Live arts and live sport return
Music, family events, theatre, visual arts, conversations, workshops & cinema,…. and football at Yaiza & UD Lanzarote .
The first items we look at in Miguel Farrer’s monthly arts press release from the Cabildo are the musical events. There is so much else included in the list of events forthcoming in September, however, that we might have a hard time squeezing everything into our diaries, so we´re trying to give an early and comprehensive heads up to all interested parties. After all, there is not only music to put on the calendar but also family events, theatre, cinema, visual arts exhibitions and workshops. So come follow you art down sidetracks & detours that will up and down and across and around the island the monthly press release, these days always packed full of news and photographs previewing all sorts of exciting. And don´t worry, we who live on the island will do the heavy walking, but most of our readers can enjoy this feat from the comfort of their arm chairs.
Just before we tell you what´s coming up, though, let me offer some reassurances to anyone with concerns about the return of live arts or fears about whether protocols have made attending any more difficult that previously. Most Cabildo promoted events require you to book your tickets on line rather than at the venue. Tickets will not usually be made available on line until a week or prior to the event, You then take your normal id and your tickets to show at the venue where you´ll be admitted to the event observing current protocols of wearing face-coverings, sitting in pre-allocated seats, socially distanced, with up to three people from the same household able to sit together. All the front of house staff we have met have seemed warm and friendly but as diligent as we would want them to be. Access is, nevertheless, quick and easy and procedures are clearly explained on Cultura Lanzarote where you will find details of each event in both Spanish and English.
Live arts, having made such a welcome and successful comeback here on Lanzarote in June and July, are taking a mid-season break in August, whilst renovation work is being carried at at several venues. So it was with great joy that we turned to the following month of our calendar to enter our first musical event for as early as the 4th September. This is the date of a performance by Cameristi Cromatica, class 1k 2021 from Fundacion Nino Diaz. We can expect this to be a resounding endorsement of the quality of aspiring musicians Lanzarote is sending out into a very competitive world.
The concert, “Desde el Barroco a las bandas sonoras” will take place in Teatro El Salinero in Arrecife at 8.00 and run for an hour. Admission is only 15 euros.
The Ensemble “Cameristi Cromatici”, was born in September 2017 as a result of the friendship of the musicians Carlo Romano, Massimo Macrí and Roberto Bacchini with the idea of proposing a repertoire from the Baroque period to reach our days, including magnificent soundtracks of some films that Roberto Bacchini has transcribed and arranged specifically for Massimo Macrí and Carlo Romano, which has always been the first Oboe of the Ennio Morricone Orchestra. They travel for the first time to the Canary Islands to offer us a repertoire in which they will guide us through a journey from the Baroque to film music.
The players are:
Oboe: Carlo Romano
Violín: Francesco Postorivo
Violonchelo: Massimo Macrí
Clavicémbalo y Piano: Roberto Bacchini
The programme includes:
D. Scarlatti (1659-1725), Pastorale dalla Sonata in Re min. K9
A. Vivaldi (1678-1741), Sonata in Mi min. per Violoncello e B. Continuo Rv 40
T. Albinoni (1671-1751), Concerto per Oboe e Orch. In Re min. Op.9 n.2
E. Morricone, Suite da Film
N. Rota, Piccola Suite
N. Piovani, Buongiorno Principessa y La vita è bella
The next date we marked in our diary of art and culture Thursday 23rd September, was again headed ´music´t o remind us that, at 8.00 pm, M Clan, described as a Duo Acoustica will take to the stage at Teatro Víctor Fernández Gopar El Salinero. Tickets for this special event are 22 euros to hear a band who enjoyed hits like Carolina, Antiheroe La Sopa Fría, Roto Por Dentro, described as iconic songs that represent the group, MClan isone of the best rock bands in Spain to have evolved their style over the years, perfectly fusing the blues with soul, rhythm & blues and hard rock.
This time Carlos Tarque (vocals) and Ricardo Ruipérez (guitar) perform alone on an intimate tour. Without the company of their usual band, they will review selected songs from their entire repertoire in acoustic format. This will be a occasion, and an exceptional opportunity to listen to classics hits reinterpreted with a different nuance.
I turned two diary pages to enter the next musical event we will then attend. On Saturday 25th there will more music, with CRISTIAN DE MORET from Supernova also at Teatro Víctor Fernández Gopar “El Salinero”. The event will start at 8.00 pm with tiuckets for the seventy mionute performance being a very reasonable fifteen euros.
Cristian de Moret has greeted this 2021 with the long-awaited release of “Supernova”, an album of flamenco roots that is attracting the attention of both fans of the genre and those who are not. Nothing strange if we stick to the deep knowledge that Huelva has shown to have about flamenco, but also if we stop at its very wide spectrum of influences, as varied as surprising.
Because in “Supernova” it is easy to trace the footprint of Camarón, Paco de Lucía, Pepe Marchena or the aforementioned Morente, of course. But also the echoes of Radiohead, Ray Charles, Led Zeppelin, Tinariwen, Pearl Jam or Red Hot Chili Peppers, to name just a few of the unapologetic philosophies of this singular artist.
It seems his .crazy and daring mix, though, has made his music well accepted not only by both the media and the public, but also by his industry colleagues.
Theatre
As we promised you, though, there is much more than music concerts to put into your diaries. Perhaps on evenings when you are not at a gig you might like a night at the theatre. Saturday 11th September will see Teatro Víctor Fernández Gopar “El Salinero” present REMEDIOS NATURALES, DESTILADO EN RE MENOR by Compañía Las Remedios. Suitable for people over 4 years old, parents and children alike will enjoy this forty five minute performance, which starts at 6.00 pm. Tickets are only 6 euros each
“Remedios Naturales, distilled in Re Minor” is a family show that will transport young and old to another era from a long time ago. Coming from far away and ready to show the world their elixirs and pócimas, come Las Remedios, three clownesque characters who get lost in a succession of gags until they manage to set up their street stall. Doctors of everything, sellers of nothing, will prescribe the oldest and most effective medicine, music. Through games of percussion, synchrony, and with live music as a common thread of history, they have relied on recycling as an artistic trend to create part of their instruments.
There is, too, theatre aimed at an adult audience with Las Plantas showing for two nights Cine Bunuel in the Cic El Almace at 8.00 pm on the successive nights of 17th and 18th September. Las Plantas is another forty five minute performance with tickets available at ten euros. The performance introduces us to Alice, alone in her house, talking to her plants. Shee has been talking to them since she discovered that they are alive. From the day after watering them she saw them move. From that day on she takes care of them and eats flesh without guilt. From that day on, know that watching your plants grow can change your life. The protagonist of ‘The Plants’, feels these living beings, even without eyes, as her only friends and confidants. She is a woman broken with pain, battered by life and whose loneliness has become her only inseparable travel companion. A woman drowned in sorrows and still stuck in the well she fell into as a child. The Lanzarote actress Yuri Fontes, in the main role, and Marino Álvarez in the direction, give body to this work written by Pablo Messiez.
There is even more theatre to look forward to on Saturday 9th October when we are offered LAS CANCIONES by Teatro Kamikaze at Teatro Víctor Fernández Gopar “El Salinero”. Beginning at 8.00 pm the show is expected to last 105 minutes, wiuth tickets available at 15 euros for a play that is deedmed suitable for those over fifteen years old.
In Las Canciones, a group of people gathers to listen to various musics. And what at first seemed like a harmless act – a group of people listening to and singing music – ends up transforming them all. This is a work by Pablo Messiez, created from characters and situations from the stories of Anton Chekhov and born of the desire to stop at the mystery of listening. Listen to the world and listen to its music against which no eyelid protects since, as Paul Quignard says, no eyelid closes over the ear
The Kamikaze Theatre company won the National Theatre Award in 2017.
Art Exhibitions
Perhaps on an evening when you are not at a gig, or on a night when you are not at the theatre, you might be interested in some of the exciting arts exhibitions being curated in galleries around the island.
Running from 3rd September to 27th November will be La orilla, by Francisco Montelongo with Francisco Rodriguez. This will be housed at Sala El Aljibe, Cic El Almacen. The exhibition will be open to the public. It is possible to check opening times on the cultuarlanzarote web site, but it sound quite intriguing and should be well worth a visit.
There was a time when the transit of days and nights was marked by the coming and going of the tides. The island did not exist. There was only shore where the doors of houses, bridges, boats, casualties, islets and tide lined up: only the sea; the sea and the sky, certain and immeasurable territories. In this artistic project Francisco Montelongo and Fran Rodríguez prepare to reconstruct the visual universe linked to the natural and human landscape that barely survives on our banks, in the form of small recreations of water-colours and illustrations that transport us to the cultural imaginary of a maritime territory that defines us as orphans of this shore.
Parallel activities will be taking place simultaneously with this exhibition, including guided walks-and-talks with the excellent guide Estefania Camejo who, as many readers will know, is a good friend of these pages where she is admired as articulate and passionate and knowledgeable.
