Barcelona

The IF festival is an international event that has established itself as one of the key showcases for innovation, art and creativity in Barcelona. The festival is now celebrating its tenth edition, during which the city of Barcelona will become the epicentre of visual theatre, design, sustainability and emerging culture, bringing together professionals and enthusiasts from a diverse range of disciplines.

TALK – CHEKHOV’S GUN, WRITING FOR PUPPET THEATRE, with Gigio Brunello
Friday 8 November at 5.00 pm in the Auditorium of the Institut del Teatre
The talk will address a number of the most common issues that arise when writing for puppet theatre and theatre of objects, such as the concept of theatre within theatre, also known as meta-theatre, the art of storytelling, the construction and dramatisation of a story, and identifying certain taboos that have contributed to puppet theatre being considered a second-rate genre.
Free Activity

EL PUNTO IMPROPIO (The Improper Point), by Javier Martín. Documentary screening
Wednesday 13 November at 7.00 pm in the Sala Pina Bausch, Mercat de les Flors
A documentary directed by Javier Martín that explores the process of creating the choreography El punto impropio A/S/V, which premièred in 2023 at the Sala Miguel Covarrubias, Danza UNAM, in Mexico City. The documentary collects visual, corporal, poetic and sound notes from the research work developed for Javier Martín’s choreographic show and accompanies the team during its year-long research and investigation process.
Free Activity

FIGURAS DEL UMBRAL, by Javier Martín
Thursday 14 and Friday 15 November at 8.30 pm in the Sala MAC, Mercat de les Flors
A piece that invites us to reflect and review the speed of our era, installed in our bodies and fragmenting our attention. Choreographer Javier Martín invokes the concept of ancestral rituals associated with “crossing the threshold”, involving the body in a social dance. Ticket required.

DONDE EMPIEZA EL BOSQUE ACABA EL PUEBLO, (Where the forest begins, the village ends) by Monte Isla
Friday 15 November at 7.00 pm in the Sala OM, Mercat de les Flors
What is the distance between us and the world? Taking this question as a starting point, the Monte Isla company examines the western notion of landscape as a structure of thought, perception and representation. In this piece, they investigate the limits of the stage, transforming the theatrical device into a living ecosystem, a theatre-forest: a large puppet that works as a fiction-creating machine. The device becomes a wild tool that breaks the centralised vision.
Ticket required.

WAR MAKER, by Dafa Puppet Theatre
Saturday 16 November at 7.00 pm in the Sala OM, Mercat de les Flors
Based on the true story of Palestinian artist Karim Shaheen, who lived in exile and bears the scars of three wars, War Maker is an intimate voyage into his hopes and dreams. This multidisciplinary show is a fusion of visual arts, new media, documentary and object theatre.
Ticket required.

HOSPITAL DE CAMPO, by Societat Doctor Alonso
Saturday 16 November at 8.30 pm in the Sala Pina Bausch, Mercat de les Flors
In recent years Societat Doctor Alonso has been undertaking a profoundly transformative task, reimagining theatre, its mechanisms and its limits. The company focuses on everyday scenarios, constructed on the basis of a “performance” framework within what we perceive as reality. In this show, the spectators (understood to be patients) come to be attended to by doctors (puppets), while the performers serve as mere mediators.
Ticket required.

CRAMPS. LABORATORIO DE CALAMBRES SÓNICOS (Laboratory of Sonic Cramps), by Nilo Gallego and Frankuu Carrascosa
Sunday 17 November, family session at 10.00 am and adult session at 12.00 noon at the Graner. Dance and performing arts creation centre
Experiential workshop without verbal communication, designed especially for deaf people but open to everyone with any auditory capacity. Through the use of specific, vibrant materials, participants will be able to explore various forms of oscillation, excitement and movement of bodies and objects, creating a space resonating with tactile sensibility. This environment will allow for improvisation and collective creation.
Prior booking required.

WORKSHOP – BIOGRAPHY AND PERFORMANCE, with Husam Abed (Dafa Puppet Theatre)
Sunday 17 November from 10 am to 1 pm, and from 2 pm to 4 pm in the Sala PB. Mercat de les Flors
A workshop in which the creative process is based on documentary methods focused on finding intimacy and sharing memories through exploring and working with materials, objects and body to investigate themes proposed by workshop participants. Co-founder of DPT, Husam Abed, invites members of the community to find inspiration in their own stories and provides them with the techniques and tools to express them through puppetry.
Prior booking required.

TALK – CULTURAL RESISTANCE AT PALESTINIAN PERFORMING ARTS. FREEDOM THEATRE AS AN EXAMPLE, with Husam Abed (Dafa Puppet Theatre)
Sunday 17 November at 5.00 pm in the Sala PB. Mercat de les Flors
The artistic director and co-founder of Czech-based Dafa Puppet Theatre will be sharing how Freedom Theatre uses creativity to resist the occupation and challenge oppression. In this talk, he will explain how this theatre company serves as a platform for artistic expression and the fight against stereotypes and repression, recovering cultural identity and imagining a better future. His talk will highlight the importance of cultural resistance in contexts of conflict and occupation.
Ticket required.

VICINI, by Federica Porello
Friday 22 November at 8.00 pm in the Sala PB. Mercat de les Flors
Through gestures, words and objects, the four performers speak of the parallelism and connection between the “inside” and the “outside”, between perception, thought and internal poetics of a singular-body and a multitude-body. In this network of connections between near and far events, and as witnesses of the brutalities inflicted on the Palestinian people, the artists propose extending our gaze towards the Levant and approaching testimonies and poems of resilience. Performed and created by Federica Porello, Maria Mora, Xavi Moreno and Majo Villafaina.
Ticket required.

COSA. INTERVENIR UN CUERPO (THING. Intervene a Body), by Macarena Recuerda Shepherd
Sunday 24 November at 5.00 pm in the Sala PB. Mercat de les Flors
With this work, the creator concludes the trilogy she began in 2017 on illusionism, in which she explores how illusion connects to the essence of theatre, exposing on the stage the relationship between convention and magic, reality and its double, action and fiction. COSA. INTERVENIR UN CUERPO is a show in which Macarena Recuerda investigates the perception of images from the stage space, thinking of the body as another material, reifying it to the point of turning it into a prop.
Ticket required.

EDUCATIONAL PROJECT – TOTES LES FINESTRES POSSIBLES. COMPARTINT EL PROCÉS (All Possible Windows. Sharing the Process), by the La Bayka theatre company / Escola Cal Maiol.
Friday 29 November at 6.00 pm in the MNAC Auditorium
This project is an intergenerational creation initiative that explores puppets and shadow play. The project is led by the La Bayka theatre company, with the participation of the Escola Cal Maiol primary school in Barcelona. It is coordinated by the Catalan National Art Museum’s Projecte Comunitat 360, the Secretariat d’Entitats de Sants, Hostafrancs i la Bordeta, and IF Barcelona. Free activity.