The blades of El Molino will turn again this July with the special Molinex program, within the Grec festival in Barcelona. The historic theater of Paral·lel, owned by the municipality since last year, will open its doors for two weeks, from Thursday to Sunday, with groundbreaking shows, “that look to the past, to the memory of Paral·lel; to the present and to all queer arts; and to the future”, in the words of the director of the Grec, Cesc Casadesús. “El Molino has led us to do this alternative programming, because the Grec lacked the most spicy space”.
For this purpose, the Barcelona festival has commissioned the programming to Vicent Fibla, current director of the Eufònic festival, in Terres de l’Ebre. The commissioner states that “not only El Molino, but also the context of the Paral·lel and the confluence of the three neighborhoods” (Poble Sec, Raval and Sant Antoni) have been taken into account for the selection.
The eight wild nights, which will start at 10 p.m. and close at 1 a.m. with bar service, will have the same structure: first a performance action and then the show.
AKA Teatro, which will represent Scratch on July 9 and 10, are the only artists who repeat, in addition to being the most theatrical show of those that are presented. In total, fifteen groups or companies, bringing together forty artists.
The rest of the slutty nights, most of the performances will take place in the stalls, with the public standing or sitting depending on the day, except for the opening on July 7. The Teknodrag will begin by performing in the street, and immediately afterwards Flamenco Queer will mix drag elements with dance and singing.
The mobile stage of El Molino will provide the opportunity to see the full range of scheduled shows. Gloria Viagra, the tallest drag queen in the world (2.20 m), arrives on July 8 with her drag dj show, very popular in Berlin, which will be preceded by Anneke Necro, dominatrix and European feminist porn film activist. The AKA Teatro monologue will be preceded on the 9th by the Girona performer Txe Roimeser; and on the 10th for the flamenco of Alvaro Sola.
In the second week, on July 14, Hidrogenesse arrives, the duo formed by Carlos Ballesteros and Genís Segarra, with their unique music. They will be preceded by Nebula Millarca, the soprano drag queen who appropriates Christian iconography.
The 15th is the night of recovered memory, with Raval Cuir: De(s)generadas, a reflection of Paral·lel’s transformism, with young and old artists, such as Gilda, who is 97 years old; and the previous performance by Miguel Andrés, who talks about homosexuality through the visual arts.
On the 16th, Mikey Woodbridge
“It is a small photo of what happens. There is a lot of queer party, but also research, dissidence, things are questioned… We couldn’t present a program without questions. Molinex is a partial reflection”, summarizes Fibla. “There is a point of provocation in this sample of the Barcelona queer scene”, Casadesús concludes.
