La Fura dels Baus 

is a Catalan theatrical group founded in 1979 in Barcelona known for their urban theatre, use of unusual settings and blurring of the boundaries separating audience and actor.

La Fura dels Baus is a company in a permanent process of transformation that, since it was founded in 1979, has approached new challenges in the field of the performing arts. Its occasional shows and events have had an enormous impact on both international critics and audiences. It would be no exaggeration to say that since Actions (1983) La Fura dels Baus can be considered as a cult group for its thousands of followers all over the world. La Fura has developed its own language, style and aesthetics over the years based on collective creation.

 

Over 2.500 performances in 4 continents have been already followed by an audience of over 3 million people. La Fura dels Baus is considered as a cult group for thousands of followers.

 

Since the 1990s the company has worked in the fields of written drama, digital theatre, opera, major events (macroshows) and films. It still continues relentlessly evolving, experimenting and searching for new ground.

 

Last 2004 La Fura dels Baus was celebrating its 25th anniversary.

 

From 1979 to 1983, La Fura dels Baus performed street theatre, these efforts evolved towards a concept of theatre that combines a wide range of stage resources based on the classical idea of an all-round show. The main contribution of La Fura was to approach its shows by encouraging the audience take an active part in areas traditionally reserved for the public and adapting its stage work to the very architectural elements found in the spaces in which each performance takes place. This blend of techniques and disciplines crystallized into the term “Furan language”, a term that has also been used to define the work of other theatre companies. Accions (1984) was the first show to use Furan language followed by Suz/O/Suz (1985), Tier Mon (1988), Noun (1990), MTM (1994), Manes (1996), ØBS (2000), Matria 1-Tetralogía Anfíbia-La Creación (2004) and OBIT (2004).

 

Since the early 1990s, La Fura dels Baus has diversified its creative efforts, moving into the fields of written drama, digital theatre and street theatre, performing contemporary theatre projects, opera or producing major corporate events. La Fura produced the opening ceremony for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, which was broadcast and watched live by more than 500 million viewers. After this first macroshow, companies such as Pepsi, Mercedes Benz, Peugeot, Volkswagen, Swatch, Airtel, Microsoft, Abolsut Vodka, Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros, the Port of Barcelona, Telecom Italia or Sun Micros-systems have since commissioned the group to produce promotional macroshows for them around the world.

 

The particular concept of shows designed by La Fura dels Baus is shown in its large scale performances such as L'home del mil.leni, to celebrate the new millennium 2000, which drew an audience of more than 20.000 in Barcelona and the Divine Comedy performed in Florence in front more than 35.000 spectators, La Navaja en el Ojo that opened the Biennial of Valencia, which attracted an audience of more than 20,000 or Naumaquia 1 - Tetralogía Anfíbia - El Juego Eterno, which drew an audience of more than 15.000 spectators at Forum de las Culturas of Barcelona.

 

La Fura dels Baus has created its own record label, with a catalogue of 14 recordings; it has also published its work on other labels, including Dro, Virgin and Subterfuge. A number of courses and workshops have trained actors in Furan language. The company has included new technologies in its work, in Work in Progress 97 for example, an on-line show that put on simultaneous performances in different cities in a digital theatre environment.

 

The incursions of La Fura dels Baus into the world of opera include Atlántida, by Manuel de Falla, The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, by Claude Debussy, The Damnation of Faust, by Hector Berlioz and D.Q. Don Quixot in Barcelona, by José Luis Turina. The premier of On the Marble Cliffs in Mannheim in March 2002, based on the work of the same name by Ernst Jünger, saw the first use of videoconferencing as a stage element in an opera. The same year the staging of Hector Berlioz's Fantastic Symphony by La Fura dels Baus was shown for the first time in Palermo, which was a reinterpretation of a classic work of symphonic music. In 2003 they stage in Bochum, at the Ruhr Triennale, W. A Mozart's The Magic Flute, revived in 2005 at the Opera de la Bastille in Paris and at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

 

La Fura dels Baus has also worked in the unconventional and always risky areas of written drama or Italian style theatre, such as F@ust 3.0, a show that examines the classical work of Goethe, Ombra, a reinterpretation of various texts by Federico García Lorca or XXX, a version of De Sade's Philosophy in the Boudoir that closed last October 2004 its international tour, after almost 3 years.

 

The company has also worked in the field of classical theatre. The premier of a version of Euripides' The Trojan Women co-directed by Irene Pappas and La Fura dels Baus, with music by Vangelis and set design by Santiago Calatrava, took place in Sagunt (Valencia) in September 2001.

 

Faust 5.0, La Fura's first venture into the world of film direction opened in 2001. This feature film, co-directed with Isidro Ortiz, has been awarded numerous prizes, and among these the Golden Méliès 2003 for the best European film in the fantastic genere.

 

Source: Wikipedia

 

 

La Fura is characterised by its explorations into the idea of a complete, total theatre experience. In opera the company has found a perfect territory to continue developing its creativity.

Although traditionally the musical aspect of an opera has taken precedence over the theatrical aspects, in recent decades, and because of innovations such as La Fura’s, the genre is experiencing a considerable renewal. La Fura opted for the use of audiovisual elements, produced generative stage settings and reexamined the role of the singers, actors and chorus.

 

Source: La Fura dels Baus website

 

 

La Fura dels Baus, *****

Reading

The Art of Projectionism (2007) by Frederick Baker (in German) sets out the principles behind his use of projectors in the film making process. He defines a projectionist school of filmmaking and media art. In this publication he also presented Ambient film, a surround experience that can be shown in specially developed cinemas. (Wikipedia)

 

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