Silver Lion 2015
Venice Biennale
Silver Lion 2015
Venice Biennale
On August 3, 2015, Agrupación Señor Serrano’s work was awarded the Silver Lion for innovation in theatre of the Venice Biennale in a ceremony held at the Palazzo Ca’ Giustinian. We are very proud of the prize and we believe that it is not entirely undeserved. However, not everyone thinks the same. It is fair to bring here the voices of dissent:
“The only real disappointment of the festival was Agrupación Señor Serrano to which this year was awarded the Silver Lion for innovation in theatre (we can’t see the possible reason for that): smart asses and malicious they presented a show in which the chase of American Indians, the hunting of Moby Dick and the capture of Bin Laden were put on the same plane. On stage, some platforms, a series of scale models of Bin Laden’s house in Pakistan, plastic action figures and miniature planes: and a camera amplifying all this on a large screen, as we have already seen in many shows. Where was all this going? I don’t know, from an ideological and political point of view, unless they pretended to trivially show the interweaving of fiction and reality. How original!”
Anna Bandettini, La Repubblica (16/08/2015).
Premiered on 06.07.2016 at GREC Festival de Barcelona.
Production currently on tour.
Birdie is a multimedia performance with live video, objects, Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ revisited, scale models, 2000 mini animals, wars, smugglers, a massive migration and three performers handling this messy world with wit, criticism and commitment with humankind.
Two mirages.
In one: wars, droughts, massive deforestation, polluted coasts, labor exploitation, political instability, poor sanitary conditions, persecution, forced deportation, abuse of natural resources, depleted aquifers, food shortages…
In the other: stocked supermarkets, safe streets, family stability, good health services, freedom, paid work, respect for human rights, welfare, recycling and renewable energies, prosperity, social mobility…
And in between, flocks of birds. Thousands of migrating birds constantly drawing impossible shapes in the sky. Movement. Ceaseless movement. Birds… and beyond, planets, asteroids, raw materials, galaxies, blood, cells, weapons, atoms, electrons, advertising, quarks, ideology, fear, waste, hope. Life. Nothing in the cosmos is quiet. Stillness is a chimera. The only thing there is, is movement.
If it is impossible to stop an electron, what’s the point in building fences against flocks of birds?
Creation: Àlex Serrano, Pau Palacios and Ferran Dordal / Performance: Àlex Serrano, Pau Palacios and David Muñiz / Voice: Simone Milsdochter / Project manager: Barbara Bloin / Lighting design and video programming: Alberto Barberá / Sound design and soundtrack: Roger Costa Vendrell / Video creation: Vicenç Viaplana / Scale models: Saray Ledesma and Nuria Manzano / Costumes: Nuria Manzano / Production assistant: Marta Baran / Scientific consultant: Irene Lapuente. La Mandarina de Newton/ Project advisor: Víctor Molina / Legal advisor: Cristina Soler / Management: Art Republic.
Grec 2016 Festival de Barcelona / Agrupación Señor Serrano / Fabrique de Théâtre – Service des Arts de la Scène de la Province de Hainaut / Festival TNT – Terrassa Noves Tendències / Monty Kultuurfaktorij / Festival Konfrontacje Teatralne.
Cultural Office of Spain’s Embassy in Brussels / Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya / Centre International de Formation en Arts du Spectacle de Bruxelles / Instituto Nacional de las Artes Escénicas y la Música (INAEM) / Institut Ramon Llull.
Mini animal toys sponsorship: Safari Ltd.
Special effects sponsorship: Nasa FX
Kazimierz Krzanowski award, Kontrapunkt Festival 2018. Szczencin (Polonia)
Butaca Prize 2017, Catalan Theatre Audience Awards, New Dramaturgies. Barcelona (Spain).
Critics Prize 2016, New Trends. Barcelona (Spain).