FiraTàrrega: a holiday, a party, and a market
[Who&Work] Jordi Duran Roldós _ Artistic Director of FiraTàrrega International Performing Arts Market

Jordi Duran Roldós is a young 38 year old artist, who became the new artistic director of this year''s FiraTàrrega International Performing Arts Market (hereinafter, FiraTàrrega). Jordi has been active as a technical programming staff of FiraTàrrega since 2003. This experience is playing an important role in programming as an artistic director and in creating partnership with organizations. In addition, to create the FiraTàrrega into a more rich festival experience, Jordi has been solidifying the network with European festivals and organizations of Spain, Catalonia, and even Europe.

FiraTàrrega, founded in 1981, is being held annually on the second weekend of September at Tàrrega, Catalonia, which is nearby Barcelona. The FiraTàrrega which is a market and festival is showing all of its showcases and the entire performance for performing arts experts as well as the general audiences. I met, Jordi Duran Roldós, the new Artistic Director of FiraTàrrega which is being held for 4 days from September 8, 2011.





Q: Could you introduce FiraTàrrega?

A: FiraTàrrega is a special and unique market and festival at the same time. As a performing arts market, many performances of artists become showcased, and producers watch the performance and are able to see the passion of performers and their works. A variety of performances can be seen such as originals, overseas, traditional and modern performances. FiraTàrrega has a history of 32 years. Over here, FiraTàrrega is the same concept as a holiday and party.

Q: Unlike other performing arts market, FiraTàrrega holds its own festival, and it seems the audience is diverse as well.

A: Basically, FiraTàrrega is a festival and art market. Our audience is very diverse. There are professional groups to children and families within the audience. Diverse composition is needed to satisfy all of the audiences. But, Large-scaled performances are generally for the residents of Tàrrega. Although FiraTàrrega consists of diverse composition for all of the audiences, the programming for professional groups is central part.

Q: Over 120 works are introduced within the short period of 4 days. What kind of works are mainly shown?

A: The main purpose of FiraTàrrega is presenting site specific performances and performances with innovative stage language. About 60% is street performances and 40% is indoor theater performances. Performances from home and abroad are shown, and I will continuously invite overseas performance staffs with the hope that it will grow into a more international market. I want to provide an opportunity for Spanish artists to show their works not only in Spain, but also to overseas producers. This year, over 60 organizations and 30 artists will show their works. Individual or small-scaled artists propose their works at FiraTàrrega, and the market is supporting operations for these small-scaled teams.





Q: I know that you are operating programs for supporting artists. What kind of programs are they?

A: FiraTàrrega is currently running 4 programs for supporting creative activity. They include Training, International Co-Production, Creation Residences, and Creation Laboratories. These programs are to discover new works and to select programs as well. All programs except Training are being directly budgeted and operated at FiraTàrrega.

Creative support programs are for mid-reviews, so the works are introduced with open-rehearsals in the form of pre-showcases. Workshops and conferences are also being held in order to share the creative process of the works.

International Co-Production program is about co-producing works with European festivals and organizations of Ireland, Dublin, France, and Italy. For this year''s FiraTàrrega, the opening performance Entròpic was co-produced with London''s Greenwich + Docklands International Festival:GDIF.

The Creation Laboratories that is being annually held from March to September consists of 3 programs in total. These include "Young Artist" that give creative opportunity to young artists, "To Do Consolidated Artists" for the artist groups that need to grow in creativity, and "New Business Project" that support new creative productions. This year, with the proposal by FiraTàrrega, a 21 year old artist who participated in the Young Artist program created a 15 minute artwork shown through a projection.

Q: This year, many Latin American works were especially introduced. Do you have future plans to work with Asia?

A: I really want to work with Asia. Korea is the country which I am most interested. This year, , the flower of Visual Theater Company of Korea has participated in the showcase. This was the first time Korea had participated and I was very satisfied with the work. Korean Art is very strong and has the delicateness of the East. I really hope to have an opportunity to work with Korea in the future.

Fira Tàrrega International Performing Arts Market

Based on the Street Art Festival founded in 1981, Fira Tàrrega International Performing Arts Market was first co-hosted in 2007 under the slogan of “Creative Land.” It is held in Tárrega, Catalonia in the northeast of Spain every September. 800 promoters from Spain, Europe and the Central and South America take part in this event. The event is also open to the public. In 2009, 18,000 tickets (78%) out of 23,000 were sold on pay during the 4-day event. Including the promotional tickets, the total percentage of ticket sales amounted to almost 100%, showing that the event is a real success. The main programs of the event include showcases, booth exhibitions, presentations, seminars and lunch meetings. This year, a total of about 120 showcases and performances were played in a total of 26 places indoors and outdoors throughout Tàrrega. Each one lasted between 15 and 240 minutes.

LINK:

  | Fira Tàrrega International Performing Arts Market  GO