7 de septiembre a las 18.00 h
18 de septiembre a las 12:00 h
28 de septiembre a las 18:00 h
9 de octubre a las 12.00 h
19 de octubre a las 18.00 h
13 de noviembre a las 12.00 h
23 de noviembre a las 18.00 h
There is a special event to look out for here, though, because on November 16th there will be an official presentation of the catalogue with Francisco Montelongo, Francisco Rodríguez and the curator of the exhibition. This will take place at 8:00 p.m. in Buñuel Cinema Room. All audiences. Free admission, with limited seating and prior registration by phone call to 928 831507
These visits are suitable for all audiences. Your entrance is free, with capacity limited to 8 people, having to make prior registration by phone call to 928 831507, from 10:00 h to 21:00 providing the full name, id, NIF or NIE, telephone and email. Application of safety and hygiene measures according to current COVID-19 regulations.
Running almost simultaneously there will be an exhibition of an audio-visual installation under the title of Oscura, running from 20th September to 18th December 2021 at Sala El Patio in Cic El Almacen
Oscura is an audio-visual project created by Iván Vilella and inspired by the exhibition “Syncretism” by the artist Rigoberto Camacho that was exhibited in 2020 at the CIC El Almacén, and reviewed on these pages. Oscura is an artistic proposal of symbiosis that transits between the sound installation and the subtle visual stimulus, to highlight and combine some of the scopes of anthropological syncretism: the cultural mixture and the native influence, as critical vectors of rupture with the current and paradigmatic homogeneous spaces of globalization. It is proposed to us to make an immersive experience through soundscapes that accentuate the value of absence, shadow, the hidden or impurity, where blackness and darkness are configured as a vindication of sublime beauty.
Conversation
On Thursday 24th September there will be a special event help to complement the screenings, when Ivan Vilella, the creator, can be heard in conversation with the always bright and intuitive and inquisitive Estefania Camejo. This will take place at 7.00 pm and is expected to last around sixty minutes. Entrance is free with a reserved ticket for the event at Sala Cubo in Cic El Almacen, in Arrecife. Ivan and Estefania will talk about the creative universe and the artistic production of Vilella himself, as well as the elements or artists that inspire him. Oscura will also be analyzed and an adaptation of “Ciudad inédita” will be screened, the audio-visual project led by Vilella and in which five other creators participated and which was inspired by the publication “Unpublished Architecture” by César Manrique.
Estefania must be a busy lady at the moment, as we notice she will also be in conversation with Cristina Megia on Tuesday 28th September at 8.00 pm at Cinbe Bunuel at Cic El Almace. The event is expected to last for around ninety mionutes
Considering that the artist Cristina Megía, who works with plastic amongst other materials, is participating in the program of artistic residencies of the Hotel Nautilus Lanzarote during the month of September, the art historian Estefanía Camejo will hold a pleasant and relaxed interview with this creator, to know her better and address issues, intellectual concerns or strategies to face the plastic or visual practice , as well as specific questions about the processes of creation and thinking, as well as possible future projects or valuing the experience of working on an island like Lanzarote, among other topics.
This particular even is being organised by Cabildo de Lanzarfote and the Hotel Nautilus, home of the artists retreat about which we recently ran a feature on these pages.
There will be a similar moderated event in Cinbe Bunuel in Cic Eñ Almacen on Tuesday 21st September when two artists Miguel Scherrof and Marco Alom will give a talk, moderated by Adonay Bermudez. This, too, will be a ninety minute event beginning at 8.00 pm and is open to the public holding pre-booked free tickets.
From September the Cabildo de Lanzarote and the Hotel Nautilus Lanzarote, taking advantage of the stay on the island of creators within the program of artistic residencies of the Hotel Nautilus Lanzarote, are staging a series of conversations of contemporary art that has as a priority objective to publicize and relate the trajectory of artists in residence with that of other local creators.
On this occasion, the curator Adonay Bermúdez will dialogue and look for what connections exist and what bridges can be drawn between the artistic production of the Andalusian artist Miguel Scheroff and that of the Canarian creator Marco Alom, under the format of a conversation in which topics, intellectual concerns or strategies to face artistic practice will be addressed.
It is exciting to see such events being created in a way that only help aspiring artists to plan their own alternative career path and develop their creative minds in a way that can be very important over the next generation with so much physical and emotional re-building that will be needed post-covid. Not only do the kind of moderated conversations, like those described above, help aspiring artists, but so too do workshops, led by skilled practitioners.
Workshops
To that end a workshop entitled Iniciacion A La Ilustracion Naturalista will be facilitated by Fran Rodriguez at Cic El Almacen from 5.00 pm to 8.00 pm on 21st & 22nd September.
