Quiquiriquí

QUIQUIRIQUÍ

Granada’s Festival of Puppet Theater is called Quiquiriquí. It originated from an idea and consequent proposal by the Federico García Lorca Center Consortium and is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the City of Granada. The company Etcétera is in charge of artistic direction.

Autumn 2017 brings Quiquiriquí to Granada. Quiquiriquí is no mere program of shows, but rather aspires to be a complex event with a social component to express all kinds of activities and encounters.

WHAT WE AIM TO DO

The city of Granada deserves — given its history and the strength of its contemporary arts scene — a true festival of puppet theater. The contributions of Falla, Lorca and Lanz at the beginning of the 20th century had a decisive influence on this art form in Spain as well as in Europe and Latin America. Today Granada is an incubator of young talent, is home to high-quality companies, and possesses an understanding and enthusiastic public. The festival was born with the aim to connect citizens with artists and their work, thereby giving visibility and training to emerging talents, and facilitating dialogue between masters of recognizable prestige and those who take their first steps into this art form to put Granada on the international puppeteer map. We intend to create a festival that lives up to European standards by attracting current great names: the consecrated and the newcomers, and which brings together traditional theater experiences with contemporary ones. This is another step toward positioning Granada as the European Capital of Culture by 2031.

PROGRAM SUMMARY

The program is organized into three trajectories: performances; drawing together young creators (The Incubator); and ancillary activities. For this year we have scheduled 12 shows from 10 different companies that will make up a total of 29 performances. The countries represented are: Spain, France (four companies), The Netherlands, China, Mexico and Israel. We will have companies from Catalonia, Navarre, Aragón and the Community of Murcia. Most of the works will be premieres in Spain and/or Granada. We place special emphasis on French companies in 2017, as our neighboring country is the undisputed leader in terms of European puppetry — both in quality and quantity, and has a cultural policy that supports its creation and experimentation.

A LITTLE HISTORY

Granada has been connected for centuries to the history of puppets. Perhaps we cannot imagine it, but if we ponder that from the perspective of animated figures in elements as old as the automatons of Al-Andalus, the popular Tarasca giants with big heads, to the images of Semana Santa, we see that the relationship with animated objects is more present among us than we often believe. Therein is the origin of puppet theater: its powerful mystery and attraction. In the center of the city in 1923, Manuel de Falla, Federico García Lorca and Hermenegildo Lanz performed the puppet show Títeres de cachiporra (The Billy Club Puppets), which was undoubtedly one of the great contributions of our country to the vanguard puppet movement that was happening all over Europe. In Granada Falla wrote El retablo de maese Pedro (Master Peter’s Puppet Show), a master opera for puppets, which was a synthesis of traditional Spanish music and the avant-garde. In Granada Lanz made the figures for this work’s premiere in Paris and then in Seville, and from his hand was born "planist theater”. In Granada Federico was interested in puppets from a young age, he dedicated several of his works to them and pursued the desire to see them onstage. In Granada these three artists dreamed up new projects with puppets that history did not allow them to perform.

In that city of the twenties, among the various cultural initiatives that emerged, was Gallo magazine, led by Federico García Lorca in complicity with several young writers. "With love for Granada, but with consideration placed on Europe," they tried to shake up the cultural life of yesteryear, to inject new vitality, and to connect artists with each other. Our inspiration to launch this new event is also born from this impulse. Quiquiriquí is a salutation to the masters of this art form, a rallying call to new talent, and a song of illusion. The rooster is "an animal that has a restless and youthful joy", and "enthusiasm is an aurora that never ends".

