Research processes

On February 12, 2023, Sala OM hosted an open rehearsal of the piece ‘Alba’ for ambassadors and subscribers of the Mercat de les Flors so that they could enjoy the direct experience prior to the functions. This formula allowed a rapprochement between creators and public, promoting complicity and shared trust. AIMAR PÉREZ GALÍ premieres the co-production ‘Alba’ at Mercat de les Flors from February 8 to 11, 2024.

ALBA is not only a dance and piano recital, but also a publication of musical choreographies, or an album of danced poems. It is a game about choreographic, musical and poetic writing. Mercat de les Flors has accompanied the creation process of this co-production.

Aimar Pérez Galí expresses his art as a dancer, choreographer, researcher, pedagogue and writer. He graduated as a performer in contemporary dance from the Amsterdam University of the Arts (AHK) and later studied on the Independent Studies Programme at MACBA. He teaches Composition at the Conservatori Superior de Dansa of the Institut del Teatre, where he was a member of the management team between 2019 and 2022. His work, which has been seen nationally and internationally, includes stage performances such as Sudando el discurso: una crítica encuerpada, The Touching Community and èpica, the film Touching Blues, and publications such as Sudando el discurso, Lo tocante and Cuadernos sobre el tocar. He wrote this last publication with Jaime Conde-Salazar, with whom he shares the CondeGalí BL project, creating works aimed at school audiences, such as DITDIT and Subjecte · Verb · Predicat. He has been studying piano for three years.

On 2023 we asked Núria Guiu to create a production within the framework of CÈL·LULA. During this 2023/2024 season, the artist-in-residence presented the solo piece Medium (30 September to 1 October 2023), the starting point for the new creation Supermedium, which was premiered at Mercat de les Flors from 24 to 28 January 2024. To produce this creation, Guiu, accompanied by the Norwegian choreographer Ingri Fiksdal, held four open sessions in which participants were invited to let themselves be possessed by the dance that is already in their body. A dance that is not situated in the past, the present or the future, but in all times at the same time. A practice where individual and collective memory meet through bodies in movement. During the last quarter of 2023, three open rehearsals were also offered to Mercat de les Flors ambassadors and season ticket holders so that they could enjoy a more direct experience of the performance prior to its première. This formula brought creators and spectators closer together, favouring a shared complicity and trust.

In this new work for CÈL·LULA 4, Núria Guiu was accompanied by the Norwegian choreographer Ingri Fiksdal. Supermedium is a large-format version inspired by Medium, a solo piece created by the two choreographers in 2022 and which opened the 2023-24 season. In the history of dance up to the present day, there have been different approaches to the incarnation of that which is virtual or invisible. Witches and mediums have always been women associated with the fringes of society and with superpowers.

The piece explores the metaphor of the ghost, stage creation and presentation as a ritual, and the body as a channel and archive that invokes other bodies. Supermedium is also a metaphor for today’s “Super Ballerina”, a person who lives on the threshold of what is a precarious job and a valued, remunerated job with the rights of any other worker. In this creation, nine female dancers will channel movements and dances that invoke a singularity crossed by a common past and present. An exorcism that burns, expels and invites to rebirth the dance, the ballerina and the live arts of the future.

Ballarí, coreògraf i pedagog del flamenc, és des l’any 2002 professor de Flamenc, Dansa Contemporània i Composició de l’Institut del Teatre, institució que li atorgà el Premi extraordinari 2007. Ha dirigit juntament a creadors com Joaquín Cortés o Belén Maya –i també en solitari- diversos espectacles. Ha estat comissari del cicle Flamenc Empíric del Mercat de les Flors i és reconegut com un dels representants actuals del flamenc d’avantguarda.

El Mercat de les Flors ha acompanyat Juan Carlos Lérida en la creació de La liturgia de las horas, un aconteixement artístic de dotze hores que va tancar la temporada regular 2020/21 del Mercat de les Flors.

La temporada 2019/20 DANSA I TERRITORI va mostrar el treball Doce una primera part de La liturgia de las horas, on Lérida segueix amb les bases del que anomena Flamenco Empírico i on continua aprofundint en els fonaments i les poètiques de la metodologia que ha desenvolupat per mitjà de la repetició i la deconstrucció de les bases tècniques i expressivitat del flamenc.

La Liturgia de las horas és una recerca amplia, un procés de més de tres anys de desenvolupament, on es vol conceptualitzar el recorregut de Jesucrist des del Sant Sopar fins a la Resurrecció a partir de la simbologia del número 12. Aquesta recerca es va iniciar el 2018 amb l’elaboració d’un sopar al teatre de Tanzhaus, a Düsseldorf i va acabar el 6 de juny de 2021 amb una acció de 12 hores de durada que es va presentar a la sala MAC del Mercat i a diversos espais del barri del Poble Sec.

El projecte, a més a més del suport del Mercat, compta amb la complicitat d’altres estructures on es van presentant diferents  parts de la peça, fent aproximacions en diferents formats, com va ser Máquinas sagradas a la Fira Mediterrània de Manresa el 2018 o Sismògraf 2020, entre altres.

Últims treballs

• Al baile
• Bailografia
• Al cante

Interested in the informative processes that are generated within creative procedures, Quim Bigas works in the fields of choreography, dramaturgy and the information society and his pieces contain aspects of research and provocation. With a degree in dance he went on to complete an artist-in-residency postgraduate at SEAD (Salzburg) and was a guest student at the School of New Developments in Dance – SNDO (Amsterdam). He is currently studying for a master’s in new performance practices in Stockholm. He lives between Copenhagen, Stockholm and Barcelona and he works with artists such as Aitana Cordero, Carme Torrent and El Conde de Torrefiel.

The Mercat de les Flors is accompanying Quim Bigas on a new project: Desplaçament variable.

Based on the Mercat de les Flors archive, the project Desplaçament variable is directed by Quim Bigas. His research is concerned with the analysis of the relationship of the body with space and, for this purpose, he has turned to the Mercat archive, which contains videos of all the artists who have performed at this venue or submitted audio-visual material to be presented there, from the 1980s until the present day. He has classified the videos and selected a set of works that will once again come to life onstage. With both artistic and documentary aspects, Desplaçament variable is a project about the solo works contained in the Mercat de les Flors archive and their respective descriptions. It is directed by Quim Bigas Bassart, with the collaboration of Raquel Tomàs, production by Anna Bohigas, graphics by Roger Adam, and the assistance of Júlia Rubies.

Sonia Gómez (La Sénia, Tarragona) is a dancer, performer and choreographer. She studied contemporary dance and choreography at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona and at P.A.R.T.S in Brussels. She has created her own shows since 2004. She has won several awards. These include the FAD Sebastià Gasch Prize in 2007; the 2010 prize at the International Fair in Huesca for the most innovative show on tour, The Experiences with a stranger; a special mention for A Vore at the 2017 Delfí Colomer Awards; and the best dance show prize at the 2018 Butaca Awards for A Vore.

She describes her performance strategies as follows: “I go to some place, relate, introduce myself, make myself understood, strengthen my position, let myself go, overcome any obstacles, force the situation, excel myself, have doubts, blush, try again, insist, test things out, provoke, rectify the path, look for a balance, leave without being seen, come back, try again, close my eyes, err, succumb, fall, melt or float, and go back in time.”

Sonia Gómez’s latest show is co-produced by the Mercat de les Flors – Graner Arts Factory