FACYL 2021, Festival Internacional de las Artes y la Cultura de Castilla y León (the International Festival of Arts and Culture of Castilla y León), celebrates its seventeenth edition from 5 to 10 October in Salamanca. The event organised by the Regional Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Regional Government of Castilla y León maintains its commitment to the arts and contemporary culture in constant consideration of cultural changes and new creative paradigms. Unlike last year, FACYL welcomes back guests in person in this edition. Guests will be able to attend the full programme safely, as we are convinced that culture is crucial in rebuilding society’s wellbeing and emotional health. Close to thirty activities will take place across different venues in the city such as the Teatro Liceo, Palacio de Congresos, Teatro Juan del Enzina, CAEM, Huerto de Calixto y Melibea, Sala de Exposiciones San Eloy, and lastly, for the first time, Salamanca Cathedral.
FACYL 2021 offers an intense programme which will bring together the spirituality of our traditions and the most contemporary creation from nationally and internationally prestigious artists. A programme set to amaze and transform our view of the world to inspire emotions and contact between innovation and legacy.
FACYL 2021 will feature international artists such as Alessandro Serra, one of the most unique directors on the Italian scene, who recreates Shakespeare’s Macbeth in the language and culture of Sardinia and stages it with an exclusively male cast in the purest Elizabethan style inMacbettu;Italian dancer and choreographer Cristiana Morganti, who has performed most of her soloist career with Pina Bausch, offers her latest creation Jessica and me; Greek Euripides Laskaridis & OSMOSIS present Relic, a surprising show tackling issues such as ridicule and transformation; French singing group A Filetta perform a vocal, polyphonic, challenging, audacious, and contemporary concert for us in the Salamanca Cathedral, which draws upon powerful oral tradition; French pianist and composer Chassol presents Ludi, a musical film inspired by the Herman Hesse novel The Glass Bead Game which articulates voices, music, sounds, and images on new audiovisual items;and, finally, the latest creation from Arkadi Zaides (Belarus/Israel/France), NECROPOLIS, which poses ethical questions on the tragic deaths of refugees and migrants who lost their lives attempting to reach Europe, a project based on research examining the work of forensic medicine to create a new virtual database documenting the remains of those who, to date, mostly remain unidentified.
The selection of Spanish artists includes big names such as Light Years Away from visual artist Edurne Rubio, who mixes performances, videos, and sound projects to create situations producing a tension between what we can see and what we cannot see, between the perception of the present and memory or imagination. There are other big names such as Asturian Rodrigo Cuevas, electrocuplé pioneer, copla sex symbol, and total artist, who, directed by Fernando Carmena, presents his Barbián: Zarzeula Cabaret Show;Catalans Maria Arnal i Marcel Bagés present their latest, acclaimed album, CLAMOR, of mutant pop on the boundary of emotion that speaks of our infinite capacity for change in tackling the planet’s problems. Iban Urizar travels from the Basque Country with his Amorante project, one of the most pleasant and moving surprises in recent times, a collection of songs that are an outstanding debut for this project which is now taking a step forward to join the refreshing wave of artists willing to shake off prejudice and dive into traditional music. We will also have León pianist and composer Hara Alonso, who for this concert is collaborating with visual artist, Alba G. Corral, who is known for her live audiovisual shows that blend real-time coding and drawing.
Every year, FACYL aims to present an international success story, as part of its remit, that highlights the role of festivals in the cultural life of cities around the world. This year, our guest will be Ars Electronica from Linz, one of the world’s most influential contemporary creation festivals. As part of the Hybrid Project, it will stage an uninterrupted exhibition from 11am to 8pm (Sala de Exposiciones San Eloy) every day of the Festival on the finest international digital creation, accompanied by a broad selection of the top international digital animation. Additionally, as an exclusive production for FACYL, we will be able to chart the history of this global cultural centre and festival in five dialogue sessions with its leading figures.
Following its responsibility to create an active cultural community and stimulate exchange on its Canal Facyl, the Festival has organised ten talks, five of which come under the Ars Electronica programme and five others with renowned figures from the cultural scene.This year, for the first time, they will be available to watch both online and in-person in the Sala de Exposicones San Eloy (tickets must be booked in advance). At the end of the Festival, the talks will be available on Canal Facyl alongside the rest of the digital events from the festival. Juan Luis Arsuaga, Yayo Herrero, and Brenda Chávez will discuss the role of culture, science, and technology in building a sustainable society; Jesús Prieto and Marta Peirano will explain the uncertainty of the rights we all have in the digital world; Rodrigo Cuevas and Juana Escudero will show us how tradition, memory, and the rural world are a never-ending source of creation and innovation; Mario García de Castro, Carlos Alberto Scolari, and Mari Luz Congosto will debate the new information ecosystem and the possible end of traditional media and the role of culture in this process of transformation. And, lastly, artists Alba G. Corral and Daniel Canogar will offer us their insights into creation and creative coding.
We will also add to the Canal FACYL the appearances of prominent figures and great speakers, such as sociologist Richard Sennet, architect Pablo Sendra, chef Elena Lucas, and father of the Slow Food movement Carlo Petrini, as well as other events.
The programme for this year’s festival is rounded off by master classes and workshops from artists Hara Alonso, who will run a workshop on TidalCycles, a language for composing sequences of sounds, notes, and parameters polyphonically, polyrhythmically, or generatively, and Edurne Rubio, who will speak about her work by discussing how to construct a collective narrative for thinking about social and political issues from individual, everyday stories.
FACYL 2021 has been curated by Cristina de Silva, a multimedia artist and co-director of the L.E.V. platform (Laboratorio de Electrónica Visual); Juana Esucdero, cultural affairs director and vice-director of Culture, Heritage, and Sport and Leisure at the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP); and Teresa Lasheras, director of performing arts and music at the University Museum of Navarre. FACYL 2021 is organised by the Regional Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Regional Government of Castilla y León in partnership with Salamanca Town Hall, the University of Salamanca, Fundación Caja Duero y Unicaja Banco, Fundación Salamanca Ciudad de Cultura y Saberes, the Diocese of Salamanca, and the Castilla y León Advanced Conservatory of Music.
