The Barcelona-based women’s group Tarta Relena, the Galician-Catalan duo Los Sara Fontan and the Occitan-language group Cocanha have joined forces for the first time as a sextet, to investigate, compose and offer a live performance of a newly created work based on numerical textile factory patterns, old work songs, mechanical sounds and narrations based on accounts of life in the factories. The creation process was conceived and developed in the Fabra i Coats art factory, once one of the main textile-production centres in Catalonia and today a well-known arts venue. Tarta Relena, Cocanha and Los Sara Fontan also explore dialogues between its professions, relating to artistic creation and textiles, two ways of inhabiting the same space in various times.
Reinterpreting the work songs of textile-factory women came about from the wish to maintain the thread of memories of a rich and little-known popular culture. Translating numerical textile-factory patterns into music compositions came about from the desire to find thread memories: the internal code that set the rhythm - repetitive and precise- of the collective work.
This show brings together for the first time three duos sharing an eagerness to innovate and rethink: Tarta Relena, who have shaken up the folk universe with a careful, contemporary reinterpretation of Mediterranean singing; Cocanha, who are at the forefront of a movement for reclaiming Occitan culture, bringing it up to date with a vision of the present and a feminist perspective; and Los Sara Fontan, who use a classical instrument such as the violin in unprecedented experiments, exploring every kind of style and using it in poetry and dance pieces, museum installations and soundtracks.
Voice and rhythm are the big stars of a production based on simple units but which, joined together, create a complex, energetic and delicate sound texture. A celebration of community work and songs beyond the settings: collective songs in everyday life, to keep in step with a work’s gestures, to feel accompanied or as an escape from everything and everyone.
A Grec 2022 Festival de Barcelona, Fabra i Coats: Fàbrica de Creació and Fira Mediterrània de Manresa co-production.
Supported by Institut Ramon Llull.
In collaboration with Centre Artesà Tradicionàrius.
Composed and performed by: Los Sara Fontán (Sara Fontán, Edi Pou), Tarta Relena (Marta Torrella, Helena Ros), Cocanha (Lila Fraysse, Caroline Dufau) Coordination: Edi Pou Lighting: Guadalupe Puntes Set: Helena Calafell Hairstyling: Sofía Zunino Sound: Sanz Lois Miqueu Grosclaude Production: Muntsa Roca - Anastàtica Cultural Photography: Duna Vallès
