Bufons poster: Pedro Valiente
THEATER-DANCE
BUFONS | SPAIN
CONCERT FOR STONES AND TRAFFIC SIGNS
BY BUFONS I BASED ON IRREGULAR THEATER AND VISUAL POETRY BY JOAN BROSSA
KUENCA, WHITE DANCE
BY BUFONS I BUTOH DANCE INSPIRED BY KAZUO OHNO
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"Compared to paintings, Jaen’s theater production is like a Picasso work of art." --Nancy T. Lu, China Post
"It is impossible to watch it and walk away unaffected. And isn’t that what artistic expression is about? [...] Delightful avant-garde Bufons theater company well known in Europe performing in France, Belgium, Holland, and their native Spain." --Gisela Moriarty, Bang Taipei’s Arts and Leisure Magazine
"Bufons, exponent of experimental theater blending neutral mask by Jacques Lecoq, Chinese Opera, and Japanese Butoh, represents Spain at Tokyo Mime & Pantomime Festival, world’s best in its field that never presented a Spanish company before. [...] Bufons was born more than from the autochthonous theatrical tradition, from the prolific Catalan avant-garde theater." --Clara Acebes, El País
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Bufons is a Spanish theater-dance company active in the late 80s and 90s. It was a pioneer of Butoh dance, avant-garde contemporary dance created after the World War III in Japan by Kazuo Ohno.
Bufons also worked extensively on the so-called irregular theater and visual poetry by Joan Brossa, unique poet and interdisciplinary artist who is considered one of the main figures of the avant-garde in the 20th century in Spain.
Pedro Valiente collaborated as production manager in Bufons show at Teatro Alfil in Madrid; and Bufons tour in Latin America with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain.
CAST & CREW
DIRECTOR: ALBERT JAÉN
PERFORMERS: ALBERT JAÉN, INMA LOPETEGUI, PILAR LÓPEZ, ANTONIO CABELLO
PRODUCTION MANAGER: PEDRO VALIENTE Teatro Alfil, Madrid & Latin America Tour
LINKS
El País: elpais.com/diario/1987/10/28/cultura/562374016_850215.html
Teatro: teatro.es/catalogo-integrado/bufons-857852-10?set_language=gl
© 1989-1990 Bufons I Pedro Valiente
Concert For Stones and Traffic Signs based on Joan Brossa I Photo: Bufons
BUFONS I IRREGULAR THEATER + VISUAL POETRY
> Two worlds meet: Butoh by Kazuo Ohno, and irregular theater/visual poetry by Joan Brossa
"In two separate spheres of the artistic universe in mind and soul, Kazuo Ohno from Tokio and Joan Brossa from Barcelona are unique masters of the avant-garde. They both shaped the groundbreaking work on theater-dance by Bufons in Spain and internationally. Physical theater found a natural channel to craft its own voice through Butoh dance in the frame of visual poetry.
Bufons founding members are Albert Jaén, Inma Lopetegui, and Pilar López. Later on, Antonio Cabello joined the company. They all were stunning performers and truly creative artists. Originally from different regions of Spain, they developed extensive joint search and learning in Barcelona where they found inspiration in Joan Brossa's ecclectic and holistic work. Work that includes theater --of course, heterogeneous and undefinable-- that needed a new and invented name: irregular theater.
And from Europe to Asia. Bufons connected with the contemporary spirit that flourished mainly in California and New York in the 60s spreading all over the world in the following decades. Post-hippie ethos that embraced Oriental cultures and philosophies. The company's central figure, Albert Jaén, was director, author, producer, and leading performer. Albert studied dance in China and Japan with focus on Butoh. Not many young artists went that far from the Western world to dive into the arts in their native environment. And he was certainly a unique creator and powerful performer. Albert Jaén in Kuenca, White Dance is Kazuo Ohno in Admiring La Argentina." --PEDRO VALIENTE
Kuenca, White Dance performed/directed by Albert Jaén. Performer/painter: Pedro Valiente I Photo: Bufons
BUFONS I ALIENS FROM ANOTHER PLANET
> Butoh dance and visual poetry in Latin America in the 90s was not commonplace
"When I was in last year of college in Madrid, I started to work as a staff writer for El Público (The Public) performing arts magazine of the Ministry of Culture of Spain. My first assignment was to write about Bufons performance in Alfil Theater. After the show, I met the director Albert Jaén and company. He made a proposal that made a huge impact on my life: "If you work well with us in our next show in Madrid, you'll be invited to join the company in our next Latin American tour." And that is what happened.
