July 8, 2010 in Past

Painter, drama­tist and direc­tor. Born in Barcelona, 1946, in a fam­ily of painters and trav­ellers. At the age of twelve, he has first espe­ri­ences with audi­ences as a reader in his col­lege, the Seminario-Colegio of Santa Maria del Col­lell School. In 1962, his first exhi­bi­tion of visual poetry in the Escola de Dis­seny Eina, Barcelona. He also gives recitals of his own poetry in uni­ver­si­ties and other events pro­mot­ing democ­racy. 1964, found­ing of his the­atre com­pany EL VAIXELL BLANC, direct­ing and per­form­ing poetry spec­ta­cles (Berthold Brecht, Fed­erico Gar­cia Lorca, Chi­nese poetry, Joan Sal­vat Papas­seit, James Bald­win, Walt Whit­man). 1967, fas­ci­nated by anthro­pol­ogy, he dis­cov­ers masks, pup­pets and other tra­di­tional the­atri­cal forms. He par­tic­i­pates in the artis­tic dis­cus­sion groups of Joan Brossa, Antoni Tapies and Maria Aurèlia Camp­many, and in which he is ini­ti­ated into con­tem­po­rary art. 1967–1989, he man­ages the com­pany TEATRE DE LA CLACA , which he founded together with Teresa Calafell. With this com­pany he stages and per­forms in fif­teen pup­pet spec­ta­cles, a.o. A TOT ARREU SE’ N FAN DE BOLETS QUAN PLOU, of X.Romeu, an adap­ta­tion of The Cau­casian Chalk Cir­cle by B.Brecht; PINOTXO oc C.Collodi, BREU RECORD DE TIRANT LO BLANC of Maria A.Campmany; EL CUENTO DE LAS AGUAS, adap­ta­tion of a leg­end from the Amer­i­can Peublo-Indians; N’ ESPARDENYETA of J.Vidal Alcover; YO SOY LA SERPIENTE DEL RIO and YO SOY EL TIGRE DE LA SELVA, adap­ta­tions of Chi­nese operas; CAJÓN DESASTRE by Joan Baixas; JUAN SIN MIEDO by Aureli Camp­many; EL DRAC DEL CASTELL DELS MOROS of Enric Valor; PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION of Mous­sorsky. He pub­lishes the record-album: LES CANÇONS DE PUTXINEL.LIS CLACA and the books: ELS CONTES DE PUTXINEL.LIS CLACA (1970) and DE FER I DESFER SENDERS DE PUTXINEL.LI-DIARI DE LA CLACA in the poetry col­lec­tion: Lli­bres del Mall (1973).  After 10 years of trav­el­ling with the­atre per­for­mances for a vari­ety of audi­ences, the com­pany spe­cial­izes in visual the­atre, col­lab­o­rat­ing with painters like: Joan-Pere Vilade­cans (LA CAJA DE SORPRESAS, a trib­ute to G.Méliès); Joan Miro (MORI EL MERMA); Anto­nio Saura (LA ESPADA AZUL-PECES ABISMALES 1); a trib­ute to Antoni Tàpies (JUAN EL DEL OSO-PECES ABISMALES 2); a trib­ute to Paul Stein­beck (THE PASSING BIRD); Roberto-Sebastian Matta (EL QUID DE DON QUI-LABERINTO) and other col­lab­o­ra­tions with Mariscal, Fred­eric Amat, Robert Llimós, Maria Girona, Albert Ràfols Casamada. Invited to more than sixty fes­ti­vals, the com­pany Teatre de la Claca trav­els all over the world (Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, River­side Stu­dios in Lon­don, Cen­tre G.Pompidou in Paris, Sid­ney Opera House, Lin­con Cen­ter in New York) 1971, he founds the Depar­ta­ment de Titelles i Mar­i­onetes de l’ Insti­tut del Teatre de Barcelona and the Fes­ti­val Inter­na­cional de Teatre Visual i de Titelles de Barcelona. Direct­ing them for more than two years. 