Una isla

Direction and Dramaturgy: Àlex Serrano e Pau Palacios

“We must find a new way of living together.”
“We must discover a new way of living together where ‘I’ gives way to ‘we’, where individual well-being is inconceivable without the common good.”
These statements are compelling. And yet, they are fraught with problematic elements. Who fits into this ‘we’? Can there be a “we” without ‘the other’? What do we do with what bothers us? Do mosquitoes fit into this ‘we’? What about poisonous plants? Artificial plants? What about artificial intelligence? What are the rights of a cow, a human being, an AI, or the sun? Who should imagine the new myths? What happens if we invite artificial intelligence to imagine a ‘we’? What if we ask them to help us imagine an island?

Una isla was the result of ideas conceived a priori, but also of a residency/creation process. Until 26 October 2022, Agrupación had an open call for dancers and performers who wanted to participate in the creation of a show that took shape in Setúbal and is now touring Europe, in partnership with venues and festivals in Portugal, Spain and Italy, posing questions to its audience from an ethereal, uncertain, but deeply real setting: what will the near future and the spaces – physical, intellectual, relational – we will inhabit be like? Who will create them?

At the end of the first period of artistic residency, there was an informal presentation of the work carried out at the Luísa Todi Municipal Forum in Setúbal. This fulfilled one of the guiding principles of this Clandestine Route: to create locally and initiate a creative dialogue with the territory and its population.

Between 6 and 17 January 2023, the second phase of Agrupación Señor Serrano's residency in Setúbal took place, giving shape to the local creation process that began in October 2022. Then, between 1 and 10 March, there was a new period of work aimed at local agents from the Setubalente Community, culminating in the preview of the show Una Isla in May 2023.

At that point, it was possible to see the result of months of cross-border work, with multiple local and international participants, culminating in yet another process that is a hallmark of Rota Clandestina: working with varying degrees of proximity and intimacy, with the aim of creating globally. Beyond walls, passports and artistic barriers.