I did work as production manager in the following show. I requested permission to my professors at Universidad Complutense de Madrid to do the exams in their office months ahead of official dates. I travelled with Bufons to Venezuela, Guatemala, and Panama through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain. And I am still travelling.
In the main plaza of Guatemala City, Bufons performers looked like aliens from another planet. [Photo below] Also, we visited Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, a mountain town northwest. The Spanish gave its name from the Nahuatl used by their soldiers from Tlaxcala, Mexico.
The company sent me alone to Venezuela through Panama where I found tanks in the strees preceeding the United States invasion: Operation Just Cause. When I arrived in Caracas, it was the Caracazo, wave of protests, riots, and looting against government's economic reforms. Finally, we premiered in a professinal theater, and in Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex, the second largest in Latin America. Aliens from another planet thought that they just met aliens from another planet." --PEDRO VALIENTE
Kuenca, White Dance based on Kazuo Ohno's work performed/directed by Albert Jaén I Photo: Pedro Valiente
BUFONS I KUENCA, WHITE DANCE
BUTOH DANCE INSPIRED BY KAZUO OHNO
KUENCA, WHITE DANCE - Kuenca, danza blanca (1989, Spain, 45min) by Bufons based on work by Joan Brossa. International tour. Director: Albert Jaén. Production coordinator: Pedro Valiente
SYNOPSIS
Performance by Albert Jaén based on Butoh by Kazuo Ohno. The performer lies on a table. The painter sets live snails on his body. The performer comes to life, and his body is carefully painted with white color. Then the performer evolves representing several moments and male/female characters to end in a fabulous wedding.
KUENCA
After Barcelona and Madrid, Bufons settled in Cuenca: the dramatic landscape and abstract art of this city in the land of Don Quixote, Castilla-La Mancha, named one of its landmarks: Kuenca, White Dance. "K" alters its original spelling adding a distinctive flavor to the title. [visitcuenca.es] "With an Inca and Cañarí background, and visible traces of its Spanish colonial past, the modern-day city of Cuenca was shaped during the republican period within privileged natural surroundings. Encircled by four rivers, Cuenca is nestled in the sierra of the Andes and listed as UNESCO World Heritage." [universes.art/en/cuenca-biennial]
PRESS
"Compared to paintings, Jaen’s theater production is like a Picasso work of art. He strays into abstraction. The picture presented is often strange and bizarre. […] First, the performer acquired the look of a macho man. Then, he metamorphosed into a bride with painted breasts. The painter served as makeup artist. […] Jaen studied for one year with two clowns from the Lu Kuang Pekin Opera School: Wu Chien-hung and Lin Sheng-fa. Certain eye movements of the Spanish mime today bring to mind the Chinese opera. […] Bufons comes from the Spanish word that refers to the royal court jester of yore." --Prepared to Amuse and Shock by Nancy T. Lu, China Post, July 20, 1988. Kuenca White Dance at Crown Art Center, Taipei, China
CAST & CREW
DIRECTOR: ALBERT JAÉN
PERFORMER: ALBERT JAÉN
SUPPORTING PERFORMER / PAINTER: PEDRO VALIENTE
CREATIVE TEAM: ALBERT JAÉN, INMA LOPETEGUI, PILAR LÓPEZ, ANTONIO CABELLO
PRODUCTION MANAGER: PEDRO VALIENTE Latin America Tour
© Photos: Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio
BUFONS I KAZUO OHNO
KAZUO OHNO DANCE STUDIO
"Kazuo Ohno was born in Hakodate City, Hokkaido, on October 27 in 1906. His father, the head of a fishermen's cooperative, spoke Russian and went to fish all over to Kamchatka. His mother was good at cooking European cuisine and playing Japanese zither with thirteen strings. She also plalyed organ and her children often sang to her organ.
When Kazuo was at junior high school, he was sent to one of his relatives, Shiraishi, in Akita prefecture to live with them. Shiraishi family didn't have any children. At Odate junior high school Kazuo belonged to a track-and-field events club and established a new record in the prefecture. In 1926 Kazuo entered the Japan Athletic College. A poor student as he was, a superintendent of a dormitory took him to the Imperial Theater to see a performance by the Spanish dancer Antonia Merce, known as La Argentina. La Argentina was also known as the Queen of the Castanets and she innovated 20th century Spanish dance. Spanish poet Federico García Lorca highly praised her. Kazuo was so impressed by her dance.
