LA FURA DELS BAUS

M.U.R.SLA FURA DELS BAUS

A La Fura dels Baus original production, with the co-production of: the Grec Festival of Barcelona, Festival Via Maubeuge and Barcelona Lab.

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Section Content Page

0 Introduction 4

1 Artistic Project 5

1.1 Ideological defence 6

1.2 SmartShow 7

1.3 Space 8

1.4 Areas in the show 9

1.5 Objectives of the project 13

1.6 Scenes in the show 14

1.7 Technology 21

2 La Fura dels Baus 22

3September 2014

After twenty years of experience in the performing arts, the directors of La Fura have come together again to create this show, a group experience based on situations of risk, panic and associational revolution that take place in cities besieged by an enemy.

In order to experience this new model of digital democracy, the company is proposing the theatrical experience of a true SmartShow. M.U.R.S. is a public experiment, an installation/performance art piece, where the public will freely interact, governed by criteria of intelligence and efficiency. M.U.R.S. is a collective challenge that will transport the audience to a

prototypical world where the idea of smart cities is taken to the limit.

It will include all the dimensions of this revolution, without exception: economics, mobility, ecology, citizenship, governability and digital life. What we have here is undoubtedly the first SmartShow in history, with the unmistakable stamp of La Fura.

Through an app designed especially for the show, the public will be able to interact in some parts of the performance.

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S e c t i o n1 A R T I S T I CP R O J E C T

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1 . 1 I D E O L O G I C A L D E F E N C E

In the collective imagination of modern societies, “MURS” (walls) are unmistakable signs of victories and defeats from olden t i m e s , p a s t r e p r e s s i o n s , a n c i e n t enslavements and great heroes fighting ferocious enemies.

Western societies have erased the “fear” of repression from their collective memories. We have recycled the historical evidence of barbarity and t ransformed i t into monuments that have become false containers of our “historical memory”, identifying mechanisms of social control with obsolete aesthetics or simple vestiges of the past.

Contemporary walls are not physical. They are not identified with nations, states or people. Technology has separated us from culture, dehumanised us and alienated us from pain. We are all, at the same time, potential repressors or repressed. This is true from the minute we buy and flaunt a pair of designer trainers made using exploitative child labour in parts of the world we would struggle to locate on a map. It is true from the minute a solider can kill people using weapons that feature in a harmless video game.

We are grouped together, we identify with

each other and we are told which material goods are essential for a minimum dignified standard of living. The ongoing desire for useless material goods defines us, makes us all the same. Potentially it also identifies otherness, the different, and, in the last instance, the enemy.

Today’s walls are invisible, the weapons of social control come to us through entertainment, through targeted popular culture, through the unconscious ideological perpetration involved in a society based on irrational consumption and competition, on ambition, competitiveness and individualism.

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1 . 2 S M A R T S H O W

In order to experience the new model of digital democracy, La Fura dels Baus has proposed the theatrical performance of a true SmartCity. M.U.R.S. has the challenge of showing the audience of this installation/performance art piece the cities of the future. That is why attendees must bring a smartphone to interact with the space through a mobile application especially designed for the occasion.

It is, without doubt, a new concept of a revolutionary and innovative show, the first SmartShow in history.

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1. 3 S P A C E ENTRANCE

ECOLOGICAL AREA

The public will be standing up for the duration of the show. The different actions of the show will take place in the midst of and around the audience, making them essential stakeholders in the performance. The show can be adapted to indoor or outdoor areas.

DISTRIBUTION OF SPACESThe performance space is divided into four areas and a central control tower. At the start of the show, the areas will be connected so the public can roam freely around the entire space and initially enjoy a feeling of freedom. This will subsequently turn into a

sensation of claustrophobia and submissiveness when each space is separated through the physical besieging of the areas.

Different theatrical actions will help to distribute the public throughout the show’s areas.

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SECURITY AREA

WELLNESS AREA EL DORADO AREA

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1 . 4 A R E A S I N T H E

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SECURITY AREAWelcoming the public. Bar service, cloakroom, meeting point, information on the different areas, area to charge mobile phones, photocall, etc.

1 . 4 A R E A S I N T H E

Activities related to health, wellbeing and personal growth.

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WELLNESS AREA

1 . 4 A R E A S I N T H ESeptember 2014

EL DORADO AREA

1 . 4 A R E A S I N T H E

Activities related to games, risk and competitiveness.

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1 . 4 A R E A S I N T H ESeptember 2014

1 . 4 A R E A S I N T H E

ECOLOGICAL AREA Activities related to protecting the environment.

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1 . 4 A R E A S I N T H ESeptember 2014

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1 . 5 O B J E C T I V E S O F T H E P R O J E C T

Are you sure that everything we are sold nowadays as modernity, progress, evolution, technology, Smart cities, economic efficiency, environmental efficiency, democracy and security… will lead us to a world free of totalitarianism?

M.U.R.S. presents an idyllic world where we can see all of these concepts come into play. A world where the audience experiences these concepts first-hand. A world in which new technologies bring about wellbeing, security, ecology, sustainability and efficiency. A world where happiness reigns: the world we all long for.

However, M.U.R.S. offers a turning point that creates a radical change in the audience’s point of view. A

moment where the parameters of the show up to that point change and new ones are generated, parameters that are vastly different and which we are highly unlikely to be used to seeing so clearly. The public will take part with their smartphones, a key feature of today’s society.

After a brutal attacks, the vision of the world is transformed. What until then was seen as freedom now turns into siege, and what until this point was democracy becomes totalitarianism.

