The activities will continue until the 30th of this month in various areas of the community, including free fairs and schools so that everyone has access. The grill is made up mainly of artists from the area, since one of the objectives of the festival is to generate spaces and recognition for the local culture by consecrating April as the “Month of the Arts.”
As the play progressed, the boys and girls who arrived at the Municipal Theater to participate in the launch of the festival, felt more and more absorbed by the history of the company Artes Escénica Teatro “La Emperatriz”, which from a close and enveloping tone, converges towards a story of pain around the suffering of the Incas when they were subjugated by the conquerors.
“We have a game there, because although at first it seems to be a very childish work, with small puppets, dolls and things, the content is very strong, then little by little you get hooked on this story with the use of these simple elements, with small theatrical gestures that help you tell a story that is very complex to tell and that must always be told. Memory is very important and especially for children who only know about the Spaniards, but here we really don’t know much about what happened, history is always told by the victors and the native peoples have very little voice in this story and that is a little what we want to take and our strategy is the use of these dolls, oral narration to be able to tell this complex story”, explains Gabriel Aldunate, a member of the company.
The sixth grade students of the Fernando Durán de Quilpué School were invited to see this play that marked the starting point of this “Festival of the Arts” that the Open Municipality of Quilpué and its Department of Culture will develop between April 11 and 30 with a large grill of activities and the presentation of artists such as “Inti Illimani” and “Ocho Bolas.”
A festival that also includes a “Book Fair” that between April 20 and 23 brings several novelties, as explained by Marjorie Mardones of the Quilpué Culture Directorate.
“The book fair is coming in its fourteenth version, this year we are going to merge with the “Used Book Fair” that has been running for four years in this commune, so the idea is to make it more powerful with artistic numbers, with local and well-known writers and writers from the country also speaking a little about contingency from this more political perspective. The fair starts on April 20 until April 23, which is the “International Book Day” and will be held here in Rengifo Square. It will be accompanied by theater, music, workshops, a chess exhibition, among other things, and there will be street interventions. As part of the seal that seeks to territorialize the activities, we will be in free fairs, when our neighbors are buying tomatoes, we will be with some local artists and also in schools of the municipal corporation.”
The mayor of Quilpué, Valeria Melipillan, indicated that “April is going to be a month of a lot of cultural activity in our commune. We want to consecrate this month as the “Month of the Arts” and that it begins to have a reputation and stand out for the link between culture, commerce and the local. We believe, as an Open Municipality, that one way to reverse the system that has prevailed is to generate a circular economy, a solidarity economy and a link between the local and the community. Today, in our commune, we have many artists who are outstanding at the provincial, regional and national levels, and unfortunately these artists today emigrate or go to other stages to look for spaces and we believe that our commune has to grant those spaces and facilitate the bond of the local culture with the citizens and also with the local commerce.”
Indeed, on this occasion, local businesses join the activities.
“It is very important that businesses also join the initiative that is coming out of the municipality and open our doors for culture, we need people to immerse themselves and participate and as Quilpueinos and tenants, we can open the doors of our stores to take away carried out some activities that we are going to have this month”, invited Coren Arce, president of the Chamber of Industry and Tourism of Quilpué.
As is the tradition in the commune, between April 28 and 30, and as part of the “Festival of the Arts”, the ninth version of the “Jazz Festival” will be held. Gonzalo Venegas, general producer, emphasized that “there will be three daily concerts and we have from the orchestral format, which in this case will be the “Big Band Street Situation” which is a local orchestra with a tribute to Cristián Cuturrufo; and the presence as a soloist of Sebastián Jordán, perhaps the most important trumpeter in Chile today. Some groups that do more fusion, some elements that have to rescue more Latin American music, musicians like Antonio Restucci who makes more fusion music, the presence of “Triángulo de las Bermudas”, a local group; Bruno Riveros, Carlos Caamaño local pianist, etc.”
Claudia Rojas, director of education of the Municipal Corporation of Quilpuéexplains that, from the CMQ and the education area, there has been planned work with the culture area to promote it in educational establishments and centers since decentralization.
“We have schools in Villa Olímpica, in Belloto Sur, in much more remote areas like Colliguay that today do not have access to culture. In this sense and in the line of work and collaboration that we at CMQ and education have with culture, we aim to decentralize cultural activity towards these educational and school spaces to which culture generally does not reach.”
This month will also be the Spring Festivala celebration that had to be postponed as a result of the pandemic but that returns in glory and majesty in a commune that does not need to be in spring for the sun to shine.
“The mood is the same, besides, it is always spring in Quilpué with this sun. We had to keep the name due to the pandemic, the same thing happened to several municipalities, but we said “just go ahead with everything” and we went with this spring festival with lots of music. The Municipal Orchestra of Quilpué will be there with the sound heritage, local artists, etc.” Marjorie Mardones commented.
The schedule and details of the activities, which will be completely free, will be available on the social networks of the Municipal Theater of Quilpué and the Directorate of Culture of the Open Municipality.
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