Canto telúrico a los cimientos del teatro

A happy proposal from Manolo Llanes who had been entrusted with the management of what was to be the future Central Theatre of the Isla de la Cartuja at the Universal Exhibition in Seville. – Albert, the theatre is being built and we’ve already started with the foundations. Could you do a performance at this stage of the construction?

Somehow, Manolo Llanes had connected with the stage of INDUSTRIAL SHAMANISM in which I found myself and this time it really fit in and it was also a stimulus.

Nevertheless, I answered him: – All right, I’ll come to Seville, take a walk around the place and tell you if I can think of anything, but I can’t promise anything. I don’t know right now. If you don’t mind, just send me a plane ticket.

What was to be the Seville Expo was 18 months away from its inauguration. While visiting the foundations of the Central Theater, I was surprised at the number of diggers that were feverishly operating on the site. From there I imagined a ballet of diggers circling the space dancing to the rhythm of a pasodoble.

As a telluric officiant, I would become impregnated and let myself be possessed by the spirit of a bull to be sacrificed and thus appease the spirits of the place with its blood.

In the final image of this ritual and creating a metaphor of the dragging of the mules, a helicopter would hoist the lying body of the officiant which at about 200m and accompanied by the Municipal Orchestra of Seville, would be reborn in a winged spirit that, dancing to the rhythms of the Waltz of Joy, disappeared into the skies.

In an intense month of work we carried out the rehearsals with more than ninety participants and with the valuable assistance of María Escobedo as assistant director.

BLESSING CEREMONY

Procession of machines
The officiant, followed by the serene and orderly digging machines in formation, heads for the telluric pit where the foundations have been laid.

Ritual greeting
At the end of the procession, the officiant and the machines will take their places in front of the telluric pit and then begin the ritual greeting in unison. Raised and upright officiating blades will respectfully prostrate your omnipresence. With the officiant placed in the center of the foundations, the machines will stop their engines.

Machine Ballet
A brief and intense ballet of the machines with their shovels will make those present aware of the delights and visions of the spirit of the man who celebrates the meaning of his work.

Telluric singing
From the silence created by evolution, the internal resonances of the human body will invoke the divine forces of the earth that have welcomed the implantation of the foundations, requesting their benign powers.

Dance of the laying on of hands
By laying his hands five times on the foundations, the officiant will thus bless this work of human ingenuity and chimera.

March of the municipal band
From this remote and flowery place Albert Vidal will thus leave his fellow men in an ascending spiral, rising into the air to the rhythm of waltz.

Carnation-petal rain
Carnation petals will descend on all those who, with their presence, have contributed to the placement and realization of this future temple of love and communication between human beings.

PRESS

El periódico. “Albert Vidal, 20 años en busca de un lenguaje insólito”.Gonzalo Pérez de Olaguer.25/11/1990
La vanguardia. Vidal en las entrañas de un nuevo teatro. Santiago Fondevila. 22/11/1990. No.39137
El diario 16. Sevilla 92. Un canto telúrico de Albert Vidal a los cimientos sirvió de apertura del Teatro Expo. Javier Rubio. 21/11/1990. No.4869
El correo. Albert Vidal inauguró en la Expo un nuevo “templo de la comunicación”. Carmen Carballo. 21/11/1990