Cesc Casadesús: "El Grec looks to Africa and bets on museums and creation factories"

After San Juan, the 45th Grec arrives. Its director, Cesc Casadesús, states that it will be like a bottle of cava uncorked, with everyone eager to enjoy. The festival, with a budget of 3.3 million euros, the same as the previous year, will be dedicated for the first time to Africa, the closest and yet most unknown continent.

An edition that will also be characterized by rescuing the Cuban singer Omara Portuondo, who could not travel last year, and giving prominence to Grec Ciutat with new venues such as the MACBA, the MNAC, the Picasso Museum and the CCCB. Forty spaces will host a hundred proposals and forty-nine co-productions, six of them international. The Plaza Margarida Xirgu in Montjuïc will become a gastronomic space where dinners from various restaurants in Poble-sec will be served.

The festival raises the curtain this Sunday with Carrer Robadors in the Grec amphitheater. "This show is a symbolic gesture that determines the common thread of the festival. I was clear that it had to be a look at Africa, but it was difficult to find the right production. A music concert would have been the easiest, but I wanted to work with Afro-descendants. In the end, we chose to adapt this novel by Mathias Énard, which was a finalist for the Goncourt prize, and which is named after a street in the Raval," he explains.

Casadesús has brought together director Julio Manrique and producer Bitó to stage this exciting story about a young Moroccan emigrant. This production, with a budget of 200,000 euros, will arrive at the Teatro Romea after summer and may go on tour.

Mathias Énard is a French author who lives in Barcelona, little known among the general public. "I think it's an opportunity to make him known; he is an intellectual who knows the Arab world very well. This book is a great reflection on emigration and it fascinated me because it is written in the first person and speaks from the eyes of a boy from Tangier looking at Barcelona."

The casting for Carrer Robadors was complex. "We did auditions in different parts of Spain with actors who knew both cultures and the result is a majority of actors of Arab origin. After much doubt, the protagonist is a young Catalan, Guillem Balart, who responds to the vitality of the character."

After the minimal 2020 edition

We cannot forget that last year a minimal Grec was held and that throughout the school year, premieres that had to be suspended have been gradually released. In this vein, on Wednesday, July 28, we will finally be able to enjoy the voice of Omara Portuondo.

"I also highly recommend the concert by Trio Da Kali and Lucy Durán on July 1 at the Grec amphitheater. It's a Barcelona immersion for this group because they will do an artistic residency at Fabra i Coats. They are from southern Mali and mix African culture with local talents, offering a unique proposal."

Grec Ciutat

The idea of entering museums has been slow, but fruitful. "During the pandemic, museums became safe places and we have been working for years to incorporate them. We had already worked at MACBA and now we are expanding. For example, at the MMAC, an installation by Francesc Torres was recently placed in the Oval Room, to which the Grec will contribute a video installation by Dries Verhoeven with images of a global world. We are looking for new experiences and MACBA, for its part, will receive three projects related to performance."

"During the pandemic, museums became safe places and we have been working for years to incorporate them"

Restoration will play an important role in this edition. "The Grec Gardens, which will be very well lit, recover the largest and most spacious restaurant, and there will also be two fast-service bars. But the big novelty is that cars will not be able to park in Plaza Margarida Xirgu in Montjuïc, and instead, a very varied proposal of establishments from Poble-sec will be set up with three dinner shifts." Cars will have a special rate for the Grec in B:SM car parks.