After graduating, Kazuo began working as a physical education teacher at Kanto Gakuin High School, a private Christian school in Yokohama. He began to dance upon moving to Soshin Girls school. He began training with two of Japan's modern dance pioneers, Baku Ishii and Takaya Eguchi, the later a choreographer who had studied Neue Tanz with Mary Wigman in Germany. In 1938 Kazuo was drafted and went with the army to the front in China and New Guinea for nine years.
Kazuo held the first recital in 1949 at Kanda Kyoritsu Hall in Tokyo when he was 43 years old. As soon as returning from New Guinea, where he was a prisoner of war for a year, Kazuo resumed dancing. The experience of the war made him dance Jellyfish dance in one of his recitals in 1950s. On returning from New Guinea, he saw jellyfish in the sea where those who died on board by hunger and diseases were buried.
In the 1950s, Kazuo Ohno met Tatsumi Hijikata, who inspired him to begin cultivating Butoh, originally called Ankoku Butoh, the "Dance of Utter Darkness". Butoh was evolving in the turmoil of Japan's postwar landscape. Hijikata, who rejected the Western dance forms so popular at the time, developed with a collective group the vocabulary of movements and ideas that later, in 1961, he named the Ankoku Butoh-ha movement. In 1959, Hijikata created one of the earliest Butoh works, Kinjiki (Forbidden Colors), based on the novel by Yukio Mishima. In 1977, Ohno premiered his solo Butoh work directed by Hijikata, La Argentina Sho (Admiring La Argentina), which was awarded the Dance Critic's Circle Award in 1980. Admiring La Argentina is Kazuo's masterpiece as well as Butoh's.
Kazuo Ohno was invited to the 14th International Festival in Nancy (1980), France, and toured to Strasbourg, London, Stuttgart, Paris, and Stockholm. He danced Admiring La Argentina in the festival and had a great impact on the audience by his unique work. With Hijikata directing, he created two more major works, My Mother and Dead Sea performed with Yoshito Ohno. Other works of Ohno's include Water Lilies, Ka Cho Fu Getsu (Flowers-Birds-Wind-Moon), and The Road in Heaven, The Road in Earth. As one of the most significant Butoh performers, Ohno has toured throughout Europe, America, Australia, and Asia. He has performed in Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, France, Spain, Denmark, Poland, Canada, and the United States. Many students have come to study under him from all over the world.
After his 90th birthday, he was still active as a Butoh dancer. The last overseas performance was Requiem for the 20th Century which was held in New York on December 1999. But in the same year he had eye trouble and his physical strength gradually started waning. Yet Kazuo Ohno has continued dancing as if he was nourished by his age. When he could not walk by himself, he danced with the supports by others. When he could not stand even with support, he danced as he seated himself. When his legs didn't move as he wanted, he danced with his hands. When he lost himself, he crawled on his knees and audience were so moved by watching his back. When he dances, he vitalizes himself. An ordinary old man becomes somebody who gives power to others. People love to encounter Kazuo because of that. He lives long, he moves people deeply. Kazuo Ohno is an artist who has enlarged human potential.
Awards: Culture Award - Kanagawa Prefecture (1993), Culture Award - Yokohama City (1998), Michelagelo Antonioni Award for the Arts (1999). Films: Kazuo Ohno starred in the films The Portrait of Mr. O (1969), Mandala of Mr. O (1971) and Mr. O's Book of the Dead (1973) by Chiaki Nagano; The Scene of the Soul (1991) by Katsumi Hirano; Kazuo Ohno (1995) by Daniel Schmid. Books: He has written three books on Butoh, The Palace Soars through the Sky, a collection of essays and photographs, Dessin with drawings and notes on his Butoh creations, and Words of Workshop, a collection of lectures. Also Food for the Soul, a book of his selected pictures from 1930's through 1999. Words of Workshop and Food for the Soul has been translated into English as Kazuo Ohno's World: From Without & Within published by Wesleyan University Press." --[kazuoohnodancestudio.com]
Concert For Stones and Traffic Signs based on Joan Brossa I Photo: Bufons
BUFONS I CONCERT FOR STONES AND TRAFFIC SIGNS
INSPIRED BY IRREGULAR THEATER AND VISUAL POETRY BY JOAN BROSSA
CONCERT FOR STONES AND TRAFFIC SIGNS - Concierto para piedras y señales de trafico (1989, Spain, 60min) by Bufons based on work by Joan Brossa. Teatro Alfil, Madrid. Director: Albert Jaén. Production coordinator: Pedro Valiente
SYNOPSIS
Performance based on irregular theater and visual poetry by avant-garde writer/artist Joan Brossa. Albert Jaén, Inma Lopetegui, Pilar López, and Antonio Cabello perform different roles and stories using physical expression: from a love encounter to a concert with silverware.
