Jerildy Bosch es una talentosísima diseñadora de vestuario que vive en México DF y a quien tuve el gusto de conocer en el 36 Festival Internacional Cervantino en Guanajuato, donde participó como diseñadora de vestuario para La Vida es Sueño del director colombiano Pedro Salazar con escenografía de Alejandro Luna – el maestro diseñador de luces y escenografía a quien le dedicaremos su propio espacio en culturebot muy pronto. Jerildy lleva 15 años diseñando vestuario para circo, teatro, y danza, y hace un año que ha incorporado opera y cine. En el 2007, recibió la prestigiosaMedalla de Oro al mejor vestuario en laCuadrienal de Praga PQ 07.La foto que sigue es de Don Giovanni de Mozart con dirección de Mauricio Garcia Lozano para el Festival del Centro Histórico en el Teatro de la Ciudad, México DF.
vestuario de Jerildy Bosch / foto de Jorge Aguilera
Seis actores nacidos en la década del setenta y principios del ochenta reconstruyen la juventud de sus padres a partir de fotos, cartas, cintas, ropa usada, relatos, recuerdos borrados. ¿Quiénes eran mis padres cuando yo nací? ¿Cómo era la Argentina cuando yo no sabía hablar? ¿Cuántas versiones existen sobre lo que pasó cuando yo aún no existía o era tan chico que ni recuerdo? Cada actor hace una remake de escenas del pasado para entender algo del futuro. Como dobles de riesgo de sus padres, los hijos se ponen su ropa y tratan de representar su historia familiar. Carla reconstruye las versiones sobre la muerte de su padre que era guerrillero del ERP. Vanina vuelve a mirar sus fotos de infancia tratando de entender qué hacía su padre como oficial de inteligencia. Blas se pone la sotana de su padre cura para representar la vida en el seminario. Mariano vuelve a escuchar las cintas que dejó su padre cuando era periodista automovilístico y militaba en la Juventud Peronista. Pablo revive la vida de su padre como empleado de un banco intervenido por militares. Liza actúa las circunstancias en que sus padres se exiliaron de Argentina. Mi vida después transita en los bordes entre lo real y la ficción, el encuentro entre dos generaciones, la remake como forma de revivir el pasado y modificar el futuro, el cruce entre la historia del país y la historia privada. * Mi vida después fue escrita a partir de material original y con la colaboración de los actores. ** La música fue compuesta con la colaboración de Liza Casullo y Lola Arias.
Lola Arias (Buenos Aires, 1976) Escritora, directora de teatro, actriz y música. Fundó la Compañía Postnuclear, un colectivo interdisciplinario de artistas con el que desarrolla diversos proyectos de teatro, literatura, música y artes visuales. En teatro escribió y dirigió: La escuálida familia, Estudios de la memoria amorosa, Poses para dormir y la trilogía: Striptease, Sueño con revólver y El amor es un francotirador. En colaboración con el artista suizo Stefan Kaegi, dirigió Chácara Paraíso (una instalación biográfica con policías brasileños) y Airport kids ( un proyecto sobre niños internacionales en suiza). Además, junto con Ulises Conti, compone música y grabó el disco El amor es un francotirador (sello metamúsica). Publicó: Las impúdicas en el paraíso (poesía, Ed.Tsé-Tsé), La escuálida familia (teatro, Ed. Libros del Rojas), Mi nombre cuando yo ya no exista (teatro, Ed. Cierto Pez, Chile), Poses para dormir ( Antología dramaturgias, Ed. Entropía), la trilogía Striptease, Sueño con revólver y El amor es un francotirador ( teatro, Ed. Entropía) y relatos en revistas. Sus textos fueron traducidos al inglés, francés y alemán, y representados en varios festivales internacionales. Entre otros: Festival de Avignon, Steirischer Herbst Festival Graz, In Transit Festival Berlin, We are here Dublin, Spielart Festival Munich, Alkantara Festival Lisboa.
Aqui Shoshana Polanco, the new Spanish Language Editor. Me da mucho placer anunciarles que a partir de hoy, you will be reading some news from the Spanish speaking world. Gracias Andy to give me this opportunity!
[Editor's note: this is the first posting from another new contributor, Culturebot's dear friend Ellen Ratchye, live from Chicago! We're expanding, so watch out world!]
First things first – nobody needs a reason to go to Coachella, Santa Barbara or San Francisco in mid-April. If you do go, I promise a unique delight await.
