GASTROPASS SPECIAL EDITION 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SEVILLE FLAMENCO BIENNIAL
Despite the difficult times for many sectors such as tourism, the Seville Flamenco Biennial, a world reference for this cultural heritage, decided to continue with its programming in 2020. This brave gesture was a factor of inspiration and motivation to bring forward the printed Gastropass 360 guide, in a new special edition on the occasion of the Biennial’s 40th anniversary. The Gastropass Sevilla 2020 guide was presented at the Gourmet Experience Space of El Corte Inglés el Duque at an official event of the La Bienal Enciende Sevilla calendar of activities.
The event included a few flamenco touches in the form of voice and guitar courtesy of the Tablao “La Cantaora”. The performance of Antonio Nuñez “El Pulga” accompanied by the guitar of Eugenio Iglesias, managed to transport the audience to the purest era of flamenco.
2020 has not been an easy year for the world of culture either. Despite this, the Seville Flamenco Biennial has maintained its commitment to artists and Flamenco fans by organizing 49 shows in which more than 360 artists have participated.
As a result of the courageous decision to not have a cultural blackout in Seville, the Biennial opted for an in-person development that has achieved full capacity within the limitations of the current health circumstances.
This edition, promoted by the Seville City Council through the Delegation of Urban Habitat, Tourism and Culture, has become one of the most important cultural references on the international scene and has shown that culture can be consumed and that stage shows can be opened safely, combining top-level programming with the priority and commitment to preserve the health of spectators and the more than 360 participating artists.
SUMMARY OF THE 21ST EDITION OF THE SEVILLE FLAMENCO BIENNIAL
In its 59 days of flamenco events, the Biennial has brought together the most important flamenco artists. The Centro Cerámica Triana hosted the presentation of the balance sheet of the XXI Flamenco Biennial, where the most interesting data that emerge from the analysis of this edition were presented, and which can be seen in this summary:
heterodox and experimental in its first proposals for the month of August at the Monastery of San Jerónimo, which was inaugurated as a new stage space for the Biennial: the flamenco ‘De barro’ by Rycardo Moreno, the ‘Zona acordonada’ by Raúl Cantizano, the ‘Electroflamenco’ by Artomático, Los Voluble proclaiming their ‘Flamenco is not a crime’, the ‘Flamenco a voces’ by M. de Puchero, Califato ¾ opening ‘Lâ treçe puertâ’, and the ‘Duende Eléctrico’ by the essential Gualberto.
The start of the programme in September brought the Biennial to the venues of the Lope de Vega Theatre, the Central Theatre, the Church of San Luis de los Franceses, the Monastery of La Cartuja, with the Real Alcázar of Seville being the setting for its already famous flashmob, led by Antonio Canales and María Moreno in dance, and Rafael Riqueni on guitar. The event, once a massive gathering, was held, in this exceptional year, behind closed doors and was broadcast via streaming, throughout the world, reaching cities such as Istanbul (Turkey), Shanghai (China), Hong Kong, Almaty (Kazakhstan) or Monterrey (Mexico), thus marking the first of the online broadcasts that would connect the Biennial with the world.
A speech by the former director of the Biennial, Manuel Herrera (director of the Biennial in 1998, 2000 and 2002), who unfortunately passed away a few days after the end of the 2020 edition, celebrated the 40th anniversary of the creation of the event, and opened the September programme with a catalogue of stage proposals that has confirmed it, once again, as the international benchmark exhibition. An extract from this speech can be read in the printed guide Gastropass 360 Edition. Special 40th anniversary of the Biennial.
SCHEDULE
The Biennial has included in its programme great bastions of dance such as the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía in a show celebrating its 25th anniversary; Rocío Molina in her special tribute to the guitar in two shows concentrated in the same day; Fernando Romero and his ‘Diálogos con el tiempo’; Farruquito showing his truth in ‘Desde mi ventana’; Antonio Canales celebrating his reunion with his hometown with his great milestone ‘Torero’ and his new show ‘Sevilla a Compás’; Mª del Mar Moreno exhibiting her ‘Memoria viva’; La Lupi in the inner journey of ‘Lenguaje oculto’; Olga Pericet and her eternal scenic research in ‘Un Cuerpo Infinito’; Israel Galván with Le Cirque Romanès in ‘Gatomaquia’ or Andrés Marín in “La Vigilia perfecta” dancing for an entire day in different locations of the Monasterio de la Cartuja.