Registration is free and available from September 13, 2021. Those interested should send an email to the address programacioncultural@cabildodelanzarote.com, providing full name, degree and / or profession, telephone and ID. Places are limited (8) and will be confirmed through the email provided. Application of safety and hygiene measures according to current COVID-19 regulations. It organises: Culture Lanzarote – Cabildo of Lanzarote
Based on his own experience and working in plastic, as well as his environmental knowledge, the artist Fran Rodríguez invites us to start in naturalistic illustration, a discipline that seeks to record aspects, patterns and the context of elements of nature not only capturing features of the physiognomy with realistic rigor but also, unlike scientific illustration, taking care of other more personal artistic considerations such as composition, harmony, lighting or chromaticism of the species or the natural context of the work to be illustrated.
Recipients: Preferably, artists or plastic and visual creators especially interested in the formal representation of nature and its environments, as well as all those people who are interested in participating in an artistic workshop like this.
Another workshop, this time facilitated by Daniel Abreu will be open on 2nd October from 11.00 am until 1.00 pm to anyone aged sixteen or over. This dance based workshop will require a similar registration process. Daniel Abreu will deliver this non-therepuetic mobility workshop employing his own learning and knowledge of the body´s limitations and possibilities and he will focus s on the body for appropriate use. Still working from the formal dance, it approaches the structure of the directed and supported body, the gestural body and in motion. And all this while dancing.
The classes will take advantage of the knowledge to deepen the cellular awareness, the body structure, the supports, the weight, the impulse, the direction, the projection… the technique as an integrating instrument of the communicating body, a body with consciousness
Through choreographic sequences, improvisation patterns, games, group dynamics and annotations we feel and collect what makes us move more freely.
The, for three successive days on 6th, 7th & 8th October workshops entitled Introduction A La Serigrtafia Artistica from 10.00 to 2.00pm and later, for a second group at 5.00 pm to 8.00 pm. These will be held at Cic El Almacen and facilitated by Juan Munoz
In an informative and practical way the artist JUIN (Juan Muñoz) proposes us to approach this technique of plastic printing consisting of the reproduction of images through a tense mesh attached to a frame on different supports such as paper or textiles (T-shirts or talegas), addressing some theoretical considerations, the preparation of artistic compositions in a previous way , as well as the techniques of insolation, development and, finally, stamping.
You are recommendations to have t-shirts and cotton talegas to make prints. The rest of the material is provided by the teacher.
With all the gigs you are attending, and all the night at the theatre, or visiting an art exhibition and listening to artists in conversation and the hours you spend being creative in the workshops you might be in need of a rest. You may prefer to simply settle down and watch a good film, and if so, don´t worry because there are a couple of dates for your diaries too.
Cinema
On Saturday 25th September, the 1934 film, L’ATALANTE, will be showing at Cine Buñuel – CIC El Almacén from 7.30 pm running for 83 minutes. The film is suitable viewing for anyone aged 12 or over and admission is only 3 euros
The film is about Jean and Juliette who get married and set out on their wedding journey aboard L’Atalante, a barge of which Jean is captain. Together with the sailor Père Jules and a young cabinero, the couple sails the canals near the Seine. The long journey is boring for Juliette, who longs to get to know the City of Light. Jean then fulfills his young wife’s wish and takes her to Paris.
First Cow is the somewhat unlikely title of another film showing at Cine Bunuel in Cic El Alkmace on 28th, 29th & 30th September. This somewhat longer film is als deemed suitable for anyone 12 years of age or older and runs to 121 minutes. Admission is again only 3 euros for a film that shows at 7.30 pm
First Cow, filmed in 2019, tells the story of a cook hired by an expedition of fur hunters, in the state of Oregon, in the 1820s. Also that of a mysterious Chinese immigrant who flees from men who pursue him, and from the growing friendship between the two in a hostile territory.
The arts on Lanzarote are a large part of our tourist offer, though it is true that the audience are usually at least 90% full of island residents. We used to catch live events whenever we could when we came here on holiday and since settling here five years ago to live we have usually been out at events three or four times a week. We have always been made welcome and have made friends amongst indigenous and English speaking, several of whom read the column Miguel allows me to publish here.
If you haven´t yet sampled the arts, we urge you to do so. Venues are organised and comfortable, staff are friendly and helpful and the quality of what we see and hear invariably high.
However, if sport is more you thing, you will be pleased to know that even though the month of July has not yet finished, the Unión Deportiva Lanzarote squad is already back in training. Yesterday the pre-season began with a light training session at the Sports City of Lanzarote.
We saw new faces like that of the coach, Mateo García, and familiar favourites, like that of Captain Ayoze.
Even the president of the rojillo club, Juan Carlos Albuixech, dressed in shorts, showing support for a squad that always has as its objective the assault on Second B.
Of course covid played havoc with last season´s fixtures so much that as UD Lanzarote returned to train for next season so US Yaiza, our other third division team, were playing their last game of last season ! Still, we´re on a level playing field now, so let the games begin and please, please, let the crowds roll in !
