It’s been a year since the historic press conference celebrating 20 years of Antic Teatre at which the mayoress of Barcelona at the time, Ada Colau, announced that Barcelona City Council would guarantee Antic Teatre’s future. This statement assured the continuity of our social and cultural project. However, as of today we are still waiting to take the next step in becoming part of the Cases de Cultura network. Faced with this uncertainty, Antic has been making every effort to explain to all citizens how, year after year, we have stood firm in our commitment to culture as a basic right, and how this has made us a steadfast centre for relations and encounters in the neighbourhood and the city, with the public and with artists.
For this reason we are presenting an artistic installation that conceptualises, by means of objects, Antic’s history. The installation will cover how, for the past twenty one years and without a break, we have created a programme in keeping with the principles of risk, innovation, experimentation and research, by means of a live initiative constructed with the support and participation of many local people, organisations and collectives from the arts world. The construction of this installation has emerged from the ideas and concepts put forward by the theatre staff, the bar staff, our own artists, collaborators, people with links to the community arts project and in general, everything that Antic represents.
Over the course of the morning, the auditorium will be filled with visual, sound and physical objects, with all visitors given free access. At both entrances to the room you will find maps, which you are free to take, with readings providing information about each object. For those of you who would like to know more about the history of our project, at 5pm the auditorium will experience an ‘activation’ of the objects, courtesy of our beloved ‘grannies’.
Meanwhile, as every year we will be sharing our Sant Jordi celebrations with our usual friends and collaborators: La Calders, On The Road and L’Horiginal. OFF Sant Jordi will kick off, courtesy of La Calders and On The Road, at 10am on the terrace and in the beer garden with sales of new and second-hand books, as well as book signings by authors throughout the day; and will end at 7pm in the auditorium courtesy of L’Horiginal with a recital by Laia Malo*; poet, translator and musician half of Jansky recites with pedalboards, synths and soundscapes.
*Laia Martínez López (Laia Malo) began reciting at L’Horiginal in 2007 and since then, has published six books of poems, with titles such as Afollada or Venus volta; he has translated the verses of Patti Smith and Marina Tsvetàieva among others; and takes his performative activity around the world with Jansky, the electronic duo he forms with Jaume Reus. His recent projects investigate creation with non-human animal languages. He has received awards such as the Art Jove de Poesia Balears, the Vidal Alcover for Translation or the Sounf of the Year from the United Kingdom. He lives in Palma and works from Rampa Lab, collaborating with literary and thought spaces at Ara Balears or IB3 Ràdio.
