A dozen artistic and musical groups will offer samples of African cultural diversity with free performances open to the public
A total of 15 African countries will be represented in MAPS, Market of Performative Arts of the South Atlantic, with the 31 artistic and musical groups who have confirmed their participation in this initiative, organized by the Cabildo de Tenerife, unahoramenos and Circulart. All of them will have the opportunity to meet with programmers from all over the world at the business roundtables and a dozen will offer free live shows on different stages in the capital of Tenerife.
Senegal is the country that sends the most artists to MAPAS, with a total of seven. They are followed by Equatorial Guinea and Morocco, with four groups; Ethiopia, with three; Tunisia and Benin, with two; and Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Niger, Gambia, Mozambique and Cape Verde, with a grouping for each country. The African continent has an important presence in MAPAS, since almost 20 percent of the 164 artistic groups that participate in the market come from there.
As for the programmers, 15 cultural programmers and managers from 11 African countries are expected to be present at MAPAS. Music and performing arts festivals in Benin, Mozambique, Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Mali, Morocco, Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa will have their representation in Tenerife and will be able to know the artistic proposals and reach professional agreements with the groups participants.
In total, 143 programmers from 40 countries around the world will meet with 164 artistic and musical groups from Africa, Latin America and Southern Europe in an international meeting that in its second edition has exceeded all the participation figures of last year. In addition to the African countries, there will be representatives from the United States, Iceland, South Korea, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Romania, Norway, Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia, among others.
African art samples
The cultural diversity of Africa will fill the Tenerife stages with a dozen groups that will offer the public and programmers a sample of their artistic proposals, with five musical shows and five performing arts.
The first company to act will be the Tunisian National Theater, founded in 1983, with his work Violence (s), which is about the Tunisian revolution and the constant struggle of young people in search of a free world. They will be at the Guimerá Theater on Wednesday, July 11, starting at 7:00 p.m.
On Thursday, July 12, four performances by African groups are scheduled to offer music and dance. The Tunisian musician residing in Denmark Nuri African participation will open that day. With an eclectic style, he mixes deep bass, organic percussion with polyrhythmic rhythms, creating traditional music and contemporary electronic music. He will perform at 7:10 p.m., in the Plaza Castillo del Auditorio de Tenerife, with his show Drup.
From Equatorial Guinea the singer, composer, pianist, guitarist and cellist arrives at MAPAS Nelida karr, a true revolution in contemporary music, influenced by the sounds of his country, jazz and gospel. Karr will offer his show Influences in the Symphonic Hall of the Tenerife Auditorium from 8:00 p.m.
That same day, without leaving the Auditorium environment but this time in Plaza Castillo, you will be able to enjoy the music of Alex Ikot Band, also from Equatorial Guinea. Starting at 8:50 p.m., African rhythms with jazz and blues influences come together in this multicultural band that rescues the roots of Guinean dance and folklore.
It will close the day on Thursday Jerahuni Movement Factory, a Zimbabwean dance company that presents its work Chirorodziva. The Sleeping Pool. The fight for survival and the strength to find power and overcome the sorrows that torment us daily are the main themes of this original, innovative and intensely precise show. At 10:00 p.m., in the Castillo Hall of the Tenerife Auditorium.
On Friday, July 13, the representation of the African continent begins with another dance show, by Nigerians YK Projects and Qudus Onikeku, which will present Spirit child from 5:30 p.m. in the Puerto Hall of the Tenerife Auditorium. Qudus Onikeku, creator and dancer, develops his work on the international scene and his works reflect his political and social beliefs. His personal style is strongly influenced by acrobatics, hip hop and capoeira among other disciplines.
At the same time but at the Guimerá Theater, the theater company Hassane Kouyaté - Le Tarmac, from Burkina Faso, present Le Fabuleux destin d'Amadou Hampâte bâ, a work in which he pays tribute to the figure of Labou Tansi, one of the most important pens of Francophone literature, with a subversive language in the face of injustices and a tradition of iconoclastic novels that are reflected in this proposal.
The Cameroonian musician Lornoar He will act from 7:10 p.m. in the Plaza Castillo of the Adán Martín Auditorium, with his show 100%. With a powerful, broad-spectrum voice, fused rhythms, and an overwhelming stage presence, Lornoar promotes and enriches the Cameroonian and Central African oral tradition.
Also on Friday, starting at 7:30 p.m., the circus will arrive at TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes by the hand of Colokolo Cirque Urbain Marocain, a company that with juggling, acrobatics and large doses of humor parodies life in a Moroccan cafe. Qahwa Noss Noss it is a narrative circus show in which the body speaks more eloquently than words.
African participation in the festival closes with Aywa, what with Houriya They offer an explosive mix of Maghreb music, jazz and rock that invites you to get together and dance. Melodies from North Africa meet the Western world in an electric, attractive, original, dynamic and rebellious sound. They will perform at 10:30 p.m. in the Plaza Castillo del Auditorio de Tenerife.
The website of MAPAS offers all the information of this professional market that connects the performing arts and music of three continents with the rest of the world and that is completed with an intense free program of artistic exhibitions for five days in prominent locations in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. All the artists and programmers who participate in MAPAS can also be consulted on the web.