Alongside them, there have been young, already established talents who have made a strong entrance onto the stage, such as Patricia Guerrero, who choreographed the reconstructed ‘Paraíso Perdido’ alongside Fahmi Alqhai’s viola da gamba; Anabel Veloso with her homage to Portuguese culture in ‘Oro sobre azul’; María Moreno with the boldness of her ‘More (No) More’, La Piñona paying her personal tribute to Juan Manuel Flores in ‘Abril’; Asunción Pérez Choni with her flamenco cabaret ‘Cuero/Cuerpo’; David Coria alongside the singer David Lagos in an avant-garde approach to ‘¡Fandango!’; Mercedes de Córdoba with the scenic sincerity of ‘Ser: Ni conmigo ni sin mí’; Leonor Leal with her choreographic evolution based on the texts of the intellectual and poet from Granada ‘Loxa’; or Ana Morales maintaining a vital balance in ‘En la Cuerda Floja’.
On the other hand, the Biennial has brought together great masters of flamenco guitar such as Rafael Riqueni, who provided exceptional accompaniment to Rocío Molina’s dancing or Estrella Morente’s singing; Daniel Casares with his show ‘Guitarrísimo’, Joselito Acedo and the sounds of his ‘Triana D.F. (Distrito Flamenco)’, Antonio Rey showing off his ‘Flamenco sin fronteras’, Javier Patino sharing his ‘Deja que te lleva’ or Dani de Morón soloing with his ‘Creer para Ver’. New hands are consolidating themselves in flamenco guitars that are passing through the Biennial such as Manuel de la Luz who has presented ‘Mi Clave’ or José del Tomate, son of the legendary Tomatito, who shared his debut project ‘Plaza Vieja’.
The sounds of the 2020 Biennial have been enriched with mythical voices such as José Valencia singing to Bécquer in ‘La Alta Torre’, El Pele and his ‘A Sangre’, Tomás de Perrate performing ‘Tres Golpes’, Pedro El Granaíno paying tribute to his ‘Maestros’, Rafael de Utrera and his ‘Travesías’ with the Trío Arbós; or Inés Bacán presenting her ‘Memoria de una Superviviente’. The new flamenco generations burst onto the scene with force in the figures of María Terremoto who presented her ‘Poesía Eres Tú’, Rancapino Chico proposing ‘Una mirada al pasado’, La Tremendita in her show ‘Tremenda’ or Estrella Morente who closed the Biennial accompanied by the guitarist Rafael Riqueni.
For his part, flamenco pianist Dorantes, ambassador of Andalusian culture, presented his new work ‘Identidad’, paving the way for young creators of the jondo sound such as P. Ricardo Miño with his ‘Universo Jondo’, Diego Villegas and La Electro-Acoustic Band with ‘Cinco’, Andrés Barrios with his flamenco piano drawing the ‘Universo Lorca’ or Ana Crismán, the first and only person in the world to perform and compose flamenco with a harp as a solo instrument.
The Biennial has also made visible the relationship between flamenco and other Mediterranean music with the help of the Fundación Tres Culturas with the participation of the artists Berk Gürman, Alaa Zouiten and Boutcheback in the Hassan II Pavilion, and materializing the cultural exchange of artists between the Biennial and other Mediterranean festivals with the presence of the Jerez-born dancer María del Mar Moreno at the Festival of the Atlantic Andalusias in Essaouira.
The Biennial has not only provided a space for leading figures of flamenco, but has also served as a platform for a new generation of artists and creators who have consolidated their work in this context. Beyond works, projects or creations, the Biennial has been the recipient of new ideas, new artistic concepts, new pairings of flamenco with other arts, expanding the catalogue of styles or instruments capable of transmitting the flamenco feeling and acting as a vehicle for the language of contemporaneity on the scene.
STREAMING
The health security context in which the XXI Flamenco Biennial has been held has led the organization to undertake responsible and far-reaching actions to bring its content closer to the public who, due to capacity or travel limitations, could not enjoy it in person. Thus, the face-to-face offer has been completed with a free online proposal, which has broadcast seven of the scheduled shows via streaming to bridge the gap, opening a window of the Biennial to the world and spreading flamenco culture beyond our borders.
