Tenerife is hosting the third Mercado de las Artes Performativas del Atlántico Sur [South Atlantic Performing Arts Market], MAPAS 2019 from 10 to 14 July. The event has become an international hotspot for the performing arts and music created in Africa, Latin America and southern Europe. Artists and heads of programming from all over the world are joining us again this year.

This festival of culture and live arts was presented today at a press conference by the President of the Cabildo, Carlos Alonso; the Island Director for Culture and Education, José Luis Rivero; the acting local Minister for Culture of the Government of the Canary Islands, Aurelio González; the first Deputy Mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Matilde Zambudio; the Director of Circulart, Octavio Arbeláez; and the Director of unahoramenos, Mario Vega.

Alonso highlighted “three things” about MAPAS. On the one hand, “the audiences, who from the very start welcomed the event and have grown with time; they have guaranteed the continuity of the market through their encouraging presence.”. Secondly, “it positions the island’s productions in the world arena, in an open, global, and diverse environment”. And finally, he praised the growth of the market which has led to management agencies joining it for the first time this year, “as an important feature to add power to MAPAS”, in addition to the increase of the “number of participants from other regions”.

José Luis Rivero underlined that MAPAS “is now established as a platform of the Canarian performing arts in the world as well as a platform of the world’s performing arts that takes place in the Canary Islands”. “The tricontinental confluence comes true in Tenerife”, he added. He also explained that the investment return last year was quite good as it was around 5 million euros, averaging more than 1,000 euros per visitor and 300 euros per Canarian resident.

Unahoramenos manager, Mario Vega, revealed the details of MAPAS programme to take place for five days in different venues in Santa Cruz. He pointed out that special relevance has been given to “sustainability and practices that generate the least environmental impact possible in the city”.

Octavio Arbeláez highlighted that “Tenerife is a privileged meeting point” to stage MAPAS, which is a project that “shows to the world that we create from diversity”. This third year is “very special”, he added, because it looks into network working, into the strategies of collaborative work.

Matilde Zambudio was happy to have Santa Cruz de Tenerife as “the common ground for MAPAS, whose third year provides a new opportunity to move ahead toward international cultural markets”. The acting local Minister for Culture of the Government of the Canary Islands, Aurelio González, stated that “MAPAS is a project that focuses on creativity” and we need “motivating meetings that contribute to encourage it”.

The figures of MAPAS 2019, organised by the Cabildo de Tenerife, unahoramenos y Circulart are again, very good and show high rate of participation: 138 art and music groups from 27 countries, 30 management agencies and 149 heads of programming and cultural managers of 40 different nations.

This professional market includes business meetings, academic activities, international institutional meetings and artistic shows open to the public. For five days, it will take up the main artistic venues in Santa Cruz to display a full programme that highlights the articulation of cooperation networks and joint work.

The performances and showcases are available on the website and on the free app that can be downloaded for IOS and Android mobiles. You can see all the information on MAPAS shows and talks and get all the news relevant to the audience and the Market participants.

The 138 artistic groups and the 30 management agencies can meet the nearly 150 programmers and cultural managers to find business and distribution opportunities for their shows and reach collaboration agreements. The fast business meetings will be held at TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes on Friday, the 12th and Saturday, the 13th July from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. In these brief meetings, 12 minutes long, artists will have the chance to show their creations to heads of programming from 40 countries. Last year, some 3,500 professional meetings were held leading to many later agreements.

Also, a total of 58 artists and groups from 23 countries will have the chance to exhibit their professional work before the audience and the programmers in the artistic showcases to take place during the five days of the market. There are thirty performing arts shows (6 from Africa, 7 from Latin America, 9 from the Canaries, and 8 from other regions in Spain) and 28 are music performances (11 from Africa, 10 from Latin America, 5 from the Canaries and 2 from the rest of Spain). More than fifty artists and management agencies from the Canary Islands are taking part in MAPAS 2019, 14 of which are also showcasing their work.

TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Auditorio de Tenerife and grounds, La Granja Espacio de Creación, Teatro Guimerá, IES Alcalde Bernabé and Museo de la Naturaleza y la Arqueología (MUNA) are the venues for the business meetings, lectures, meetings, talks, round tables and theatre, dance, circus and music performances from the three continents.

