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They were born in '79, doing theatre on the street and in '92 the I.O.C. invited them to open the Olympic Games at Montjuïc Stadium. They are "La Fura dels Baus", the most international of the Spanish Theatre Companies.
Carlos Padrissa is one of the 7 directors of the group. He came to Barcelona from Balsareny in Bages [Catalonia countryside]. He is a smart guy, a little mad, very restless and critical. This Summer Grec festival, presents us XXX, a porno work, violent and very crude. Scenically very effective, with fine performances. It promises to shock.Let us go back to the beginning. How was La Fura born? One said "La Fura" another said "Baus", they started arguing and at the end of a 2 hour discussion, a third one said «why don't we call it "La Fura dels Baus" and everyone will be pleased?» This is the essence of the group, collective creation. It appears as a street adventure, a trip adventure, to support voyages and do theatre and that does not mean that we were all artistically minded, not to say artists. We learned three things: Multidisciplinary, to be a musician, to be an actor, to be a poet, to be able to recite, to use all the artists’ disciplines, looking for the global work; simultaneously we learnt how to manipulate the public, to forget the “fourth wall” and encircle the public or be circled by them. This is much easier in streets because people are at the same level; we also learnt how to think the body to physically occupy any space. Where there was a crevice an uncle could pop out, here there was a gutter, let’s take off a hand, and from a wall appears another who descends by the ramp. It were three or four years and thus the "furero" language was born. It was a bit like our street master.
The Olympic Games opening projects you and gives you another visibility. Is there a before and a after '92?Yes, there is, from the popular viewpoint the group becomes known. 3 billion people have seen it on television. But there are other before´s and after´s. The first and foremost was '83, when we realised that we can apply everything we had learnt on the street, and we created "Accions" (Actions) the first show in an enclosed space; another important change occurred when Marce•lí Antúnez, one of founders left after Tier Mon. There were two options, either a person seizes control and turns himself into the king of the group, or, eight people would grow simultaneously, as in an anarchist revolution. We lost a little of the quality but we gained at independence level. Those who were kids, ended up maturing.
What changes would you point out in the development of the group in two decades of history?There have been several. From '91 onwards we saw that the work collectively done at the end of 5 or 6 years would lead to decadence. Preparing for the Olympic Games, there was a diversity, a variety of challenges and co-operation with others, as when you join another woman, other than our fiancée, what is fit for everyone once in a while. After a stable relationship we started working with architects, designers with people outside the group. We exported the system of collective creation working with others, renewing blood.
And in XXX, what's new?It's the third work we do with a seated audience on the mobile phone to feel the vibration, and sometimes we call them in. Because the genre is that of cabaret, night club, vaudeville theatre.
Why the theme of pornography? It is not a conventional theme. It was an idea of Alex Ollé, because after an epoch of mysticism, with the trilogy of Fausto (the theatre work, the opera and the film) the idea is going backwards and also because we are going through a time in the world in which what really counts is beauty. And the human being has this defect or virtue of wanting to possess it. We want to make clear that sex is something given by God, free, and we ought to take advantage of it at the most. Even though we have nowadays made great strides, the Marquis de Sade established much further frontiers. We look up for actors on the net, libertarians above all, who wish to take part, with us. A questionnaire must be filled up and those selected are invited.
And violence where does it fit in?It is a work based on the Sade's "Philosophy in the boudoir". Pain is an ingredient which with sex is very appealing and not to deal with this theme would be to betray who inspired us.
You don't fear a hostile criticism, on assuming the risk of this work?We have always run important risks. With the Olympics there were also, physical and aesthetic risks. Never more was seen in an opening ceremony a person bleeding. Well, with XXX I believe we ran a very great risk. It is a very difficult work to stage, since there are no similar antecedents and that pleases us, paving the way. And we have done that before several times.
What does the theme of globalisation suggest to you?I believe that our generation is globalist "Think globally and act locally" I have always been globalist. My generation grew up watching Eurovision. People travel more. The world is one: you give a fart and you are polluting the Ozone Layer, you are harming someone on the other side. Ask the poor people of Patagonia or Oceania who got cancer for having a little bit of sun.
Hopefully there should be more people with a globalist mentality but acting locally and not otherwise. The worst is that the wrong people gave been chosen for the global world, 4 nutcrackers that perform the economic globalisation.
How do you rate the theatre, and the art in general, as it is performed in Barcelona?Bcn is a place to work, where people strive. Many people come here. There is much on offer and little demand. It's crazy that so much money has been spent in infrastructures and that conversely so little money has been left to use theme. It’s odd, that with so little support there should be so much creativity.
Satisfy our curiosity. What is Fura dels Baus preparing for '03?We are rehearsing "Angola o las realidades perdidas" ("Angola or the lost realities"), about a country that nobody knows, nobody speaks about. It could be named Somalia, a place that was fashionable for a while, but that does not sell any longer, but when people live worse than ever. It is a show about what there is, but seems not there to be. A play with handicapped people, a little drab a very third world. Within the "furero" style this type of theatre suits us very well, presenting this dark world "post bellum" where people have turned to dust, where there is more hunger than hunger; the agony and the limit of the human being who is lost and defends himself as possible.
Ricardo Nuno ::
Monday, June 1st '02