On Saturday, November 4, the Banyoles Ateneu Auditorium will host a day focused on mental health. It will begin at 6 PM with the screening of the documentary “Bailar la locura”, co-directed by Marta Espar and Maiol Virgili, and the dance performance “ J-AhO! II ” Who’s crazy, you or me? with Clàudia Gómez, Amaiur Luluaga, and Monte Àlvarez, which will take place outside the Auditorium, in Plaça Major, starting at 7:45 PM. Tickets for the documentary are priced at 6 euros and are already on sale on the Cultura Banyoles website: https://culturabanyoles.koobin.com/ The dance performance will be free.
“Bailar la locura” tells the story of three contemporary dancers who are creating a dance piece called “J-AhO! II Who is crazy, you or I? about the limits of madness and they contact three young women with psychiatric diagnoses to participate in their creative process. The six women spend a few magical days together in a rural house near the Dantzagunea artistic creation center where the dancers rehearse, in Renteria (Basque Country). They talk about medication, delusions, and suicide, but also about loneliness and friendship. Without prejudice, on a human journey that explores emotions, doubts, and experiences to bring them from emotion to body, to movement.
The audiovisual was produced with the support of various entities and institutions, including Granés Fundació. Specifically, the Banyoles entity organized the presentation of the documentary and the dance piece in Girona last January, with an attendance of over 400 people.
After the dance performance, there will be a discussion forum featuring Marta Espar and Maiol Virgili, co-directors of the documentary, and dancers Clàudia Gómez, Amaiur Luluaga, and Montse Àlvarez, who are featured in the documentary, as well as Laura Masferrer, managing director of Granés Fundació.
About the Foundation
The Foundation was established in 2017 from the testamentary will of Mr. Candi Granés Campasol, with the idea of returning to society and his local community a part of what he had received during his life. The Banyoles entrepreneur was the founder of Inoxpa, and through his perseverance, he ensured the company had a global presence. His global vision always coexisted with the affection he felt for the region. And now, years after his death, this social return remains intact through Granés Fundació.
Documentary “Bailar la Locura”
The documentary screening will take place at the Banyoles Auditorium at 6 PM. “Bailar la locura” combines more reflective sequences with others imbued with a more poetic intention, aiming to reach the viewer through feelings and empathy. To show how the dancers transform and enrich their choreography thanks to this new knowledge, a serene, organic, and intimate aesthetic has been employed. The cinematography is warm and natural, with cinematic textures that seek intimacy. The camera observes closely, seeking truth in expressions and beauty in the framing, but above all, the naturalness of the conversations between the girls and the intimacy they need to discuss such a delicate topic.
The documentary aims to be an illuminating work, moving away from common prejudices in the treatment of mental health issues. The process of creating the dance piece is the common thread that allows us to discover the recovery process of the three girls diagnosed with a mental disorder, as well as a deeper portrait of these six women, with their concerns, fears, and dreams. Always in the first person. And with the intention that the viewer can decide for themselves where to draw the line between normality and madness.
The documentary won the Audience Award last October at the Chorescope dance and film festival, and participated in DOC.España, a competitive section of the Valladolid International Film Week. “Bailar la locura” has also been screened at the Docs Barcelona festival within the Docs&Teens section, at the CCCB’s Brain Film Fest, and at the Málaga Festival.
Dance Performance “J-AhO! II”, Who’s crazy, you or me?
The dance performance will take place at 7:45 PM, after the documentary screening. In this case, it will be free and will be held in Banyoles’ Plaça Major.
“J-AhO! II”, Who is crazy, you or I? emerges from a reflection on the boundary between sanity and madness. Madness is often associated with what deviates from the norm, but what is normality? Based on this question, the concept of normality is questioned, and the creators investigate the possibility that it is a construct established by society with the aim of creating order within the community. This leads them to the hypothesis of whether madness could be a tool for social control to label what is different and, therefore, to feel that the situation is correct and/or normal.
The name of the piece, J-AhO!, refers to the expression “jota ha(g)o!” (meaning “you’re crazy!” or literally “you’re like a watering can!”), used in the Basque Country to tell someone, playfully or disparagingly, that their attitude or way of being is not very common, and therefore “not normal”. On the other hand, “aho” means mouth, so the name of the piece also makes sense in this context: in gossip, stigma, in the words used to talk about others. Furthermore, the typography of J-AhO! references the DSM-V, the psychiatric diagnostic manual par excellence.
