With La gran A...ventura, the CiF Office of Culture stages an original, family-friendly production by Marcel Gros, a clown with rave reviews from crowds and critics alike. The show takes the stage at 5.30pm, Saturday November 12 at Formentera's municipal cinema, and Sunday at 6.00pm at the Palau de Congressos of Santa Eulària des Riu.

The production comes to the Pityuses via PLATEA, a 2014 programme of INAEM, Spain's education, culture and sport ministry's institute of performing arts and music, which aims to bring high-calibre national productions to Balearic audiences.

In La gran A...ventura (Història d'un Pallasso), Marcel Gros infuses his characteristically poetic vision with tones of humour as he takes us on a joyride through his own private universe. Top-class performances are given by a cast comprising a strip of aluminium foil, a trash bin, a spin atop a capital letter, a dress shirt, a mime, a fakir...The show is suitable for all ages.

Background
Going back 35 years, Marcel Gros got his start as a founding member of Teatre Mòbil. In 1991, after receiving his clown and circus education at the hands of teachers Willi Colombaioni, Pierre Byland and Philippe Gaullier, Gros set out on a solo path of self-produced and absolutely unique stage productions that has earned him numerous accolades, including, for La Gran A...ventura, Castilla la Mancha's top prize for the stage. The production will now come to Formentera's municipal movie theatre and Eivissa's Palau de Congressos de Santa Eulària.

Tickets for the sixty-minute Formentera production go for six euros (the kids' rate; accompanying adults get in free) and will be available at the box office the day of performance. For Sunday's function, eight-euro entries can be purchased at Holidays on carrer Sant Jaume in Santa Eulària and at Holy Sport on avinguda Ignasi Wallis in Eivissa or for ten euros (the same day) at the Palau de Congressos box office.

At the Formentera Council's October plenary session, convened earlier today, the entire house backed a deal between the Balearic port authority (APB) and the Council on la Mola's trademark lighthouse, “el far de la Mola”. The plan, besides doting the monument with public facilities, envisions adding cultural space to the lighthouse's list of uses.

As culture and patrimony councillor Susana Labrador explained, the site will contain an interpretative centre for Formentera lighthouses, a museographic exhibition and a hall for culturally-themed, small-scale functions, which the administration speculates may spill over onto an outdoor patio. Currently the Council is drafting plans to remodel the building in its entirety. The project has a tentative pricetag of €600,000 and could be undertaken as soon as autumn 2017. The partnership, initially framed for 15 years, can be renewed to last another five. APB will retain control over parts of the lighthouse like the utilities room and its upper chambers to ensure continued functioning.

Morgue
Unanimous consent was also received by the proposed rezoning for a municipal morgue, planned for the lot adjacent the Sant Francesc cemetery. Land councillor Alejandra Ferrer pointed out that the site's rezoning will make it possible to move ahead with a call for bids on the project. The councillor, who referred to a forthcoming pick of a winning bidder, assured that “the start of construction and the much-needed building itself“ are not far off. All parties in the plenary backed the measure and agreed on its importance for the island.

Ferry landing
Another proposal backed by the entire house dealt with the agreement to transfer the docking point for Eivissa-bound boats from Formentera. Council president Jaume Ferrer described the proposal as “making official our council's deal with the other administrations in relocating the Formentera boat landing at the Eivissa port, basing it on the terms of the September 28 board meeting with APB”.

Ferrer took the opportunity to salute the other branches of the public administration — Eivissa Council, Govern Balear, APB — as well as civil society organisations like On Sempre for defending the wishes of the people of Formentera.

Plenary members pledged to continue working from a position of unity “to make sure that the new harbour station furnishes all of the necessary services” for Formentera's residents and visitors.

Housing
Also adopted was a joint proposal put forth by Gent x Formentera and PSOE to overhaul a law on urban property rentals. The goal, explained Alejandra Ferrer, is to set limits and establish the definition of seasonal tourist rentals as “any dwelling that a property owner cedes, either directly or indirectly and on a repeated basis, to a third-party, in exchange for financial returns and for a period of 30 days or less”. If the criteria are met at least twice in one year, the property shall be subject to the regulations on tourist-use rentals. Properly documented temporary rentals for labourers are excluded from the measure.

Land and tourism
Appearing before plenary members, land and tourism councillor Ferrer detailed her departments' areas of action, invoking “a smart use of our natural resources and surroundings” and aspirations of “breaking with the pack in terms of quality”. She stressed the need to educate visitors about Formentera and push them on social and environmental responsibility.

Ferrer also reviewed the recent launch of the Council's new inspection unit. On urbanism she pointed to a continued push to apply and enforce the island's code of “subsidiary regulations”. Speaking on housing, the land councillor highlighted multiparty support —between Formentera, the office of housing in Balearics and the Govern in Palma— for a report documenting  local needs aimed at recalibrating help money and reimagining moves forward.

Local commerce and artisan crafts also featured heavily among the councillor's plans, and Ferrer described a brand of tourism “that centres on product and market diversification”. She underscored, lastly, the importance of “improving the pre- and post-summer season”.

Earlier today in the conference hall of the CiF Office of Culture, patrimony councillor Susana Labrador took part in a presentation regarding the island's first practical course on subaquatic metals. The course —which will include hands-on work at a shipwreck site— will also be the first of its kind in Spain. For four days 16 experts in conservation and restoration will gather on Formentera to learn from the experiences of two high-profile experts in the field, Jean-Bernard Memet and Victòria Folgueira, about the latest techniques in treating metal objects in underwater environments.

The councillor of patrimony highlighted the importance of supporting initiatives like this one, saying “here on Formentera, it furthers the conservation of our heritage”. The course, both theory-based and practical, is organised by the Formentera Council and the Balearic institute of maritime archaeology (IBEAM), with additional support from the archaeological museum of Eivissa and Formentera and Trasmapi transport company. Undersea archaeologist Javier Rodríguez was a supporter of the event.

One year ago the Formentera Council and IBEAM signed a deal to draw up an underwater archaeological map that would not only help get the word out about the island's subaquatic patrimony, but also help conserve it. The five-year agreement sets out €2,000 in funding for researchers during each cycle. The archaeological map that is produced will ultimately become property of the Formentera Council.

The Formentera Council’s Office of Culture and Patrimony announced today the start of its 2016 call for applications for its €6,000 research grant. Applications can come from any area of the arts, humanities or social sciences.

“The Council's renewed backing of this measure, now in its fifth straight year, is a sign of the administration's firm support for scientific research and production”, explained Susana Labrador, culture and patrimony councillor of the CiF. Conditions of eligibility have been posted on BOIB, the online bulletin of the Balearic Islands, and interested parties have until October 14 to apply. At the close of the application period a panel will evaluate proposals for scientific interest, coherence and methodology and based on researchers' curriculum vitae.

Winning projects from years past include the 2012 study “De qui venim: anàlisi psicocultural de la gent gran a Formentera” by Josep Maria Garcia-Borés, the first grant recipient. In 2013, Vicent Ferrer Mayans and Raquel Guasch Ferrer were awarded the grant for “Estudi ecotoponímic de les véndes de gregal de l’illa de Formentera”. The following year, in 2014, the winner was Maria Bofill Martínez, for her project “L’estudi de les comunitats prehistòriques de Formentera a partir de l’anàlisi funcional dels artefactes lítics i ossis”. Last year, Dr Francesca Tugores Truyol won the grant for her study “Formentera vista pels viatgers”.