Theáomai (contemplation) is the Greek term that refers to the gaze as a creative act, far from the passive connotations that we usually use in a context in which visual information has saturated our everyday life.

The gaze is per se creative and generates a discourse. Scenographers impregnate with their critical eye the space they design, and it has an impact on the viewers’ eyes. It is an invitation to dialogue with what they have in front of them and an opportunity to become co-creators of the play.

We understand, then, the set designer as a creator of spaces for debate. Everything must be able to be talked about and discussed on a stage, whatever it may be. The scenographer's perspective is the starting point of a theatre committed to freedom of expression and to the diversity of opinions and thoughts. From here, it is the audience who decide what story is told, what to think, what to do…

This is our proposal, a space in constant transformation where the audience can be ultimately responsible for writing their own narrative about the facts of our present.

Special thanks to Anna Gual, poetess

Lola Belles, Sergi Cerdan, Sara Espinosa and Lluc Ubach
Designers and creators of the installation

Theáomai