Israel Galván and Marlene Monteiro Freitas

It’s not often that you see two talents this unconventional and this personal in their language take to the stage. Now, an invisible thread seems to connect them in an artistic creation that isn’t quite a show, but rather an encounter in which both present the result of a few days spent together rehearsing. Created at the Festival d’Automne in Paris, the experience has since been repeated at other festivals and is now coming to the Grec. He’s known for a different kind of flamenco: sophisticated, made up of complicated steps and a compilation of fragmentations and gestures that are part of the foundations of his unique choreographic approach. She’s known for exploring change and metamorphosis in shows rooted in dance but often closer to performance art.

This piece is a joint creation by Israel Galván and Marlene Monteiro Freitas. Monteiro Freitas is a Cape Verdean creator who straddles the line between Africa and Europe and has become a fixture at contemporary arts festivals. Trained at the famous P.A.R.T.S centre in Brussels, among other institutions, she’s created surprising and imaginative choreographic pieces such as the highly entertaining Bacantes –Prelúdio para uma Purga (2019; it visited the Mercat de les Flors and won the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale), and many other pieces such as Idiota, which led her, enclosed in a see-through box, to the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (Grec 2022). She was one of the surprise stars of the Grec that year. On the other hand, Israel Galván has been visiting the Grec Festival de Barcelona periodically since 1999, when he presented ¡Mira! Zapatos blancos/Zapatos rojos, followed by La edad de oro in 2011, La fiesta in 2017 and, in 2022, Seises, a breathtaking choreography that included the singers of the Escolania de Montserrat boys choir.

Created and performed by: Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Israel Galván

In cooperation with Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona.