Agrupación Señor Serrano

When we started the project, the refugee and migrant crisis exploded in the face of the ‘civilized’ Europe and we were sucked by the vortex of the moment, the news, the videos and the feelings of anger and shame for what we were watching. Then we started to consume cultural and journalistic products that seemed to calm the anger and the shame by just adding more anger and more shame, or by directly appealing to our sense of guilt. And then we collected facts, statistics, speeches, numbers that were making us feel like we were doing the right thing. This was quiet comforting from a personal point of view, but artistically, in the end, this direct approach to the subject made us feel very empty. We felt so creatively defenceless in front of this mess, of this huge problem that we arrived to the conclusion that a direct approach to the problem wasn’t the right one for us. This is how we work: through metaphors; doing one step backwards to see the sense in the chaos; stripping the facts until we get their essence; suggesting connections between actual events, history and vintage films or fictions to create a new approach, a very personal, fresh point of view. We flee from the here and now and the rush of the news because you can find that in the TV, the newspapers or in documentaries and because we think that the pornography of the dramatic images and the direct approach to the facts activate only one kind of emotional response: rage mixed with shame and pity (all those feelings you can find in the pit of the stomach). Nevertheless, we appeal to other emotions (like compassion, persistence, hope or determination) and above all to the emotional intelligence and critical sense of the audience. We know that nowadays the situation regarding refugees and migrant people is so desperate that it seems it requires a direct and resolute approach. But this is exactly what we want to avoid. Finally, we stopped watching all those videos and pictures with which media and social networks constantly bombarded us because we couldn’t think clearly, we couldn’t see what was lying behind, and we started to think on a different approach, something less direct, less filled with anger, shame and fear, and more with humanity.

Founded by Àlex Serrano in Barcelona in 2006, Agrupación Señor Serrano is a theatre company that creates original productions based on stories drawn from contemporary times. The company uses the richness of innovative and vintage tools to extend the boundaries of its theater. Based on creative collaborations, Señor Serrano’s productions blend stage performance, text, video, sound, and scale models to stage stories about discordant aspects of today’s human experience. The company present original creations and tour internationally. The company has received support and recognition from various important institutions in Spain. Agrupación Señor Serrano has been awarded with the Silver Lion 2015 from the Venice Biennale.