The Mercado de las Artes Performativas del Atlántico Sur today ends its first edition with an important public success, which certifies the need for alternative culture and leisure in the city. More than 15,000 spectators in the samples, which have been packed, registering performances with full houses and public waiting to access the rooms.
There have been fifty live performances, more than 2500 business meetings, six hundred accredited people have been mobilized in the different market venues and, above all, an exceptional collaborative environment has been created, which has allowed not only the meetings scheduled in advance to be held upon arrival in Tenerife, but rather an important mass of networking that has made it possible to establish ties that were not initially foreseen.
An example of these collaborative synergies was the concert that Samia Ahmed gave last night. The Moroccan had to be accompanied by four of her musicians, but visa problems with three of them endangered her artistic show. To try not to miss his appointment with the public, Jonathan Rodríguez, Carlos Oramas and Adrián Linares joined the group despite the fact that until now they did not know each other. They rehearsed one afternoon and one morning a repertoire that ranged between the Moroccan tradition and themes of Canarian folklore (such as the tajaraste), revised and passed through the sieve of the Alawite country.
It is the general feeling: "It seems to me that the environment that has been created, of collaboration, of help, organized in an impeccable way, without blemishes, is an irrefutable success that canarian artists will benefit a lot", says César de Socos Duets. Carlos Castañeda, from the Tak-Nara Percusion Band, expresses himself in the same terms: “It has been a great success. The exhibitions last just long enough to go out there and give everything and that the public leaves satisfied, and the business meetings and networking are exceptional opportunities to try to go abroad ”.
Valentina Fernández, representative and daughter of Argentine actress Cristina Banegas, points out: “The quality of the human relationships that have been established in this market make the difference. We have not been able to feel more loved, better treated and considered… The public is exceptional. My mother is delighted with this encounter. That someone with fifty years of profession is surprised with how well everything has gone and the feeling of being at home that you have given them, says a lot about MAPAS, ”she enthuses.
For the insular Minister of Culture, José Luis Rivero, this is one more example of the “ability of our professionals to organize an international event as complex as this one, with the guarantees of bringing it to fruition, from the logistical point of view, of organization and preparation ”.
Rivero assures that this first edition of MAPAS has made it possible to demonstrate that "what we defended from the beginning, that the Canary Islands is the place for all transactions between Africa, Latin America and southern Europe to take place" and points out that it is to admire the capacity and interest of the cultural sector of the Canary Islands. “The extent to which they have been involved from the beginning and how, little by little, through the training courses, they have been preparing to face this meeting with guarantees of establishing relationships with programmers from all over the world ”, Has been very satisfactory.
In addition to all this space for transactions, MAPAS has been a space for reflection on the place that markets occupy on the international scene, “demonstrating the need for the existence of these spaces, in such a globalized world, to publicize the local products ”, explains Rivero, who has reported that MAPAS has also started“ a collaboration with SEGIB to establish here a permanent meeting point where we can reflect with specialists from the Ibero-American framework ”.
But, without a doubt, the defining element for the success of MAPAS has been the spectators. “MAPAS” explains the counselor “is in a space of its own for citizens, for the enjoyment of live arts and, although it has a very professional nature, it will be an unavoidable appointment with the public, becoming an event for the city and the Island".
“In summary” –Apostilla Rivero- “a very positive balance that leaves us very happy because those involved (artists, programmers and the public) are happy has become an effective tool to develop the entire value chain in which we are working in the cultural strategy of the Cabildo de Tenerife, where the processes of creation and production and, now also, those of distribution are already addressed ”.