TICKET PRICES AND SALES

Ticket sales: via the Internet at redentradas.com  //  Telephone: 958 10 81 81  //  Ticket Office at the Isabel la Católica Theater, Kiosco Redentradas (Acera del Casino) and from one hour before the start of the show, if any tickets remain, at the Federico García Lorca Center  //

Prices: adults: 12 €  //  children under 14 years: 7 €  //  Special price for: 8 shows: 80 €  //  4 shows: 40 €  //  Not included in the special ticket prices for multiple shows: Las tribulaciones de Virginia, La máquina de la soledad and Cosas que se olvidan fácilmente  // 

+ QUIQUIRIQUÍ - etceterateatro@gmail.com  //  Press: cucavidalm@hotmail.com - jesus@centrofedericogarcialorca.es  //

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PROGRAMME

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September 29, 2017 - 6:30 pm / September 30, 2017 - 6:30 pm / October 1, 2017 - 6:30 pm 

HERMANOS OLIGOR (Navarre) ________ Las tribulaciones de Virginia (The Tribulations of Virginia)

1h30 //  For adults  //  In Spanish  //  LOWEL LEVEL ZONE  //

Las tribulaciones de Virginia is a spectacle with dolls, automatons animated by pulleys and pedals, mechanical toys and machines inspired by cause-effect experiments. It is between the country fair stall and the circus. Awnings mark a circular space and inside, there are tiers where the public sits, a small track and in the background, a great machine that is transformed throughout the show. Valentín activates the different mechanisms to the rhythm of fairground music, music boxes, and tango while telling a story of love and love lost at the same time. The Oligors’ fragile theater is plucked in the light of a birthday candle, a lantern with which Valentin, in a low voice, takes you to the drawer where you had your first kiss, do you remember? A show with which you will fall in love from the first minute and which will stay in your life forever.

It was released in 2002 and since then has toured major festivals in Europe and Latin America. Given its uniqueness and excellence, this year Quiquiriquí has bet decisively on this company by showing two of its creations and a documentary film about the work itself.

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29.09.2017 - 8 pm

YEUNG FAÏ / LE PILLIER DES ANGES / THÉÂTRE DU CHEMIN CREUX (China-Francia) ________ Teahouse

1h  //  From 12 years old and up  //  No dialogue  //  Premiere in Spain //

Chinese master Yeung Faï, fifth generation member of a family of puppeteers and currently residing in France, presents a show with Chinese glove puppets and contemporary staging. It tells a somewhat autobiographical story: that of a puppeteer who acts in a tea house in southern China and who must adapt to changes evolving from the cultural revolution of the Korean War to the current karaoke trend. This is how Yeung Faï talks about the artist resistance in the Asian country. In Teahouse as in other shows by this great artist, the audience will be dazzled by virtuosity and humor, and by the subtle blend of poetry and politics.

Yeung Faï opens up a necessary dialogue between Chinese traditional and contemporary European theater. This show testifies to the artists' permanent exercise in survival and transmission of their craft.

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29.09.2017 - 9:30 pm  // 30.09.2017 - 9:30 pm

JAVIER ARANDA (Aragon) ________ Pariahs

1h  //  For adults  //  No dialogue  //  Premiere in Granada  //  WORKSHOP ROOM //

Puppet show for adults where the relation between the object and the puppeteer reaches a degree of intimacy that causes one to tremble. In Pariahs the puppets are brilliant symbols of degradation and marginalization of the human being; their stories arouse emotions that make us aware that we are still alive and have moral criteria. This show reclaims themes from classical theater and returns its social function to the stage. A work of somewhat black humor, which connects well with spectators, is ideal at day’s end. With Pariahs we laugh out loud while at the same time the theme moves us and forces us to reflect.

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30.09.2017 - 8 pm  //  01.10.2017 - 1 pm

PAPIERTHÉÂTRE (France) ________ A Fragile History of Paper Theater

1h10  //   From 12 years old up  //  In Spanish  //  Premiere in Spain  //

English publishers from the early nineteenth century who had the idea of ​​selling small paper theaters for theater-loving families could not imagine that two hundred years later, artists would rely on this technique to create shows. From the humble back room where these theaters were printed to the contemporary stage, paper theater has become as much an artifact of theatrical history as a current medium for creation. Alain Lecucq, the great name of reference for this specialty in Europe, tells this story and places the beginnings of modern paper theater in Granada on January 6, 1923, at that performance of Títeres de cachiporra (The Billy Club Puppets) by Manuel de Falla, Federico García Lorca, and Hermenegildo Lanz. These three artists appear on stage turned into puppets.

