Pedra Viva, the Menorcan festival that brings performing arts to unusual places around the island, is back on the public calendar this summer after a year in which it staged only private performances for its patrons. This year’s programme is built around water.
The Weight of Water
The first highlight is The Weight of Water by the Dutch company Panama Pictures, performed on Friday and Saturday evenings at 7pm and 9pm on Illa del Rei, the island in the port of Maó that is home to the Hauser & Wirth gallery.
The piece takes place on a six-metre-high white staircase floating on the water, designed by the artist and architect Rob van Dam. Dancers, acrobats and two musicians move up, down and around the structure, combining contemporary dance, circus and live music. The work explores the fragility of today’s world and the idea that cooperation is the way to face a crisis.
Why water
The festival’s director, Joan Taltavull, says working on and with water is technically difficult, but rewarding: it forces artists to explore balance, movement and adaptation — themes that resonate strongly in the context of climate change.
AquaSonic
The second water-based event is AquaSonic, presented on 24 and 25 July at Cala Morell. In this unusual concert, musicians perform inside large glass water tanks, using specially adapted instruments and singing techniques that work underwater.
The water changes the way each note sounds, producing an eerie, dreamlike soundscape. The audience watches through the glass as bubbles, light and the performers’ slow movements become part of the show.
A shorter, focused programme
This year’s edition is more compact than earlier ones, but each production was chosen to represent a different discipline — dance, circus and music — linked by the common thread of water.
Pedra Viva’s philosophy is to take culture out of conventional theatres and into Menorca’s landscape and heritage, from quarries and coves to islands and historic sites. This year, the setting is the sea itself.