PRESS
"Joan Brossa starting point is an out-of-focus vision of reality as a measurement of time: logic that inspires Bufons.
Bufons work –in words by Pedro Valiente-- is neither intellectual nor elitist. The audience often doesn’t know how to react seeing a serious work that may build up to hilarity. Although, trying to find transcendent meaning, the initial laugh is lost. Spectators let themselves go in full freedom through the visual and sound effects." -- Visual Poetry and Body Freedom on Stage by Alina Tufani, Economía Hoy, June 28, 1989, Caracas, Venezuela
CAST & CREW
DIRECTOR: ALBERT JAÉN
PERFORMERS ALBERT JAÉN, INMA LOPETEGUI, PILAR LÓPEZ, ANTONIO CABELLO
PRODUCTION MANAGER: PEDRO VALIENTE Teatro Alfil, Madrid & Latin America Tour
© Artwork: Joan Brossa
BUFONS I JOAN BROSSA
MoMA I MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK
Joan Brossa (19 January 1919-30 December 1998) was a Catalan poet, playwright, graphic designer and visual artist. He wrote only in the Catalan language. He was one of the founders of both the group and the publication known as Dau-al-Set (1948) and one of the leading early proponents of visual poetry in Catalan literature. Although he was in the vanguard of the post-war poets. He also wrote hundreds of formally perfect sonnets, sapphic odes and sestinas as well as thousands of free and direct poems. His creative work embraced every aspect of the arts: cinema, theatre (more of 360 pieces), music, cabaret, the para-theatrical arts, magic and the circus. [Wikipedia, Creative Commons]
MACBA I MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART OF BARCELONA
I started doing poetry in the classical sense of the literary code and, in fact, I decided to write plays because I was seeking another dimension to plain literature; I thought that the theatre offered me this other dimension. Maybe it was the movement. In poetry, I started working with language a lot; later I noticed the bulk of the wig and knew that if I could remove this wig I’d be able to show the head of the poem. Many people never take this step. All this led me –especially in Em va fer Joan Brossa– to a very expressive poetry, anti-rhetorical, direct, without many adjectives, but with vibrancy –this vibrancy, if you don’t have it, you can’t learn it, you either have it or you don’t. It’s the duende [spirit]. And the duende, Lorca says, is not a thought, it is a power. And from here to visual poetry is another step. Everything has been a process. Moreover, as I’ve had to work in difficult times, I’ve always been interested in publishing, but it’s never been my main objective. I think everything has become coherent, not gratuitous. One thing develops from another until a building is formed. A communion, a contact between different things that fit together. [Joan Brossa: un poeta atípic by Marta Nadal, Serra d’or, no. 373, January 1991]
Concert for Sones and Traffic Signs and performance in Guatemala City I Photo: Pedro Valiente
BUFONS I INTERNATIONAL TOUR
Bufons took European experimental theater-dance --inspired mostly by Japanese butoh dance-- to a tour to several countries in Latin America including Guatemala, Venezuela, and Panama with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain.
BUFONS I PRESS - ASIA
Bufons performed in international tours including Spain, Europe, the United States, and Latin America. The company developed a special connection with Japan and China, countries where some members trained on Chinese dance and Butoh dance.
Spanish Mimists Incorporate Chinese Forms by The China News, December 19, 1987
Bufons Theater in Japan, Taiwan, and Hongkong
"Their year of study in Taiwan enabled Jaen to pick up some Pekin opera movements but mostly remained the subtle symbolism of his abstract forms. […] Further input comes from several playwrights, and French and Swiss artists who work with the group. The result is a mime team with exaggerated body movements and facial expressions, vivid images, and abstract content."