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30.09.2017 - 5 pm  //  01.10.2017 - 12 am

PERIFERIA TEATRO (Region of Murcia) ________ Fly Feather

0h50  //  From 4 years old and up  //  In Spanish  //  Premiere in Granada  //  EXHIBITION HALL  //

Vuela Pluma tells the story of a bird that lived "happily" in its cage until one day, it had a dream. The cage opened and the dream finally moved its wings. It is a tale about freedom and respect for the true nature of living things. We give our bird protagonist the chance to live his dream, and to the spectators the opportunity to accompany him on his flight. Sometimes people are able to lock up what we love in a cage, so that it doesn’t escape, so that it stays by our side... The company from Murcia brings us this tender and delicate show, especially conceived for young children.

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04.10.2017 - 6:30 pm  //  05.10.2017 - 6:30 pm  //  06.10.2017 - 6:30 pm

OLIGOR Y MICROSCOPÍA (Navarre-Mexico) ________ The Machine of Solitude

1h20  //  For adults  //  In Spanish  //  LOWER LEVEL ZONE  //

La máquina de la soledad is an investigation-homage to the object-letter and postal mail. The Machine is a memoir staged with documentary object theater. It is a vulnerable space created through the recovery of life stories of the people of Mexico and of Spain. This piece is transformed according to its itineraries and the people found along the roads. The machine accumulates events in multiple formats (texts, videos, photos, documents, interviews, testimonies), which we translate to the small scale and attention to the old age of matter, in this case the field of forces of the object-letter.

This is the first project of the association of Shaday Larios of the Mexican company Microscopía with Jomi Oligor of Hermanos Oligor (Navarra). Prior to this collaboration, everyone involved already had an attraction to objects, memory, "micrology," mechanisms and fragility.

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05.10.2017 - 6 pm  // 05.10.2017 - 9:30 pm  //  06.10.2017 - 6 pm  //  06.10.2017 - 9:30 pm  //  07.10.2017 - 12 am  //  07.10.2017 - 5 pm  //  07.10.2017 - 9:30 pm  //  08.10.2017 - 12 am  //  08.10.2017 - 5 pm  //  08.10.2017 - 8 pm 

PLAYGROUND VISUAL (CATALUÑA) ________ Things that are Easily Forgotten

1h30  //  For adults  //  In Spanish  //  Premiere in Granada  //  Workshop Room  //  Capacity: 5 people each show

"Last year I realized that I was beginning to have memory problems. I found that my mother also suffered from important memory lapses. Cosas que se olvidan fácilmente is a photographic performance that transforms memories and, in the same manner that memories are forgotten, new ones are formed. If you had to choose a snapshot of your life, what would it be?" — Xavier Bobès. This show is difficult to categorize. It is a journey through time and memory, transiting those landscapes that we have all visited but have seen with different eyes. Although at times it seems that everything is being invented, there is a place in our imagination that smiles at these types of notions, intelligent and emotional because in the end what is theater? An unforgettable experience, is it not? Well this is it.

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05.10.2017 - 8 pm

DUDA PAIVA COMPANY (THE NETHERLANDS) ________ Blind

1h  //  For adults  //  Minimal dialogue in English  //  Premiere in Spain  //

This is a solo performance created by the Brazilian dancer-puppeteer Duda Paiva. This artist, based in The Netherlands, tackles a visual journey about a profound trauma that takes us back to his childhood in which he temporarily lost sight. Does a person go blind and lose all knowledge of himself? How does it relate to his world, his past and his future? As in other creations by this company, contemporary dance is combined with animated objects to create fascinating relationships between bodies, relationships that always surprise us with their technical mastery and their sense of humor. DudaPaiva Company is one of the great groups of the puppet genre from the last decade. Since its release in 2015, Blind has not stopped showing at the biggest international festivals and reaping worldwide success.

