In one of her letters, the poet Emily Dickinson wrote: “I am out with lanterns, looking for myself”. In these difficult times, theatre, dance, poetry -that is, all culture- are the lanterns with which we walk through the darkness. To discover who we are, who we should be or who we shall become.
Ever since the beginning of this medical, social, economic and humanitarian crisis, the entire team of the Autumn Festival has worked to bring forth an edition that is more necessary than ever. Our efforts therefore join those of all the professionals that, with conviction and tenacity, are fighting for the survival of culture. We have the enormous responsibility of contributing to the sustainability of the sector, offering people reflections, emotions, beauty and spirit.... especially now.
We have searched and will continue to search for the formulas that will allow us to hold the Autumn Festival this 2020; the genesis of Confines, for example, -created during the first lockdown and now converted into a series within the festival- or Transmedia Drama. This programme that we share with the public today is the result of several adjustments and modifications. Perhaps there will be others. We are all neighbours in uncertainty. I promise that we shall continue as best we may: we shall continue to work so that this edition of the Autumn Festival may be held. This is our commitment to our artists, with the exhibition, production and co-production of around twenty new creations that shall premiere at the Autumn Festival.
While we have always pursued artistic excellence in all our proposals, it cannot be nor should it now be our sole priority. It is time to be careful -in the most comprehensive sense of the word- for both creators and viewers.
Nevertheless, we did not wish to completely do away with the international aspect of our festival as it has always been -and continues to be- part of its identity. We have collaborated with other festivals and institutions. We believe firmly in dialogue, in synergy, in pooling resources and strategies. The Autumn Festival returns to the municipal spaces of the city of Madrid -Conde Duque, the Naves del Español in the Matadero- in close collaboration with Temporada Alta, Festival Iberoamericano de Cádiz, RNE, Surge, the National Film Archives (Filmoteca Española), museums such as the Reina Sofia and the Prado, and many other spaces and institutions. We need to establish networks of support based on artistic logic and encouragement for creation.
The Autumn Festival will be plural, diverse and inclusive, where multiple poetries and subjectivities come together: physical theatre, text, objects, modern dance, experimental music, live art, installation theatre, contemporary theatre, transmedia, performance art, poetry, etc. A multitude of names for that which is multiple, ways of naming theatre and its limits.
It won't just be a theatre of exhibition but also of research, encounters and reflection. The multimedia activities programme of the 38th Autumn Festival will also offer film exhibitions in the Autumn Festival’s video series to be held at the Film Archives; a meeting of poetry, body and painting in the Pictura Fulgens series at the Prado museum; as well as events for children and the entire family, also at the Prado. We will also display the results of the Creative Laboratories promoted by Surge and the Autumn Festival.
A total of 22 halls and spaces will host these performances and activities of the 38th Autumn Festival. It has been our wish to connect with new spaces and to consolidate the old ones, as the festival will open all over Madrid city as well as in its municipal districts.
We hope you will enjoy these fifty artistic proposals, which include 37 shows, 3 transmedia drama creations, and 5 multimedia activities. In total, there will be 21 world premieres, 7 shows that are being held for the first time in Spain and 10 in the Region of Madrid. We are especially proud of this programme, which you can visit on this website and on social networks.
I would like to thank all the women and men who have made the Autumn Festival a reality, a team that has faced enormous challenges and difficulties with regard to its planning and delivery. Finally, I would like to thank the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Region of Madrid, Marta Rivera, for her confidence in me.
I am aware that this is a great responsibility given the unique circumstances that we face today. Allow me to therefore end this presentation on a more personal note. I've often asked myself: “Now what? And now what?” And when I thought all was lost, I found my way because I needed it, because I wanted it. Just like the tree in our poster for this year that still bears fruit. It is dark, that is true, but let us not go gentle into that good night, let's not give up or surrender, let's not falter. Let’s go outside with the lanterns that Emily Dickinson spoke of and find ourselves once again. We must go on. And we shall go on. This is our Autumn Festival.
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