Avant-garde Spanish Performer Returns to Taiwan by The China News, December 19, 1987
Bufons Theater at Crown Arts Center, Taipei
"The very natural movements, the ingenious adoption of all things and reactions on the scene, the precise rendering was the result of 12h days incorporating practice in various schools of performing arts –Butoh of Japan, Pekin Opera of China, mime, circus, and others. It was cast in the unique Bufons language. […] The highly demanding group knows specifically what it wants from its members and its works."
Into The Night by Gisela Moriarty, Bang Taipei’s Arts and Leisure Magazine, December 25, 1987
Bufons Theater at Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei
"It is impossible to watch it and walk away unaffected. And isn’t that what artistic expression is about? […] The audience has an active role figuring out what’s in it –each spectator drawing his own conclussion about what he’s seeing. […] If you missed seeing the delightful avant-garde Bufons Theater Company on Christmas Day, you’ll have another chance. They are well known in Europe performing in France, Belgium, Holland, and their native Spain."
BUFONS I PRESS - SPAIN
Bufons was featured in national press including El País, the main newspaper, and El Público (The Public) peforming arts magazine by the Ministry of Culture of Spain.
Bufons Performs at Tokyo Mime & Pantomime Festival by Clara Acebes, El País, October 28, 1987, Madrid
"Bufons, exponent of experimental theater blending neutral mask by Jacques Lecoq, Chinese Opera, and Japanese Butoh, represents Spain at Tokyo Mime & Pantomime Festival, world’s best in its field that never presented a Spanish company before. […] Bufons was born more than from the autochthonous theatrical tradition, from the prolific Catalan avant-garde theater. […] Bufons uses the actor’s body who make gestures and move in a hyperrealistic context animated with disconnected sounds, inarticulate sentences, chants, laughs, an striking musical shows. […] So infrequent creations are the result of an intense work of research and an eclectic training that started when they left Albert Boadella and Albert Vidal workshops. […] They move to Paris and attended circus, dance, and altogether attended Jacques Lecoq school. […] Joan Brossa selected Bufons to represent his visual poems, and has collaborated with the company."
From Orient to Occident and Vice versa by J. M. M., El Público, November 1988, Madrid
"Bufons is study, research, experience, and something not well defined on stage, dance, and performance often with surrounding audiences."
Bufons Dances Between Music and Painting by Agustina Sangüesa, El Público, 1987, Madrid
"Bufons probably has been the first company that works on Chinese opera with no word and singing. […] Kuenca, White Dance reflects the training and research work with Japanese masters. […] Concert For Stones and Traffic Signs is inspired by Joan Brossa stories within irregular theater with actions in different places. […] Movement and sound, and certain comic element close to the circus, blend providing coherence to the show which keeps a slow timing with repetitive actions to the point of provocation. The seven concerts are conceived as a concert with its changes of rhythm. In these magical games music has been measured with total precision. […] Bufons favors the performer’s power."
BUFONS I PRESS - LATIN AMERICA
Bufons was awarded support in for of endowments and grants from the MInistry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain. Bufons performed in Latin America --Guatemala, Venezuela, and a brief stop in Panama-- where Pedro Valiente served as prodution coordinator. Among his tasks were writing articles and organizing press conferences.
Avant-garde Mime Arrives in Caracas by Muriel Pilkington, The Daily Journal, June 22, 1989, Caracas
"Bufons is sponsored by the Embassy of Spain, Institute of Ibero-American Cooperation (ICIV), and Latin American Center for Theatrical Creation and Investigation (CELCIT)."
Androgynous Pantomime by Andrés Sáenz, La Nación, February 24, 1989, San José de Costa Rica
"Kuenca, White Dance, with some humor and a lot of slowness, expresses the eternal transmutation of life and the essential identity of the contraries."
Spanish Bufons Theater in Guatemala by Prensa Libre, June 16, 1989, Guatemala
Miguel Angel Asturias Cultural Center and Convento de Capuchinas of La Antigua Guatemala
"Bufons embodies the last trends in Spanish theater. Its work could be described as pictorial action and search of possible connections between visual arts and theater through body expression, mime, and dance. Bufons brings to European theater concepts from Orient such as “movement for energy” through its drama techniques to enrich the shows artistically and visually."
B
© 1989-1990 Bufons I Pedro Valiente
