Titzina Teatro are back in the Pine Islands to present their latest production: La Zanja. Fruit of the research and anthropological journalism of the troupe’s two members, playwrights/directors/actors Pako Merino and Diego Lorca, the production finds the pair taking a tragicomic look at the clash of European and American civilisations and the two continents’ shared history. Crowds can catch the 8.30pm show on 22 October at the Eivissa Palau de Congressos (Santa Eulària) and two days later, Saturday 24 October, at Formentera’s Sala de Cultura (Cinema).

La Zanja tells the story of Miguel, an employee of a multinational mining firm, as he arrives on assignment in South America. Awaiting the “discoverer” are the mayor and community in the town where the mine is located. What follows Miguel’s arrival is a meeting of two worlds and of two world visions. The ambitions, opportunities and consequences of the newly launched mine will mark the future of the town and relations between neighbours.

Diego Lorca and Pako Merino’s fifth creation is the product of an unhurried and deliberate process. As with the pair’s other projects, La Zanja springs from sweeping research in anthropological journalism, as well as interviews and time spent living with the story’s protagonists. The appeal of Titzina Teatro’s tragicomic and minimalist productions is universal: Sueños de psiquiátrico dealt with insanity; Entrañas wrestled with war; and Exitus came to terms with death.

For Merino and Lorca, making La Zanja meant moving to Peru to research a community polarised by the extractive economy and picking apart the entangled stories of Francisco Pizarro and Atahualpa in 1532. The work led to the trailhead of the relationship between two worlds hitherto unknown to one another: Europe and America.

La Zanja is part of PLATEA, a programme for the dissemination of the performing arts organised by the Spanish Ministry of Culture’s Insitute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM).

Tickets for the 22 October show at the Palau de Congressos can be purchased for €15 (plus handling costs) at www.santaeulariadesriu.com and www.festivalbarruguet.com, or €20 at the box office an hour before showtime. Tickets for the 24 October show at Formentera’s Sala de Cultura (Cinema) are €7 for viewers over 25, €5 for youth and free for the unemployed or self-employed individuals currently out of work. Space is limited and reservations must be made before 10.00am on Friday 23 October by emailing reserves@conselldeformentera.cat.

The troupe
Diego Lorca and Pako Merino met at Paris’s Jacques Lecoq International School of Theatre in 1999. After studying and working in a multitude of global troupes, Lorca and Merino launched Titzina in Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona).

Over the years, Titzina have cemented their status as a creative troupe with a style all their own (some refer to the “Titzina Quality Seal”). Anthropological journalism, as Titzina refer to their stock in trade, entails interviews and cohabitation with subjects. The research finds Lorca and Merino exploring the lives of others and often unknown realities in a bid to present humans’ most remarkable aspects, from a place of humour, a place of irony, and at the same time, a place of tragedy.

Titzina’s productions strive to get viewers to ask questions and reflect on the most common —and at the same time, the most profound— issues that we as humans face. By essentialising aspects of play, and with razor-sharp attention to detail, they create a final product that is flawless.

14 October 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera

The Formentera Department of Environment reports that as part of the observance of International Day of Rural Women on Thursday 15 October, the island will play host to a display entitled Homenatge a la dona de Formentera en el món rural (Tribute to Formentera’s rural woman). Photography fans in Sant Francesc can see the exhibit between 9.00am and 2.00pm, Monday to Saturday, 15–31 October in the inner courtyard of Centre Antoni Tur “Gabrielet”.

Dated between 1950 and present day and kept at the Consell’s image and sound archive, Arxiu d’Imatge i So, the 26 prints in the selection capture rural Formentera women in an array of situations. Credited photographers include Pere Català i Roca, Helga Sittl, Melba Levick, Rafael Bataller i Giralt and individuals that have contributed prints to past editions of the Beni Trutmann photo contest.

Formentera’s environment chief said the exhibit was about saluting Formentera’s rural woman and turning a spotlight on the wide-ranging nature of the work in her charge: “We see her working the fields, tending to livestock, making bread, spinning wool and toiling in any number of other traditional tasks that the women of the island oversaw with patience and perseverance...which is why it was high time we showed them recognition”.

9 October 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera

Saturday 17 October Formentera’s Sala de Cultura (Cinema) will play host to La Tal theatre troupe’s family-friendly Italino Grand Hotel. The self-proclaimed “company of clowns” cut their teeth with the classics before gravitating in recent years a varying array of characters: notably, a clown with a well-defined personality, a clown whose years hold wisdom, a clown for today’s audiences.

Set in a city hotel abuzz with guests, Italino Grand Hotel trains its focus on one character in particular—one who, apart from housekeeper, janitor, ironer and bed-perfumer, is a dreamer. His dreams take form in the dark, but it is a place that is full of feeling.

Machine speakers offer him his connection to the world: two voices—of other employees at the hotel, who save him from indifference. One offers companionship and humour, the other —tender and full of life— the promise of love. He develops a sense of the world and of life based on the two voices... and may one day see for himself.

Italino Grand Hotel starts at 6.00pm (Saturday 17 October) in the Sala de Cultura (Cinema). Tickets are priced at five euros for children and are free for adults.

Tickets must be booked in advance by sending an email before 10.00am (16 October) to reserves@conselldeformentera.cat.

8 October 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera

Today until 14 October, Centre Antoni Tur ‘Gabrielet’ will serve as the backdrop for Fran Lucas Simón’s Pinceladas a la deriva, a part art exhibit part extemporaneous workshop that will find the artist sharing his vision of artistic praxis and offering guests a tour d’horizon of his work in recent years.

Islanders can visit Pinceladas a la deriva from 11.00am to 2.00pm and 6.30pm to 9.00pm.

5 October 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera