Theatre in Conflict Zones
Programme
Colombia was, until 2016, the country of longest civil conflict in the Western world which left 250,000 victims and around eight million displaced people. The Colombian ITI Centre therefore has compiled a series of videos detailing the role of theatre healing the wounds in conflict in Colombia, Venezuela, Europe, as well as South Africa, Kenya, Sudan, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
International Theatre Day
ITI Colombia is pleased to present a video of the theater show in Colombia for the International Theater Day.
International Women World Theater Webinar
ITI Colombia is pleased to present for webinar recording International Women World Theater Webinar
Work in 2021
The Colombian Centre’s work on Theatre in Conflict Zones will also focus in 2021 on visibility of scenic arts both in cities and in the countryside which experienced violence committed by different actors, including guerrilla, those involved in narcotraffic trade, and paramilitaries.
For ITI Colombian Centre is fundamental to show to the world the works which displaced people and victims of violence have created as cultural managers in view of the consequences of violence which still affect our country.
The following video, provided by ITI Colombian Center’s partner, the Foundation KWE’SX YAT, illustrates the work with young people in the Indian reserve Tacueyó in the province of Cauca playing Andean Indian music on indigenous instruments. This is a part of educational training with a view to preserving centuries old national heritage.
Theatre in Conflict Zones in Colombia
Theatre Cenit
Bernardo Rey y Nube Sandoval el centro de Investigaciones Teatro Cénit, ganadores en 2016 del Premio Internacional Ellen Stewart, desarrollaron una metodología a partir de su trabajo en proyectos pedagógico-escénicos en zonas de riesgo y con poblaciones vulnerables en Colombia e Italia. Denominaron Teatro como Puente esta herramienta que utilizaron en estos programas de rehabilitación psicosocial con desplazados y refugiados. También han dedicado su trabajo a la construcción y uso de máscaras, a la experimentación teatral en espacios no convencionales y al uso de multimedia en sus obras.
Rojo (Red) Congregación Teatro de Bogotá
La Congregación Teatro is a theatre company which Johan Velandia established in 2007. Its purpose is to create a space of research for artists from different disciplines who dialogue in their respective languages on topical themes of social, political and cultural interest, constructing a scenic vocabulary which is dynamic, changing, agile and significant.
The company’s director and dramaturgy, Johan Velandia has combined in a prolific manner theatre and literary activity in the exercise of acting, theatre directing and dramaturgy.
Rojo is a history of a town which disappears from the map. It is a cartography of deceit and hatred which is planted in “Refuge” under the cover of progress and civilization. Red is a walking shoe which good people use to walk, it a registrar who baptizes at whim local people in a time without name. it is a gentleman in helicopter who cleans the forest in order to make roads, it is a promise, a desire to have more even if it reduces us as human beings, it is a track where planes loaded with white money land, it is a cult of death, it is witchcraft, it is a panther which bites the sunrise and buries old friends, it is a district, an invisible frontier, it is conduit through silence, the first communion with war, a childhood photo bathed in blood, it is a witch who visits a house of spirits, it is genealogy of evil. It is a history encrypted in narcotraffic and terrorism in Colombia.
More dead than alive, company Danfroc, Cartagena de Indias
Teófilo Mercado Carriazo created the company Danfroc on 20 January 2017 with the purpose to contribute towards training of children from the Olaya Herrera district in Cartagena and thus positively impact the community.
It consists of 11 children between 9 and 15 years old, who attend third to eighth grade in different educational institutions and are residents of Olaya Herrera district.
The work treats the sensitive subject of sexual exploitation of minors, which is evidenced by social mechanisms which lead towards automation and loss of dreams and innocence of children.
Mina Turín Teatro from Buenaventura
Mina, directed by Johanna Robledo, is close to Woyzeck of Georg Büchner, a classic of universal dramatgurgy, but in the context of contemporary Buenaventura.
Synopsis: The play tells the story of a low-income private from the city of Buenaventura who is surrounded by a hostile environment which tries to convince him that he has no value because of its fragile social position. In order to improve his economic situation which will guarantee the future of his family, he feels compelled to take part in a clandestine research of a doctor in the capital.
Johanna Robledo, a lecturer at the University of Valle, Pacific headquarters, is in charge of Turín Teatro which is made up of students of Scenic Arts of this University.
Where donkey’s tails decompose, Umbral Teatro, Bogotá
UMBRAL TEATRO, which was founded by Ignacio Rodríguez and Carolina Vivas, was created in Bogota in 1991 and is made up of theatre players and professional musicians. The founders believe that this represented the most viable option to act as a research and creative team asking pertinent questions of its profession and the country. Each era thinks of itself as a particularity and does so from different places; It is necessary to think about today from the theater and find the language to do it.
In 2008, just a few weeks before the scandal of the so called “Falsos Poitivos” came to light, dramaturg and director Carolina Vivas finished writing the text Where donkey’s tails decompose, a play which speaks precisely of extrajudicial killings. The story, in the words of Vivas, is focused on Pedro Cagrejo, a peasant who disappeared and who the army tries to pass for a criminal.
L’Explose Dance: The Look of the Ostrich, Bogotá
L’Explose was founded by Tino Fernández in Paris in 1991. Later he moved to Bogotá, where he carried out his work of artistic creation, research and dissemination
His shows have been presented in major theaters and festivals in Europe, Asia and Latin America. The national and international recognitions received have placed it as one of the most important dance groups in Latin America.
Following the death of Tino Fernández, in January 2020, Juliana Reyes, his playwright and creative partner for more than 22 years, was appointed Artistic Director of the Company.
La Mirada del Avestruz, is one of his works that takes as a starting point the traces left by the violence in Colombia and how forced displacement has been one of the most obvious consequences of the armed conflict. Images of violence are unavoidable, although far from literal or partisan denunciation. Rather, it is about observing the way in which bodies are attacked and threatened while they seem to take refuge in an inner world and hide their gaze from the overwhelming reality. Just as the ostrich does when it hides its head in the ground.
The space where the characters and bodies intermingle, overwhelmed and uprooted, is a stark and stark landscape of black earth. A scorched earth that spreads like a sepulchral field and invites bodies to sink into it, like a seed for the future. The characters want to speak, they look for words to express reality, but they are silenced. The word dies on the lips. It is the world of Chaos before the Word, where sounds intermingle with the groan and thud of rage. Faced with loneliness despite being with other beings like them, these characters look for a way out or a reason, they try to flee or scream, but their voice is not heard. The rest is silence.
La mirada del avestruz (CLIP) from lexplose on Vimeo.
MOVIENTO ARTISTICO BULLENRAP
On April 9, the production that Iván Benavides made for the Bullenrap group from La Libertad Sucre was launched, whose leader, the young Miguel Caraballo had to flee due to threats to his life more than a month ago