The Office of Culture of the Consell de Formentera is pleased to report that from 11 to 15 April, the Sala d'Exposicions "Ajuntament Vell" will host work from students in Teresa Matilla's course on drawing and painting.

The featured creations showcase techniques like oil and acrylic, mixed accordion, recycling and volumetrics which participants studied during the course. As the teacher says, "I don't impose a theme, which allows students to freely express what motivates them". She added, "Although brushes are the most popular tools, hands and spatulas made appearances as well". For this reason, featured themes will be varied, with techniques and styles proposed by the students themselves.

The exhibition opening is programmed for 7.00pm, Monday 10 April. The display can be visited 11.00am to 2.00pm and 6.00pm to 8.00pm, Tuesday to Saturday.

5 April 2023
Office of Communication
Consell de Formentera

Today the Office of Culture of the Consell de Formentera presented the activities programme for Sant Jordi 2023. "From 13 to 23 April we will have a variety of activities for all audiences and a quality cultural programme complete with outstanding musical proposals to promote reading and celebrate the Diada de Sant Jordi", said Vanessa Parellada, culture councillor.

Book presentations
Thursday 13 April, authors Lluís Ferrer and Antonio Rodríguez Cano will present the book Noves rondalles d'Eivissa i Formentera at Marià Villangómez Library.

Tuesday 18 April, in the library, Ferrer will host a new instalment of the "Read and Revel" (Llegeix i gaudeix) book club.

Thursday 20 April, author Anna Costa will present her children's book Rodolins acolorits per a grans i petits at Centre Antoni Tur "Gabrielet".

Finally, Thursday 27 April, author Iolanda Bonet will be at Marià Villangómez Library to present her book Crits de mar.

Book presentations and the book club session start at 7.30pm.

Cultural activities
Saturday 29 April, Formentera's Correllengua will unfold in three stages:
La Mola lighthouse to Sant Francesc (departure at 10.00am); Es Cap de Barbaria lighthouse to Sant Francesc (departure at 4.00pm), and La Savina to Sant Francesc (departure at 7.30pm). The end of the third stage, scheduled at 8.30pm, will mark the kick-off of an evening of concerts.

The Correllengua, which is organised by Plataforma per la Llengua, is a festive and active festival to encourage the use of the Catalan language in all social spheres. Monday 1 May from 9.00am, the Onomastics Society and Consell de Formentera will host the 49th Onomastics Society Colloquium in the plenary hall (sala de plens). At the event, Vicent Ferrer Mayans and Enric Ribes will present La toponímia de Formentera.

Activities for youth
Thursday 20 April at 5.00pm, the Sant Ferran Reading Spot (Punt de Lectura) will welcome Almudena Rubio as she presents a story time titled Quan els colors somien cançons.

Saturday 22 April, families can enjoy Príncep Totilau's Brutus. One fine day, Brutus and his family of cheerful, kooky mountain farmers decide to leave their cave and see the world. Along the way, exchanging apples from their orchard for stories and tales, they will manage to get all the families they meet to sing, dance and play traditional games.

The 50-minute performance of Brutus will start Saturday 22 April at 12 noon in the Sant Ferran church square.

Later that day, from 6.00pm, participants in a workshop at the Casal de Joves will pair collages and poems in homemade postcards.

Sant Jordi exhibition and awards gala
Monday the 24th to Saturday the 29th, Centre Antoni Tur "Gabrielet" will host a display of submissions from the 23rd Antoni Tur "Gabrielet" Bookmark Contest. The exhibition will be open 10.00am to 2.00pm and 5.00pm to 7.00pm (closed Sundays). Featured work is created by early-childhood and primary schoolchildren at Sant Ferran, Mestre Lluís Andreu, El Pilar and Virgen Milagrosa, as well as children in the island's two nurseries.

Pupils and their families will additionally be able to enjoy the Sant Jordi awards gala, with the Anakrònica troupe on hand to provide entertainment: La Rosa i el Drac. The gala will start at 5.30pm Monday 24 April in the Sala de Cultura (Cinema).

