The 6th edition of SÂLMON< Festival ‘Movement and more’ took place between 8th and 25th February 2018. This edition closed the second phase in the history of the festival: the first one had been devoted to the European emergent scene and to the European project Modul-Dance; the second was tied to the local performing arts’ scene while keeping an eye on Latin America, and lead to the consolidation of the festival, which took place in different spaces of the city and reached an average per show attendance of 83,53 percent.
SÂLMON< faces the future. These six years form a compendium of unique and profoundly unrepeatable experiences which go beyond the festival model that is nowadays reproduced all around the world and that commercialises the artists’ labour. SÂLMON< was designed thinking both in points of arrival and trajectories, in both the works and the paths that lead to them. Departing from here, SÂLMON< opens a period of transformation in which new agents will come on stage and in which we will define new contexts which we still do not know about.
In the sixth edition we continued endorsing the local performing arts scene with 4 joint productions and we opt for the most community-based programme we have had, with an opening show with 100 people on stage and in collaboration with Barcelona’s town council ‘Art i part’ programme. Besides, SÂLMON<18 aims to impact the city on many different levels, which is why it includes actions in high schools, collaborates with Radio Nikosia, and presents a whole day of free acts at ‘Fabra i Coats – Fàbrica de Creació’.
On the other hand, we do not forget to give visibility to the artist in all of his/her creative scope, which is why we include artistic processes, practices and actions that go beyond simple stage proposals. As a result of the desire of being an open, sympathetic and collaborative festival, we counted on choreographer Javier Vaquero, Chile’s NAVE space, and the collective Compartir dóna gustet, as partners who shared curatorial tasks and opened and enhanced the Festival’s programme. Programmers and training actions also have their place in SÂLMON<18, thanks to the European Dancehouse Network’s International Atelier for professionals, as well as other proposals that generate discussion and complicity between creators and the network of programmers who are close to the Festival’s philosophy and sort of programme.
We consolidate our ties to the local scene, tightly connected to the everyday life of El Graner’s inhabitants, we maintain our complicity with Latin America and we broaden our dialogue with the city, its spaces, and the artistic and professional contexts that exist in it.