"In Barcelona, everyone ends up finding the formula for collaboration"

Cesc Casadesús (Barcelona, 1964) is a Catalan dancer, choreographer, and cultural manager who has been at the helm of the Grec Festival of Barcelona since 2016. This year he faces a more paused edition than the previous two, marked by covid, but with the desire to "make a true Casadesús."--- Mr. Casadesús, situate me: what is the big problem with audiences? Everyone is talking these weeks about a phenomenon that affects all performing arts. An international congress on the subject will even be organized in Barcelona.It is not a phenomenon of Barcelona, but of all Europe. Paris is terrible for audiences, Madrid too, Brussels… There is no need to flagellate ourselves. In part it has to do with the post-pandemic, yes, but it is surely older. The drop is notable, but we also see that disciplines like classical music suffer from it. For years, personally, I have had the issue of audiences in mind, becauseI have dedicated myself a lot (and still do) to the contemporary scene. And when you go to the contemporary theme, you better hurry to find the audience: mediation, capture, networks… It's not about looking for them to sell, but to transmit. This is the key: to offer some message.--- And then, if it comes from before the pandemic, what diagnosis does it have?First there is a generational issue (the pandemic, moreover, has mainly affected older people). Then we have the great phenomenon, that of changing habits (mobile phones, series, what do I have to explain to you). And also the tendency of people to flee the city and go to the countryside, it has something to do with it. Now then: people also want to be in a group, get out of the individual bubble, connect in person. PParadoxically, we need an investment in digital communication, but to establish a non-digital connection.And another topic we talk about a lot, but find it hard to pay attention to: education and training. The arts are still too far removed from the educational system.--- We've been talking about it for a long time, yes.Yes, and be careful: France has invested a lot in this link between teaching and arts but, on the other hand, it also suffers a sharp decline in audience. Tell me: what works well now with audiences?--- Music festivals.Exact. A total success. Therefore, we must make theater a great leisure event. And that's without forgetting that, in theatrical shows, the works that work well are precisely the most demanding ones: look at Arquillué, look at Broggi, look at La Calórica. People, in short, want to see important things. To know that they are attending a great event. To distract yourself, you do it in a group, going out to have fun, and that's great. But you look for thought to give you light, personally.

"We have to turn theater into a great leisure event"

--- What about Casadesús in this Grec?Perhaps it is the first Grec where I can be a true Casadesús, since the pandemic limited us a lot (and we were one of the few European cities that maintained the theater festival). From all my previous experiences (my time at Atlàntida de Vic, Mercat de les Flors, MACBA…) we can detect, I suppose, the attempt to balance the popular and the excellent.My personal battle is to introduce people to contemporaneity, to make contemporary art something popular. I think we have banished popular art too much, and now I think of Clavé's choirs, or in thePastorets, for example… --- That's what Xavier Albertí said about the Paral·lel, more or less, right?Exact. Pitarra was never elitist, and instead was profoundly modern. My goal is that being contemporary is not identified with difficult or elitist.--- Or sad.We have tried to make a very optimistic, very powerful Grec, like a bottle of cava uncorking. Nothing halfway, launch a big firecracker, let there be joy. You will see that on the poster we have recovered theFauno, with this Miró-esque, diabolical, popular aspect. We want to recover known territories and revisit them: English musicals, Dutch dance, or German theater are "handholds" that, like when you climb a peak, help people regain confidence. In a way, we act as psychologists; it's our turn to pull the cart, since for some reason we are the most important festival in the city.

"My personal battle is to introduce people to contemporaneity, to make contemporary art popular"

--- What differentiates them from other European theater festivals?I am sure it's the connections. Like with neurons, here we are all very connected. You don't find this in other European cities, believe me: we are very close to the people from Sònar or MACBA... Physically close, I mean, but also when it comes to working. We meet in this city. We all meet, like on a bumper car track, and we feel part of a common project, even if we work in different disciplines. In Madrid, on the other hand, it's an "either you come with me, or you go with this one." And also in Paris. In Barcelona, everyone ends up finding the formula to collaborate with others. And this makes usa tremendously creative city, a territory of connections.--- Now that you mention it…Look: when I walk through Barcelona, if I go from the Temple of Augustus to the Glòries Tower, for example, it takes me 30 minutes, but there is a lot of overlapping historical layers along the way. In Barcelona, the modern and the ancient respect each other, while Madrid is a postcard of a very specific era. We are a mosaic, atrencadís, much beyond Modernism. Modernists only knew how to modernize it. --- And at a theatrical level?Barcelona is too provincial a point, theatrically speaking.--- Come on!Yes, yes. I mean, too little curious. It is not in music and dance, for example, but it is in theater. A bit like in visual arts, where we have great specialists, the best, but it doesn't become popular because we stick with the avant-garde. In theater here we go too much with the formula of "known title, known actor, known director...", and I fear this has a very limited run. It is necessary that we move more towards themes, betting on messages. Connect: if we are neurons, let's communicate them. Let's shake them. We must be in the league of restless cities, if we don't want to end up repeating ourselves too much. I don't know if it's about more budget or making better audience policy, but the responsibility is ours: if we want to be an avant-garde, modern and creative city, we must break away from the usual canons. The Grec is, if you want to find a coherence, an attempt to direct Barcelona towards this goal.