Music
Saturday 22 April from 5.30pm, one of the Sant Jordi concerts –from the City of Eivissa Symphonic Band– will be held in the courtyard of Sa Senieta. Directed by Miquel Àngel Aguiló, 41 musicians will regale audiences with a varied programme including medleys of selections from movie soundtracks.

Diada de Sant Jordi
Sunday 23 April, the feast day of St George, or Diada de Sant Jordi, the traditional tables to buy and exchange books will take over Plaça de la Constitució from 10.00am to 1.00pm. The Formentera chapter of Obra Cultural Balear, local libraries, the Spanish Cancer Association and the ADN Collective also collaborate.

Other participants include authors Artur Parron and Anna Costa, who will be on hand to sell and sign their books El Partit Comunista a Eivissa i Formentera (1932-1979) and Rodolins acolorits per a grans i petits, respectively.

For the Diada's crowning event, Formentera will enjoy a performance by Imaràntia. The duet will perform songs from RetrUc, an exploration of the songbook of UC, and an expression of gratitude and celebration of the group's three founding members.

The concert will unfold in the Sala de Cultura (Cinema) Sunday 23 April at 8.30pm. Tickets go on sale Friday 14 April on www.entradesformentera.cat.

5 April 2023
Office of Communication
Consell de Formentera

Last weekend the Polyphonic Choir of Formentera travelled to Eivissa for a "weekend of brotherhood" with the Es Cubells Choir, offering two concerts: Saturday at Es Cubells church and Sunday at Can Jeroni Cultural Centre in Sant Josep. Both events were part of celebrations for the feast day of Saint Joseph.

Under the direction of Irantzu Bartolomé, the Polyphonic Choir of Formentera performed works by Franz Schubert, John Rutter, Tomas Luis de Victoria, Mozart and Cesar Frank, accompanied by pianist Helena Lafuente. Meanwhile, the Es Cubells Choir performed popular works like Sa Serena Cau Menuda, Com voleu germans que canti, My Lord, What a Morning, Fa La Kan Bo Ba and more. The concert ended with a joint performance of Handel's Canticorum Jubilo.

4 April 2023
Office of Communication
Consell de Formentera

The Office of Culture of the Consell de Formentera is pleased to announce that from 11 April to 30 July, the Far de la Mola cultural and educational space will host "Passa la vida" by artist Michel Mouffe. Vanessa Parellada, culture councillor, invited all of Formentera to visit La Mola lighthouse "to see a magnificent exhibition of this painter and fellow islander who has found his home and inspiration in La Mola".

This new exhibition explores, in the artist's words, the common feeling "of finding yourself at a crossroads, faced with a significant life decision, when the choice of one path or another can change your destiny". Mouffe captures this in a series of paintings selected and executed in the last few years –A las cinco de la tarde, Nebel, In Between and Black– all of which are inserted in the same story. As Mouffe puts it, "painting strives to be art, an interpretative and personal vision, an expressive vision of painting taken beyond words, when it manages to suspend time and begins to experience the here and now". The author talks about the importance of living this process on Formentera, since the island has become the artist's life space. "During these years I have painted in my studio, close to the cliff, which has had a significant impact", he says.

Michel Mouffe (Brussels, 1957) lives between Formentera, Brussels and France, and through his work he explores the foundations of painting by challenging its limits. His creations are composed of many thin layers of paint and enamel and play with translucent layers that show and hide each other. The artist moves away from the fullness of the surface by implementing subtle protrusions that emerge from the back of the canvas, or by folding the work and adding a soft undulating relief so it appears to occupy the fine line between painting and sculpture. As space is marked and the two-dimensionality of the canvas is overcome, his works result in an experience of spatial relationships. The battle between line and colour is set aside so that both elements can work together.

Far de la Mola hours
The exhibition will open Saturday 8 April 12 noon. The display can be visited during Far de la Mola hours, 10.00am to 2.00pm, Tuesday to Saturday.

From May, the lighthouse's hours will change to 10.00am to 2.00pm, Tuesday to Sunday, and 5.00pm to 9.00pm, Wednesday and Sunday. Holidays and Mondays the lighthouse will be closed.

3 April 2023
Office of Communication
Consell de Formentera