The Formentera Council's culture department reports that this week marks the start of the Barnasants series of performances by singer-songwriters on Formentera. At 8.30pm on Saturday February 16 in the Sala de Cultura (Cinema), artists Roger Mas and Estel Solé will give a free concert. Culture councillor Susana Labrador took the opportunity to urge “all of Formentera to come out and enjoy the music”.

The powerful, radiant voices of Roger Mas and Estel Solé will merge in a spectacle of poetry not only sung but recited. Mas is twice renowned—for dominion over a poetic universe all his own and a special respect for the work of writers from a breadth of eras. On his latest effort, Parnàs, the Solsona-born singer tips his hat to Goethe, Verdaguer, Miquel Martí i Pol and Torquato Tasso.

Estel Solé, for her part, has one of the most noted voices on the Catalan cultural scene. Actress, playwright, novelist and poet, Solé deftly builds her own literary universe—and isn't afraid of bending rules and raising eyebrows. She speaks frankly about childhood, fears, human contradiction, love, oblivion, summer, towns and cities and death.

Gemma Huguet's originally scheduled Saturday appearance on stage with Solé was cancelled due to personal reasons. Mas is her substitute.

Italian and Catalan singer-songwriters
The second local concert of singer-songwriters will happen Saturday April 13. Giorgio Conte and Joan Isaac are due to take the Sala de Cultura stage at 8.30pm. Isaac came up writing and singing under the influence of Italian songwriters and the melodies of Roberto Vecchioni i Fabrizio de André. Meanwhile, Conte, who has often found himself in the shadow of his brother Paolo, is a singer in the French song-crafting tradition. When the pair team up, it will be to pay tribute to Italian and Catalan singer-songwriters. And they'll do it in the style of two Venice merchants exchanging their eminently valuable stocks in trade—their songs. The show is called “Dues cultures un sol mar”.

Workshops
Thursday and Friday (February 14-15) the Barnasants cultural project will also be the occasion for free workshops on musical performance and corporal and poetic expression for students of IES Marc Ferrer, the island's school of music and dance and performing arts groups. The first, on Thursday, will find Estel Solé flexing her chops as a poetess at 5.00pm in the Sala de Cultura.

The remaining gatherings happen Friday. Solé will guide highschoolers on a course in poetic writing and creative expression in the morning. Then in the afternoon, she gives a workshop on interpretation and bodily expression linked to a text for students at the school of dance.

Maria José Cardona in Barcelona
As part of the Barnasants concert series, last Thursday (February 7) local songstress Maria José Cardona gave a show at Barcelona's Harlem Jazz Club. With “A Cançons d'ahir, avui i demà” the crowd heard Cardona's range of heart-felt, life-affirming and dramatic material. No one left unfazed.

Exhibit
Last Monday saw the opening of “20 anys de Barnasants” (20 years of Barnasants), a fly-over of the country's biggest singer-songwriters that will be open in the Sala d'Exposicions until February 23. The show is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11.00am to 2.00pm and 6.00pm to 8.00pm, plus Monday evenings.

The Barnasants programme on the island (and Formentera artists' 2019 dates in Barcelona) is made possible by a partnership agreement between an association called República de la Cultura.

According to culture councillor Susana Labrador, “in joining Barnasants our goal was to build on a network of small-scale, independent cultural fare for islanders, especially young ones” at the same time “helping local artists get the chance to take their voices on the road”.

The Formentera Council department of culture announces the start of a call for family-inclusive “coproductions”, marking the first across a recently formed network for stage production proposals tailored to family audiences.

The network's member entities include the Formentera Council, Teatre Principal in Palma, Maó's Teatre Principal foundation, Institut d'Estudis Baleàrics, the Eivissa council, Ajuntament de Santa Eulària and Balearic youth theatre initiative Sa Xerxa.

The object is selection of a proposal in performing-arts coproductions across the network during the 2019-2020 season. Productions must keep budgets below €60,000 (taxes included) to be eligible. Network members' contributions to projects will vary based on budget resources and project needs.

The new system of “comanagement” turns on an optimised use of members' human, financial and structural resources to fund the chosen artistic endeavour from the beginning of the creative process to formation of the operational plan and on through to end distribution. Application terms are available here.

For people and businesses
The call is open to “natural persons” (freelance artists and entrepreneurs) and public or private legal entities (companies, foundations, associations, festivals, etc...) domiciled in the Balearics or non-resident natives of the region meet the terms. These also dictate the documents requested on submission.

The winning project will be picked by an evaluation committee made up of the artistic directors of the seven member institutions of the network. To evaluate proposals, the commission will look at projects' cultural appeal, strategic interest, budget and economic viability, the trajectory of the artistic team applying and exhibition possibilities. The deadline for project presentations is March 2.

Questions? Contact the CiF's àrea de Cultura: 971 32 12 75 ext. 13 or 678 007 261.

The Formentera Council's culture department reports that at 5.30 pm, Friday February 15, Biblioteca Marià Villangómez will host a family-friendly storytelling session with families and the librarian Joana L. Guirado from Biblioteca Vicent Serra Orvay on Eivissa. Formentera families are encouraged to come out for the event too, which will also feature artist Xènia Fuertes.

Similar to what's already been done on Eivissa, the goal is to form a local group of parents of young children from zero to four and meet at 6.00pm on the first Friday of the month “to get-together and show the magic of storytelling to young ones”, said chief librarian Lilián Heinrichs. Xènia Fuertes will also be on hand for the thirty-minute sessions.

“Friday February 15 parents from Eivissa will come to our library to show us what their storytime is like”, the librarian added. The initiative is about creating a gathering place for families where tots can cosy up to books and oral storytelling. The goal is to use the magic of stories to awaken an appetite for reading in children's youngest months.

Interested parents can sign up by sending an email to biblioteca@conselldeformentera.cat.

The Formentera Council reports that tomorrow marks the start of open days at the lighthouse in la Mola. Saturdays and Sundays in February from 10.00am to 3.00pm the building's doors will be opened to the public so that, in the words of CiF culture councillor Susana Labrador, “all of Formentera, and any curious visitors, can come check out the remodelled la Mola lighthouse”.

Admission is free and informational brochures have been prepared so visitors can learn about the structure's history and recent rehabilitation as well as forthcoming plans to convert the space into a cultural centre. The councillor said “no one will be disappointed” with a site that “people have seen countless times from the outside, but whose inside is new to most”.

New cultural space
Work on the far (“lighthouse”), a valuable heritage site, entailed revamping the ground floor and façade, all the while striving to assure their proper preservation, so the monument can be used a cultural venue.

This March the space will be fitted with a museum that is expected to open before the start of summer. The ground floor will house an interpretative centre encompassing the island's other lighthouses as well as a focus on the island's relationship with the sea, fishing and migratory movements, not to mention audio, video and images that explore the island's maritime history.

A multi-purpose space will host cultural programming like exhibits, concerts, conferences, recitals and small-scale theatre productions. The outdoor front patio has been readied for open-air cultural and educational events too.