Tinariwen is a multi-generational music collective from Mali, made up of members of the nomadic Tuareg people. Their music is a gorgeous hybrid of the blues & trance, served up with a jam band sensibility. I’ve seen them live once in Chicago & recently picked up a DVD of their London concert from the same 2007 tour. Both are unforgettable experiences, easily topping John Hiatt, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe & the Bad Plus among my all-time favorite live performances.
There is so much to savor – a cascade of sound that sets the whole audience moving, terrific guitar licks, a phenomenal drummer who conjures an entire kit out of one hand drum, hypnotic bass lines, slightly hoarse vocalists, haunting ululation…and that’s just the music.
You cannot take your eyes off these guys. The worn, mournful beauty of founder Ibrahim Ag Alhabib doesn’t hurt (he is also the chief songwriter & vocalist) The burkha-clad back-up singers dance in the highest of all high heels, golden bracelets chiming with every step. Like Paul McCartney, the Tinariwen bassist plays left-handed, lending the group the same onstage symmetry as the Beatles. How many miles are on those elderly amps? How often do they get access to electricity at home beyond the paved roads?
All the men wear robes & head-coverings reminiscent of Lawrence of Arabia. In his white robes, Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni the second lead vocalist (and an equal partner in songwriting) is a dead ringer for Omar Sharif in 1962. The young drummer plays decked out in the black & white garb that is now synonymous with suicide bombers. Another weathered first generation member, Alhasane Ag Toumane, plays a beat-up cherry-red electric guitar when it suits him & otherwise sways & claps & kicks up his curled toe shoes. You know they’re flogging the desert thing for all it’s worth, but it’s still a feast.
Here’s their 2007 performance at Live 8:
They also have an incredible backstory. The group got its start in 1979 as founder Ag Alhabib was exiled first to Algeria & later to a Qaddafi-sponsored training camp in Libya where he prepared for his return to Mali.
Of course I like to imagine that Ag Alhabib got fed up one day out on the shooting range & threw down his AK-47, shouting “F*ck it, I want to be a rock & roll star!”, in an instant becoming the best examplar of the American Way the world has ever known. I know he learned to play the guitar before he got to the camp & formed the band with some friends while in exile in Algeria. I also know he was part of the long-awaited uprising of 1990 & that it did not turn out well for the Tuareg.
The man is a visionary & over the past 30 years has found a way to share the truth of his life & his people with the rest of the world. It’s a remarkable achievement given that the songs are written & performed in French & the Tuareg language Tamashek, and that the band members are more comfortable speaking French than English.
The songs capture Tuareg life since the South Saharan region was sliced into four nations in the 1960s – Mali, Niger, Algeria & Libya. The two major uprisings in Mali, in 1960 & 1990, frame Ag Alhabib’s life between the time his father was executed by Malian soldiers until he returned to his home country.
After years of distributing their music via what their manager Andy Morgan describes as a “cassette-to-cassette ghetto-blaster grapevine”, Tinariwen’s success in the West has come via the international festival circuit. They’ve anchored the increasingly influential Tuareg event Le Festival au Desert every year since its creation in 2001. They played at Glastonbury during the summer of 2007. In the summer of 2008 they opened for the Rolling Stones at the Irish festival Slane Castle. Chris Martin cites them as a significant influence on Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida”. Stay tuned…
It’s actually astounding to me that they were able to get visas to come to the US during their 2004 & 2007 tours. Their American booking agent assures me that luck had pretty much everything to do with it. I don’t doubt it & urge you to witness part of their improbable journey six weeks from now.
Hong Kong Microfest – Giles Burton our technical director and co founder has recently launched a small scale festival in Hong Kong. For the first year four great shows, that have all appeared at the Prague Fringe, will be winging their way east in April/May
To find out more become a friend of HK Microfest or join the Hong Kong Microfest facebook group or check out the newly launched website…
Five Days in March is “making a huge impression in the international festival circuit. Its movement-heavy and super-naturalistic style has been compared to the heightened approaches of Nature Theater of Oklahoma, Young Jean Lee and Richard Maxwell.”
- American Theatre Magazine
Major thumbs-up for this show. Two words: Lip Balm. I’m not going to explain that, you’ll just have to see it. But it is a moment of genius! Seriously, this is a really great show – very subtle and understated but beautifully performed and designed. Don’t miss it!
GET ARTIST DISCOUNT TICKETS
only $18 (instead of $35) with code 5ART by calling 212.715.1258
(the discount was only supposed to be through 1/30, but I’ve been told by Japan Society staff that it is being extended to include FRIDAY -tonight- but not Saturday.) (sorry for the mistake!) (but go anyway!!)