As we can see from the course of human history, in times of crisis a leader is equally desired and needed. Someone to follow, idolise and obey.M.U.R.S. is no exception and alsofeatures individuals who embody

the power of decision, governability and militarisation. People capable of making us see what they want to see, of convincing us that they hold an absolute truth and of provoking feelings of rejection towards everything which in their opinion is not appropriate.

M.U.R.S. is a public experiment. We want to see how the public will react. We also want to invite a reflection on technology in this virtual world that seems to contribute greatly to our lives, but by making everything so easy can result in our being led astray to the point of losing our ability for critical thought.

We provide an open ending. There is no solution. We propose a more proactive, less passive attitude. A path without M.U.R.S.?

1 . 6 S C E N E S O F T H E S H O W

Each of these scenes has numerous theatrical actions that happen simultaneously and coordinated in all areas. The actors will help to guide its development.

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1 .  INTRODUCTION TO THE APP

2 .  INTERACTION WITH SPACES

3 .  ATTACKS

4 .  SIEGE

5 .  REVOLUTION

6 .  EPILOGUE

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1.  INTRODUCTION TO THE APPWhile the public enters to the venue receives funcional information about the APP connection and WIFI.

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2.INTERACTION WITH SPACESViewers interact with all areas of space, where they will find different activities guided by the staff. A video will help them to be in the theme of the area.

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3.ATTACKSOnce the public has been in each zone and discovered the whole space, suddenly burst a string of apparent accidents.

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4. SIEGE

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From chaos appears the figure of the leader in each area, who takes control of the situation. For the safety of the population, the zones are closed and the space is divided.Fear of more attacks and the presence of traitors among people within each zone, causes internal "persecution” secreting the public.A contralíder opposes the ideas of the leader and viewers vote for one of them in popular elections.

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5.REVOLUTION

The totalitarian excesses with wich the public is being treated in each zone, induces an awareness by the population. "They are nothing without you, you yourself without them".After a blackout the barriers open again, leading to a need of collectivization and reunion with the rest of segregated public..

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6. EPÍLOGUEAll public goes at the same space to watch a revolutionary final act where the SECURITY VAN is destroyed.

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1 . 7 T E C H N O L O G Y : A P P

In order to take advantage of the possibilities afforded by new technologies, M.U.R.S. will have a mobile app designed specifically for the show. The public must download the app to their mobiles before entering the performance space.

The purpose of the app is to complement certain theatrical actions that interact with the audience, giving them confusing information and performance parameters that do not match the reality, and offering them an augmented virtual reality.

The app contains all the instructions, sounds and videos the audience needs to engage with the show, receiving and activating real-time information on their mobile phones from a server and through an intranet created using multiple Wi-fi points around the building.

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S e c t i o n 2

L A F U R A D E L SB A U S

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W H O W E A R E

La Fura dels Baus is eccentricity, innovation, adaptation, rhythm, evolution and transgression. Such characteristic and unique essence led the company to pioneer the reconceptualization of two of the most significant aspects of the dramatic art: the theatrical space and the public. Thus, respectively, they redefined the space by moving it to non-conventional ones - and changed the public role from passive to active, which meant a breaking of the “fourth wall”.

The incessant curiosity and the need to explore new artistic trends have developed, through a process of collective creation, a unique language, style and aesthetic. Nowadays, this is called “Furan language”, which has been implemented in different artistic genres, such as opera, cinema and large-scale performances.

The ability to bind and adapt carnality and mysticism, nature and artifice, rudeness and sophistication, primitivism and technology, in every performance, has given La Fura dels Baus its international success and prestige.

W H E R E D O W E C O M E F R O M

La Fura dels Baus was born in Moià in 1979 while doing street theatre performances. Since its beginnings the company has looked for a singular identity, which differentiated them from the others, experimenting and evolving constantly. Because of its first trilogy (Accions, 1984; Suz/o/Suz/ 1985; and Tier Mon 1988) the company reached a very significant essence and esthetics, as well as a particular language. From thereafter La Fura was

involved in a period of artistic diversification, which allowed them to seduce the whole world in a variety of artistic disciplines. A clear example of this is the order to organise the opening ceremony of Barcelona Olympic Games ’92 with its show “Mediterráneo, mar olímpico”. Because of the greatest staging of this macro- show they were asked to perform some other disciplines that proved to be exceedingly successful, such as

opera (La Atlántida, 1996) or publicity ( Peps íc lop e , 1 997 ) . S i nc e t hat moment La Fura has been constantly presenting new and stimulating work, breaking all sort of limits with their performances. Sailed by Naumon in China’s see, performed permanently “Window of the City” in Expo Shanghai China (2010) and inaugurated Duisburg (2010) and Guimaraes (2012) as Culture Capitals, receiving not only good positive criticism from the public but also from the press.

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W H A T D O W E O F F E R

Operas Macro showsActions for

brands Traditional scripted theatre

Wokshops

Audiovisual Commercial Audiovisual

FilmsAudiovisual

VideoMappingConferences Social

integration

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C O N T A C T

ARTISTIC IDEA

Pep Gatell Jürgen Müller Carlus Padrissa Pera Tantiñá

LA FURA DELS BAUS

C/ Pujades, 77-79, 2º-6º 08005 Barcelona España/ SpainTel: 0034 93 6634111Fax: 0034 93 6634111Email: lafura@lafura.com www.lafura.com www.facebook.com/furadelsbaus

CONTACT

Rosa Arnaiz: rarnaiz@lafura.com Marc Salas: marc@lafura.com

ARTISTIC DIRECTORS

Miki Espuma Pep Gatell Jürgen Müller Àlex Ollé Carlus Padrissa Pera Tantiñá

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