1972–1974, ret­ro­spec­tive exhi­bi­tions in the Col.legi d’ Arqui­tectes de Barcelona and the Llotja del Tint de Bany­oles and in 16 Cul­tural Cen­tres of La Caixa. He also par­tic­i­pates in the Exhi­bi­tion of Con­cep­tual Art in l’ Hos­pi­talet del Llo­bre­gat. 1985, with the archi­tect Marià Pedrol, he designs and builds the dome-tent AMANITA CIRCUS, a mul­ti­pur­pose space in which La Claca presents its spec­ta­cles as well as many the­atre, dance music and plas­tic arts groups from dif­fer­ent Euro­pean cities. His work has been exhib­ited in many dif­fer­ent parts of Spain, as well as in the Cen­tre Georges Pom­pi­dou in Paris, The Gallery in Lon­don and Artopia in New York. He col­lab­o­rated in the cre­ation of spec­ta­cles by dif­fer­ent com­pa­nies: Albert Vidal (MASCARAS Y MOVIMIENTO), Joglars (LA ODISEA, a five-chapter ser­ial for TVE), Cir­cus Oz in Mel­bourne, Stalker Stilt The­ater in Sid­ney (WOMEN EX MACHINA), Paca Rodrigo (DAMPA), Taun-taun (UBUBABEL), Los Los (PORQUOI PAS PAPA), Albert Plà (4 videos in NO SOLO DE RUMBA VIVE EL HOMBRE and CIUDAD DEL HOMBRE NEW YORK), Nes­sun Dorma, Marcel.lí Antunez (POL), Théâtre de l’ Arc en Terre in Mar­seille (LE CHAMPIGNON), Mariscal (COLORS Y NUVOLE NERE), Indef­i­nite Arti­cles in Lon­don (SAND), Cesc Gelabert (chore­og­ra­phy of MISTER BAH!), Angels Mar­garit (CARICIAS). 1987, he directed a piece in the spec­ta­cle 5 LORCAS 5 in the Teatro Nacional María Guer­rero in Madrid with Lluis Pas­cual, Lind­say Kemp and José Luis Alonso. 1989, he closes the Teatre de la Claca to con­cen­trate on his per­sonal artis­tic work and the­atre research. He has made incur­sions into tele­vi­sion, cin­ema (Francesc Bell­munt), pub­lic­ity and fash­ion (stage man­age­ment of three fash­ion shows for Anto­nio Miró). From 1989 he is a pro­fes­sor at the Insti­tut del Teatre in Barcelona where he also directs the spec­ta­cles UBU ENCADENAT by Alfred Jarry, GUILGAMESH by José Sanchíz Sin­is­terra, FEDRA by Euripi­des and EFECTE BROWING, a col­lec­tive cre­ation. With the stu­dents of the Euro­pean theatre-chapter at the Rose Bru­ford Col­lege of Lon­don he stages and directs THE WILLYCLUB PUPPETS by F.G.Lorca, THE SONG OF THE LOUSITANIAN BOGYMEN by Peter Weiss and GERTRUDE STEIN VARIATIONS. He col­lab­o­rates in the Master’s Degree in Ephemeral Archi­tec­ture of the Archi­tec­ture School of the Uni­ver­si­tat Politèc­nica de Catalunya. He was coor­di­na­tor of the mag­a­zine Malic-teatre de l’ Imag­i­nari and col­lab­o­ra­tor in the Insti­tut des Arts de la Mar­i­on­nette and has par­tic­i­pated in con­gresses all over the world. 1991, dur­ing a 4-month stay in the Aus­tralian desert, he organ­ised and directed a spec­ta­cle with the And­nayam­mandna and Ara­banna abo­rig­ine com­mu­ni­ties in Mar­ree, South Aus­tralia. 1992, pre­miere of his spec­ta­cle ARBRE TREMOLANT. In the same year his paint­ings are exhibitited in Palo Alto, Barcelona. 1993, var­i­ous per­for­mances in Cat­alo­nia, Madrid, Lon­don, Sara­jevo and St. Peters­burg. 1994, he once again directs the Fes­ti­val Inter­na­cional de Teatre Visual i de Titelles de Barcelona, orga­niz­ing in 1998 an exten­sive cel­e­bra­tion of its 25^th anniver­sary, with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of 32 munic­i­pal organ­i­sa­tions. At the time of this event, he pub­lishes the cat­a­logue ESCENES DE L’IMAGINARI, in which he presents his views on visual the­atre. 1996, pre­miere of his performance-spectacle TERRA PRENYADA , with music by Paca Rodrigo. This spec­ta­cle goes on inter­na­tional tour : Cen­tre Pom­pi­dou of Paris, Guggen­heim Museum in Nueva York, Autumn Fes­ti­val of Madrid, Teatro Nacional de Toulouse and other venues) 1997, per­for­mance of his MAPAMUNDI at the Festa de la Terra in Barcelona. 1998, He directs EL PASEO DE BUSTER KEATON by F.G.Lorca with music by Jordi Sabatés at the Fes­ti­val Grec of Barcelona and in the Teatro de la Abadía in Madrid. 