On a related but totally tangential note – one of the characters in the show is an awkward young woman who does the most poignant and emotionally true portrayal of romantic awkwardness and early-adult alienation i’ve seen in ages. she talks about going to mars – which made me think of “the girl from mars”, a song by punk-pop trio Ash. Here’s the video of that song from YouTube. And if you look closely at about 1:45 in the video you will see a brief cameo by yours truly.
If you speak German, you can still apply for the Berliner Festspiele’s International Forum. The International Forum is a two week long course for professional theatremakers working in the field of spoken drama from around the world. Its objective is the targeted development of young artists via a specifically tailored programme of events within the Theatertreffen presented by the Berliner Festspiele. The Forum is conceived as a platform for a comprehensive exchange of questions, impressions and opinions. It comprises workshops focussing on practical skills, visits to the productions invited to the Theatertreffen, seminars, lectures and discussions and the opportunity to meet both emerging and established theatremakers from German speaking countries and around the world.
The 15th Dublin Fringe Festival is now inviting submissions for its annually anticipated, culture jamming line-up of contemporary arts this September.
This year, we want to present works which confront, embrace and defy this period of remarkable change and challenges. From celebrating the fresh re-emergence of DIY culture, reclaiming more of our city’s empty spaces, experimenting with theatre and performance and delving into experiential arts on a grand and minute scale, to encountering home grown and international arts on the street and in even more unexpected places, the Fringe’s 2009 programme will not shy away from exploration of where we are and how we got here; as a city, nation and international community or makers, doers, seers and thinkers. To do this, we need you, artists and thinkers, to make it happen. We want to hear your ideas whether you work in theatre, music, dance, visual art, street-art, film, multi-media or beyond.
Dublin Fringe Festival has long served as a spring-board for fresh new Irish and international artistic voices, as well as a home for risk-taking and cutting edge performance from more established artists. This year we are looking for artists across all disciplines to imagine Dublin with a new vision for the time we live in; to be brave, bold and uncompromising in their engagement with the cultural, social and physical landscape of the city and to once again invigorate, investigate, challenge, defy, excite and inspire its audience.
As a year round organisation which aims to promote, nurture and engage Irish artists, this year the Fringe will once again present a series of pre-application talks open to all interested parties on Tuesday 17 February. Topics that will be covered include: Online application process, supporting material requirements, financial deals offered by the festival and fundraising.
Closing Deadline for applications is Friday 3 April at 6pm.
Filling a gap, and always willing to lend a hand when major arts organisations fail to do their jobs properly, we are delighted to announce the re-opening of the ICA Live Art Department in the form of True Riches, an independent curatorial project with contributions and participation of an international group of artists, curators and thinkers working in and around Live Art.
The project True Riches – a season which runs from now until the end of the year at the ICA – arises from our invitations to around 25 individuals to make proposals for works, seasons and themed and un-themed programmes. It gathers materials which stem from a variety of approaches, tendencies, and impulses in the live art sector – from the satirical critical to the archival, from the comical subversive to the theoretical investigative. We even have a buffet of zero gravity food.
The ICA Live Art Department, even though it does not exist, is alive and well and glad of your support. We would like to extend our thanks to the many artists and curators who have joined us to make the varied proposals, statements and programmes that comprise True Riches. We hope that you’ll join us for these and other events.
Tim Etchells / Ant Hampton
For the entire story about this fantastic endeavor visit:
Don’t know anything about this, but I hear Slovenia is swell. And its an interesting topic.
International Festival-Fair
THEATRE METHODS 09
Between Tradition and Contemporaneity
July 6-12, 2009
Bovec, Slovenia
“Theatre Methods” is the annual professional festival-fair dedicated to the Bridge between Tradition and Contemporaneity in performing arts. The festival is an opportunity to demonstrate methods of training in traditional theatre and to present contemporary works created as the result of traditional theatre training techniques.
At the moment THEATRE METHODS 09 has been accepting presentation proposals.
Presentation format:
‧ performance (not requiring special technical conditions)
‧ workshop/master class
‧ work in progress
‧ reading/lecture
‧ any other way of demonstration to the presenter’s discretion.
The festival is aimed at new international contacts, creative exchange and communication. “TM” does not imply opportunity of a one-day tour. Important condition of “TM” is that performers and theatres presenting works at the festival participate in the whole programme from the first to the last day – attending other festival events, workshops, performances, etc.
If you wish to present your work at TM09,
please become familiar with Submission Guidelines before submitting your proposal:
