Stage

One website that attempts to redress this balance by linking the public to Barcelona’s genuine and infinite cultural community of talented residents is La Web Sense Nom. The page was started just over a year ago by a group who grew up during the emergence of clandestine Catalan culture in the 1970s. Now, they not only let Internet surfers know about new experimental events in the city and beyond, but also serve as curators of Barcelona’s counterculture with images, videos and articles on important artists from the past.

While the people behind Sense Nom are in tune with what is happening around the city as regards to alternative and experimental events, they are not surprised that this still escapes the masses. “The problem is a combination of a lack of a unified agenda and the fact that life has gotten so hectic,” reflects Sense Nom’s Kanti. “At the end of the day, people are exhausted and just stay in consuming trash TV.” To combat this, the Sense Nom troupe invites artists to post the dates of their exhibitions, recitals and performances on their web page.

Local actress-cum-singer-cum-trapeze artist Merce López Navarrete, who runs the SPIO club of “cultural spies” in Raval, echoes Kanti’s views. She attributes the public’s lack of awareness of bohemian Barcelona’s inner-goings on to “tiredness and a lack of risk-taking.” She also adds, “It seems that (theatre) works now demand applause from the audience, but lack the element of surprise. People are growing tired of that as well.”

SPIO’s “party shows” are the polar opposite of passive. Instead, they are energized and have partygoers moving from one room in the Roig street space to another while being entertained with snippets of theatre, dance, song, and trapeze. The works put on by Merce, poet and writer Fernando, as well as alums from the Azart Ship of Fools (an international group of trained artists who dock in different cities and perform with locals) ask for nothing more than an open mind in exchange.

Having an open mind is difficult with the negative connotation the words ‘experimental culture’ carry, as J. from La Web Sense Nom remarks. “This kind of culture has always been marginal, related to drugs and even associated with rebellion and disorder. But, honestly, such misconceptions come from those who have never even experienced these performances.”

Kanti also makes the point that “the Municipal Government has become more and more restrictive, preventing artists from performing on the streets, presenting them with hefty fines if they do.” So, it isn’t just the public who may be wary of different and experimental types of art, but also the Powers that be. Merce, along with other SPIO supporters on Roig, encourages people to stop by, have a chat and get to know the place to see that it is about creation, not rebellion.

“It’s a place where everything my friends and I ever wanted to do – theatre, music, and circus – can be done,” explains the UB Fine Arts-educated Merce. She’s currently trying to transform the space that started as a spot devoted to recycling and the raw food movement into a fullyfledged theatre. However, she faces insurmountable paperwork and exorbitant permit fees. Until the permits come through SPIO will continue to host parties with surprising mini-performances; the next is set for October 17th. Apart from the fiestas, SPIO functions as a workshop space hosting classes in theatre, wardrobe, trapeze, body alignment and more, all of which Merce has studied and practiced both here in Spain and abroad.

Merce’s friends Marsara and José run Artik, another refuge for emerging and experimental artists. At Artik, area musicos can be seen wailing away at practice sessions for as little as €6 an hour, and there’s even a recording space which they offer at a significantly discounted rate. Marsara and José provide both spaces at lowered rates to help ease the pressures musicians are under when they ‘go it alone’.

One Barcelona-based musician who, after nearly two decades of performing, researching and training, continues optimistically thanks to the encouragement of his fellow artists is Gaspar Lukacs Esguep. Gaspar, who also spent time on the Azart Ship of Fools, is all-too-familiar with the realities of a disengaged public. “It’s difficult to find people and places interested and willing to help with what I’m doing, but I know a lot of friends in the same situation. Maybe it’s a little crazy that we continue to stay in the dream.” Yes, they may be dreamers, but they happen to be living what others with their feet firmly planted in the soil can only imagine doing.

Originally from Chile, Gaspar is a modern music anthropologist who combines the sounds of indigenous groups, cultural figures as well as religious ceremonies, with experimental music and sounds he creates using computer technology. Gaspar, who is known for his outrageous onstage outfits, finds it most important to create “music that transcends time, and for the subjects of my work to live on.” He works hard on all of the elements, from the music to the new visual dynamics he incorporates, even marketing the performances which, in itself, has been a great learning experience. “Some people in the bars wouldn’t even listen to my pitch because I didn’t have a MySpace account,” Gaspar adds.

To help make his pitches more successful Gaspar has since started a MySpace page. featuring music and videos taken from his eclectic anthropological performances. One of his more popular obras, “Pregoneros”, a series of films using the bellowing voices of street peddlers to look at them as a cultural heritage phenomenon in both Chile and Spain, even made it into a London film festival. The film, homage to organ grinder Omar Chavez, was part of the Portobello film fest’s ‘Spanish Night’ this past September.

It’s a bit puzzling, but it seems like those within Barcelona’s organic cultural community are more than happy to reach out to and even meet a public abroad, but continue to be overlooked by the people and places in their city of inspiration and creation.

As Gaspar stated, many places will not even listen to a pitch if an artist doesn’t have the now-obligatory MySpace page, and even when they do give a listen the majority of more commercial venues shy-away from the riskier shows. This may be due to a fear they won’t bring in the required cash, or the fact that like most of us walking the streets, habit reigns supreme. Gaspar is quick to point out that there are spots, Sala Apolo and Sidecar to name two, who do accept the strange and peculiar. However, most of the truly avant-guard creations will be found in small spaces like the ones created by Merce and similar artists, or produced and distributed by the artists themselves on home-made CDs and DVDs.

Rather than wait for the city to come to its creative senses and to further his solo work, Gaspar chose to create an independent production company along with photographer and videographer Gayle Harney in 2007. Their production company La Buhardilla Producciones Harney & Lukacs is currently working on Gaspar’s “Voices of Religion” series. Combining the voices and sounds heard during different sacred celebrations with still and video imagery and electronic music, “Voices” is a huge undertaking and a marvellous multi-sensory experience.

Two other guys who have taken art and performance into their own hands are Jordi and Carlos. Puppeteers, they have resurrected the marionette workshop of the legendary Pepe Otal in Raval a year after his death. New life was breathed into the boarded-up shop and shows started again at the end of July. For a mere €5 you can join their association, delight in their wildly unpredictable shows and even design and create your own marionettes. “Come in and look around. Would you like a sandwich?” are the typical friendly greetings received from the two men when passing by their taller.

In the end, if commercial venues are unwilling to put on these shows, it’s up to individuals to seek-out the authentic culture the city has to offer. This can be as simple as walking out the apartment building door, taking a left instead of that usual right and wandering; popping into unfamiliar places, talking with people and seeing what they are up to. These people, who many may call dreamers, are intelligent, talented spirits faithful to their art and thrilled to share it with others. None of us should be afraid to step out into the unknown; if anything, we should fear more the regret that would come later for not having taken advantage of the wonderful opportunities available to us right here and now.