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06.10.2017 - 8 pm

LA PENDUE (FRANCE) ________ Tria fata

0h50  //  From 10 years old and up  //  Minimal dialogue in Spanish  //  Premiere in Granada  // 

An old woman faces her end accompanied by a puppeteer and a musician. In front of her, the images of her entire life pass by in an accelerated, strange, and amazing way. Using the poetics of burlesque and cabaret, La Pendue places the viewer before death. A large kaleidoscope of images turn and turn before extinction, going from one threshold to another, amidst the glow of fading figures. All the emotions, all the moments of existence are within sight, through a dramaturgy whose form resembles a Russian doll: within the very life of the old woman, the life of the actors is inscribed and vice versa, and in it is contained that of the Fates, in such a way that the puppet stands as a universal symbol of humanity.

Tria Fata brings together the puppeteer universe of Estelle Charlier and the music of Matin Kaspar Läuchli. The two play out a true performance: she unfolds in multiple characters with masks and objects, and he alternates instruments as a solo orchestra.

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07.10.2017 - 6:30 pm

LA PENDUE (FRANCE) ________ Polidégaine

0h55  //  From 7 years old and up  //  Minimal dialogue in Spanish  //

Armed with a weapon of massive hilarity, two puppeteers wander about and unsheathe the most famous puppet in the world, Polichinela. They dress themselves in unbridled enthusiasm to offer their show, with which they have achieved exceptional success. But as expected, nothing happens as planned. Welcome to the hilarious frenzy of a new version of Polichinela! Here this traditional character appears with a more ramshackle air, and with an unstoppable rhythm that unleashes laughter that explodes across all ages. Children and adults laugh together, for Polichinela laughs at everything and everyone, even death.

La Pendue marked a milestone in the evolution of the Polichinela genre with this brilliant production. In Polidégaine the puppeteers take ownership of the Neapolitan character in its purest form, and in turn develop an updated work that combines several techniques to create a novel, fresh, contemporary version. A show that in ten years has performed more than 1,000 times in thirty countries, and that will surely endure as a great artistic milestone in the history of the profession.

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08.10.2017 - 1 pm  //  08.10.2017 -  6:30 pm

LES ANGES AU PLAFOND (FRANCE) ________ The Daily Scream

0h40  //  From 7 years old and up  //  In Spanish  //  Premiere in Spain  // EXHIBITION HALL  //

Le cri quotidien is the story of an ordinary reader lost in a maze of newspaper pages and in the extraordinary novelties of the every day. It is the story of a day when the news emerges from the paper, springs up and escapes a big pop-up newspaper to become the show. Paper puppets trigger the information dissemination; they are ready to tell their truth, their poison and their poetry. On the stage to the side, there is a cellist absorbed in reading a new score, composed by a strange escape that mixes the classic sonata, squeaky tires, the adagio, and clucking hens. They are treated as two noisy solitudes that intersect by chance or by magic. It's funny; it's sad; it's a newspaper.

The company Les Anges au Plafond is one of the most outstanding in the current French panorama.

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08.10.2017 - 8 pm

YAEL RASOOLY (Israel) ________ Paper Cut 

1h  //  For adults  //  Minimal dialogue in English  //  Premiere in Granada  //  

A lonely secretary stays in the office after her coworkers go home. From her little corner, using photos from old movie magazines, she escapes into a world of daydreams. There she is a glamorous movie star from the 1940’s and at last finds her ideal love. But as the story unfolds, as imagination and reality collide, her romantic tale becomes a Hitchcock nightmare. This show reveals the obsessions and dangers of romantic fantasies. The language of black and white is transformed into a "low tech" universe of paper cuttings and object theater to create an absurd, painful and humorous tension.

This production has successfully toured important festivals such as Avignon, Edinburgh, and the New York Fringe Festival, where it won the award for best solo performance. Yael is a singer and puppeteer, a recognized name on the international scene.