A dance premiere for the opening show

The opening show this year will be by Lava -Auditorio de Tenerife dance company- whose artistic director, Daniel Abreu, has created and directed Abisal, a 60-minute piece to be premiered on Wednesday, 10 July at 8:00 pm in Auditorio de Tenerife’s Sala Sinfónica.

In the show, six dancers bring to life a deep and pure geography of water set in the midst of sediments, air, shadows, calmness, unimaginable fauna –a place that is impossible to inhabit. Daniel Abreu explains in his description of the piece that “love moves the world and every action of the six dancers goes towards it. I can only look at dance lovingly…in my imagination it leads me to the blue of the depths, to beautiful creatures and vast obsidian sediments or any other volcanic remains”.

MAPAS will honour its 2019 Cartógrafo Ilustre [Illustrious Cartographer], a distinction to be delivered to Hassane Kouyaté (Burkina Faso, 1964), griot, actor, percussionist, stage director and one of the great ambassadors of African culture who has shown that the distance imposed by oceans and borders means nothing when it comes to sharing art. He both has solid training and a wide-ranging register which have led him to a long prestigious career. Kouyaté has been key in making cultural geographical charts. The creative, socially committed shows of this figure of the performing arts has thrilled audiences of Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, Niger, Mali, Senegal, Togo, Guinea, The Congo, Morocco, Argelia, Tunisia, Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil, Island of Réunion, Canada, the United States, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Spain, Austria, Germany and Cuba.

MAPAS will also have a wide professional and academic schedule including lectures by Sylvie Durán, minister of Culture and Youth of Costa Rica, who will talk about network working; and Daniela Bosé, a teacher and professional who will give us her view on the role of women in the music industry. At MAPAS there will be interesting debates on the advantages of cooperation in the cultural sphere and the performance of women in Latin American performing arts.

Debate de gallos

One of the highlighted round tables will be “Debate de gallos” [Cockdebate], a meeting of artists and social activists Serge Smockey Bambara and Henry Arteaga, known as El Jke, with journalist Nicolás Castellano as moderator.  Also, they are both performing on Saturday, 13 July. Bambara is a member of Smockey & The Agama Band, a rap band from Burkina Faso whose lyrics are politically and socially committed. He is also one of the creators of the social movement citizen’s broom, which was committed to the fall of dictator Blaise Compaore. Henry Arteaga El Jke is from the Colombian Crew Peligrosos, an artistic proposal that has given them a loyal audience thanks to their professional way of dealing with the stage. They are also known for their proposals of social construction from art.

For his part, the Cabildo de Tenerife’s Island Director for Culture, José Luis Rivero, will talk about the model of Tenerife in terms of the performing arts and music as well as about the challenges and opportunities for companies. His is one of the eight talks available during the market that deal with issues of interest for artists, heads of programming and cultural managers.

MAPAS, platform of international connections

In its third year, MAPAS is now established as a great forum of international scope for the cultural and creative industries and an international meeting point of live arts. In this context, the Encuentro de Redes [Networks Meeting], has been organised. It is bringing to Tenerife representatives of institutions and organisations that promote music and the performing arts worldwide.

Different associations and organisations related to the live arts business worldwide, such as Asociación para el Desarrollo de la Industria de la Música Iberoamericana (ADIMI), Global Music Market Network (GLOMNET) Secretaría General Iberoamericana (SEGIB), Red Eurolatinoamericana de Artes Escénicas (REDELAE) or Red de Teatros y Auditorios de España (REDESCENA) or Satélite Lat Mujeres de la Industria de la Música Latinoamericana, among others, will take part in Encuentro de Redes [Networks Meeting] to work towards the strengthening of the culture of internationalization of the artistic proposals and making creative industries solid through proposals based on innovation and consensus.

In this framework, where the networks of collaborative work are deeply looked into, a meeting of the Red Eurolatinoamericana de Artes Escénicas (REDELAE) will be held too. The Canary Islands will be represented by the Canarian Association of Performing Arts Companies Réplica, and Pie de base, the Canarian association of movement artists. Both organizations will make the most of the conditions offered by MAPAS to hold their respective members meeting and make contacts with agents who may be interested in joining them.