Dansàneu kicks off its 32nd edition this weekend, which will present around thirty dance, music, theatre, nature, literature and audiovisual proposals for ten days, with names like Queralt Lahoz, Toti Soler, Maria Coma and Magí Serra, among others.
This year also marks the 40th anniversary of the foundation of the Valls d’Àneu Cultural Council and this Friday the exhibition Imprints and Figurations in the Valls d’Àneu opens, at the church of Sant Joan d’Isil, in Alt Àneu (Pallars Sobirà). The sample of baptismal font engravings is organized and produced by the National Art Museum of Catalonia and can be visited until August 31.
The director of Dansàneu, Rut Martínez, recalled that the main axes of the project are dance, music and heritage and that the programming has the vocation of “bringing culture to the whole world” from a “unique” place but that does not have large-format equipment.
From here, as he has said, a “double perspective” is established, that of the people of the territory and that of the visitors who are enjoying it for the first time. In this sense, one of the challenges they are facing is to get proposals from the festival to people who are working during these days and cannot attend the events.
Oriol Vilapuig’s exhibition, which can be seen from this Friday, raises from the present new forms of interrogation of the past that arise around the reliefs sculpted in various stone piles dated between the 11th and 12th centuries and found in Romanesque churches of les Valls d’Àneu. The artist has explained that the project arises precisely from the reflection on the relationship that various images have with a territory.
In addition, Vilapuig adds that in the case of the fonts, they have a “sacred” component and that, beyond reading the ecclesiastical context, they offer “a much more open imagery” and linked to the place. This intervention could be seen at the MNAC in 2020 and the artist uses the frottage technique, a procedure that allows images to appear by contact.
Other highlights of the program are that of the multidisciplinary artist Maria Coma, who presents the show Vocal roots on July 26 in the church of Santa Maria d’Àneu in Escalarre, in the municipality of Guingueta d’Àneu. It is a piece of performing arts where voice and body act as instruments, which explores a universal theme from autobiography: the search for roots, origin and belonging. In the same place, but on July 28, Toti Soler will present his last record work, Fill de la fortuna, as a quartet.
Starting on Thursday, July 27, the projects in residence will gain the greatest prominence, from the choreographic piece resulting from the work done by Miquel Barcelona’s company in Rojos, to the projects by Aimar Pérez Galí, Víctor Pérez, Adrián Vega and Marina Pravkina or the production Condens by Magí Serra, without forgetting the night in memory of the dancer and choreographer Joan Serra, which will take place in Santa Maria d’Àneu.
On Friday 28, an event will be held to promote the Esterri d’Àneu Hydroelectric Power Station. Thus, a triple program has been proposed that will include from a dance solo by the dancer Pere Seda, to the Tastàneu, ending with a special 40th anniversary mapping of the Cultural Council of the Valls d’Àneu, projected on the Vorariu promenade and designed by the dancer Toni Mira.
On the other hand, on July 29 another of the highlights of this year’s edition will arrive: the singer Queralt Lahoz will present her album Pureza and will do so with the collaboration of bailaor José Manuel Álvarez, using a live show that incorporates flamenco dance, hip-hop and a message of protest. Everything will take place at the Esterri d’Àneu fairgrounds.