1999, pre­miere of his per­for­mance LA MUSICA PINTADA with music by Debussy and Ravel for the Fun­dació La Caixa,followed by per­for­mances all over Spain. 2000, pre­sen­ta­tion of the cycle: ADIOS SIGLO XX, ANTONIO with the spec­ta­cle QUATRE ESTACIONS, music and texts by dif­fer­ent authors, in the Teatre Lli­ure and also per­formed in Toulouse, Porto, Lleida and Huesca. Pre­miere of his pro­duc­tion of EL TEATRE DE LES FORMES by J.Wagensberg, pre­sented dur­ing two sea­sons in the Sci­ence Museum of Barcelona and in Cos­mo­caixa in Madrid. He ini­ti­ates the Asso­ci­a­tion for the cre­ation of the Fun­dación Zero, a research project in ani­ma­tion art. The asso­ci­a­tion organ­ises dif­fer­ent pilot activ­i­ties and car­ries out the project EL JARDI DELS IMAGINARIS DEL MON-PROJECTE DE REFORMA DEL PARC D’ATRACCIONS DEL TIBIDABO for the City Coun­cil of Barcelona. 2001, stage direc­tior of the robots-spectacle COLORS by Javier Mariscal. In the 2001-02 course, he is direc­tor of the Escola Supe­rior d’ Art Dramàtic of the Insti­tut del Teatre of Barcelona. Over the years he has been, and still is, giv­ing lec­tures and con­duct­ing master-classes all over the world: Brazil, United States, Aus­tralia, France, Italy, Rus­sia, China, Poland, Ger­many, Spain, Switzer­land, and Eng­land. He also designed and organ­ised var­i­ous spe­cial events a.o: Fiesta de la SGAE in Madrid, Opening-Gala of the Hotel Mar­davall & Spa in Mal­lorca, Clos­ing Fes­ti­val of the Sci­ence Museum of Barcelona.2003, as well as direct­ing col­lec­tive per­for­mances, like the MAPAMUN.2 in the Cen­tre de Cul­tura Con­tem­porà­nia of Barcelona in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Museu d’Art Con­tem­po­rani de Barcelona and KADAVREXQÜISIT, in the Museu d’Olot, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Teatre Prin­ci­pal. He cre­ated and staged the spec­ta­cle DOPAMINA SUITE, pre­miered in the Lon­don Insti­tute of Con­tem­po­rary Arts. 2004, pre­miere of the macro-spectacle FANTOTEMS at the Forum de Barcelona 2004. 2005, mak­ing of the video RASGOS-COREOGRAFIA DE LAS FORMAS DE LA NATURALEZA. Pre­sen­ta­tion of the spec­ta­cle LOS LOCOS DE LA FOGLIA BIANCA, with stu­dents of Prima dil Teatro, San Mini­ato, Italy. Begin­ning of the instal­la­tion project CASA DE LOBOS. 2006, cre­ation of the spec­ta­cle MERMA NEVERDIES, with grotesque pup­pets painted by Joan Miró (in 1978 for MORI EL MERMA), for theTate Mod­ern, Lon­don, with fur­ther per­for­mances in the Con­tem­po­rary Art Museum of Dublin, in Syra­cuse, Naples, Madrid, Bil­bao and other venues. 2007, ANTONI, EL NEN DE SORRA, a spec­ta­cle project with robots and video screens about Antoni Gaudí and GRAMATICA PARA RUISEÑORES, a project about the human voice. 2008, BRINDIS POR ZOÉ, a series of impro­vi­sa­tions with the com­poser Agustí Fer­nán­dez in the Teatre Lli­ure de Barcelona, in Granada and Malaga. Mak­ing of the video MINERAVEGETANIMAL with Pro­duc­ciones Benece, pre­sented in the Gala of the Premis de Cul­tura de Catalunya, Reus. Last event in the life of Merma: AL FOC DEL MERMA!, in Palma de Mal­lorca, in which Merma and his court are burned in a bon­fire in the cen­tre of the city. There­after their ashes are put in an urn and then deposited in Miró’s ate­lier at the Fun­dació Pilar i Joan Miró. 2009, Pre­mier of ZOÉ (inocen­cia crim­i­nal) in the Fira de Titelles de Lleida. The spec­ta­cle begins its inter­na­tional tour, per­for­mances in Val­ladolid, Granada, Bad Ragaz (Switzer­land), Fira de Teatre de Tàr­rega, Fes­tial Mon­dial des The­atres de Mar­i­on­nettes in Charleville-Meziérès (France).