Streaming, as a means of transmission over distance, was already considered at the 2016 Biennial. On that occasion, Rocío Molina (who has also inaugurated these transmissions in this edition) carried out a pioneering experience at the Biennial. It was specifically in the show held on October 1st, at the Teatro Central and in which, throughout more than four hours of improvised performance, many Internet users were able to enjoy her artistic creation from anywhere in the world.
On that occasion, “An improvisation of…” proposed the participation of the audience, who were able to connect their mobile devices to the theatre’s sound system, illuminate the scene with flashlights or lend clothes with which Rocío could play.
This year, two proposals by Rocío Molina with ‘Trilogy on the guitar’, ‘Inicio (one)’ and ‘Al fondo Riela’ (with 8,732 views) were the ones that inaugurated the streaming broadcasts; ‘Paraíso Perdido’ by Fahmi Alqhai and Patricia Guerrero (4,463); ‘Tremenda’, by La Tremendita (3,840); ‘Triana DF’ by Joselito Acedo (2,215); ‘Universo Lorca’ by Andrés Barrios (2,891); ‘Identidad’ by Dorantes (4,154) and ‘La Vigilia Perfecta’ by Andrés Marín (7,365), added up to 33,660 views between their live and delayed broadcasts. The countries that concentrated the greatest number of views, in addition to Spain, were the United States, Japan, Argentina, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Brazil and the Netherlands, so a broad international community has been consolidated around the Biennial thanks to this initiative.
This exemplary concern for safe culture, this versatility in finding solutions, and this determined attitude to develop a first-class event by establishing processes that disseminate content without putting health at risk, has positioned the Biennial as a major reference show and an organizational example, making headlines in international media (The New Yorker, The Dancing Times, Dance Tabs or Euronews), and national ones such as Cadena Ser with Angels Barceló and Carles Francino, on TVE with España Directo, in the newspaper El País emphasizing the Biennial as a safe culture event, on Canal Sur Televisión in all its news and cultural programs or Telecinco closing national news programs.
WEB AND SOCIAL MEDIA
In addition to streaming shows, as an event of great importance, the Bienal de Flamenco has further strengthened, if possible, its dialogue with its followers, national and international, through its social media profiles and its website.
In this edition, social media has become one of the Biennial’s main channels of communication with its various audiences – fans, media, artists and professionals. All the publications made from the official profiles were concentrated under the hashtag #laBienal2020, which has condensed 3 million impressions. On Twitter, where in September alone more than 2,500 followers were added and more than 539,000 impressions were obtained, with an impact on more than 6.6 million users. On Facebook, with followers coming mainly from Spain, Italy, France, Argentina, Mexico, the United States and Brazil. The publications made between August and October obtained a reach of more than 6.7 million impressions, with a number of interactions that have exceeded 1.2 million.
Instagram has gained 9,509 followers between August and October. There have been around fifty posts that have had more than six thousand interactions, with a reach and impact of more than 637 thousand users, not counting live videos and Instagram Stories. Lastly, there is the Biennial’s YouTube channel, where the videos of the initial flashmob were hosted, which were viewed by more than seven thousand people and have accumulated around 1.1 million total views.
The website, which has condensed general information about the event, has registered 286,648 visits between August and October, in a total of 207,229 sessions by 45,167 users. 30% of the visitors have been from outside Spain, the main foreign countries that access the website being, in this order, the United States, France, Japan, Mexico, Germany, Italy, China, Argentina, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Brazil.
THE BIENNIAL IN THE MEDIA
This edition has been marked by COVID-19, so both on-site coverage (capacity limitations in venues) and the travel of international professionals from other countries has been impossible in many cases, even though we have had professionals from countries such as Japan or Brazil. Likewise, the international media, both specialized in flamenco and generalist, that have covered this flamenco event have been Paseo Flamenco (Japan), The New Yorker (New York – USA), The Dancing Times (UK), Dance Tabs (UK), Radio France (France), Flamencoweb (France), Flamenco Brasil (Brazil), Danstidningen (Scandinavian magazine), EuroNews Agency, Agence France Press (France).
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