Creative exchange residencies

On 2024 we will link the exchange experience at the National Theater & Concert Hall of the city of Taipei, in Taiwan, a reference center of the performing arts in Asia and also around the world, with the projects of the Catalan formation Monte Isla and the Taiwanese artist Chien-Han Hung.

After the show, we are going to talk online with Chen-Shin Wang, the Project Manager of the International Development Section at the NTCH.

From the Lliure we share with the NTCH the objective of promoting long-term cultural exchange, promoting international co-productions and hosting residency artistic programs that promote local artists on the world stage.

Monte Isla - Un cuerpo sin talento
This stage project deals with the relationship between work and life. His scenic starting point is the figure of the street artist, a character that is an allegorical representation of the context of the artist in society: one that offers an aesthetic experience in exchange for money. Monte Isla wonders what comes into play in this metaphysical exchange that is implicit in the contract of sale between the artist and the society. Does society need the artist? What is art for? And theater? And a little further, A body without talent deals with the notion of work and that Homo Laborans called by Hannah Arendt, who works to live and lives to satisfy his desires through consumption. Who is this body that works? This body that has been pestered for sale, that has abandoned the group, that has separated itself from the place... A single body, vulnerable first and foremost, which has found in technology its attribute of defence, but also its identity.

Chien-Han Hung - Qualified Mother (provisional title)
The starting point of his project is personal experiences as a same-sex couple in Taiwan, where same-sex marriage has been legal since 2019, but does not grant equal rights for artificial insemination. Chien-Han will deepen the concept of creating life and question its origins, the instinctive desire for a biological legacy and the perceptions and social values associated with these actions. During the residency will do fieldwork in Barcelona, where same-sex marriage is legal since 2005, to compare the situation with that of Taiwan. Its objective is to interview same-sex families, sociologists and legal and professional experts to obtain information about their perspectives, experiences and observations on the creation of dynamics of life and family. It also wants to investigate laws and regulations, social and cultural environments and the evolution of public opinion in this regard.

The Monte Isla residence is mentored by Swiss stage director Marion Duval. This support is part of the Institut Ramon Llull’s international mentoring program.

The Carlota Soldevila grants are possible thanks to the partnership with the Fundació Banc Sabadell.