Puzzle of Borders

Skills: Audio storytelling, Last Works
Radio documentary in four episodes
Length: 20-25 minutes each episode
Languages: Spanish, Catalan, French
Year and place of Production: 2018, Spain

 

ENGLISH// Puzzle of Borders is an audio artistic documentary in residency in Nau Côclea Contemporary Art Center and Centre d’Art i Natura de Farrera in 2018 (Catalonia, Spain). Selected in the 16th edition of Festival Longueur d’Ondes in Brest, France (January 31 -3 February, 2019) and nominated in two categories in HearSay International Audio Arts Festival (Irland, 4th-7th April).

SPANISH// Creación sonora documental en residencia artística en el Centre d’Art i Natura de Farrera (Lleida) y La Nau Cóclea (Camallera, Girona). Seleccionado en la 16ª edición del Festival de radio et de l’écoute Longueur d’Ondes en Brest, Francia (31 enero-3 febrero, 2019) y nominado en dos categorías en HearSay International Audio Arts Festival (Irlanda, 4-7 abril).


Puzzle of Borders is an on-the-road radio documentary series in four episodes to crossover a certain (no)border in Catalonia, Spain, Iberia and Europe… Travelling through some villages near the official line which delimits and glues the different pieces that bound the Catalonian territory, the present moment – the infinite aftermath of the independence referendum of October 2017 considered illegal by the Spanish authorities – is a complex kaleidoscope through which we can rethink the concept of border, here and elsewhere. For such an essayistic question, we bring along a provocative and inspiring sentence by the cartoonist El Roto, with one word temporarily left out: “Border: refers to the place where one _________ ends and another one begins”. A kind of game is built with each of the documentary series protagonists, a word game somehow similar to those enigmas created by the philosopher Walter Benjamin to challenge children in the early 1930s on the radio. Which word is missing? Fill in the blank…
The voices and stories of this landscape – usually absent from radio, TV, news websites and press – build an alternative colourful multilingual puzzle, revisiting the local and universal meanings of ‘border’ beyond the biased mainstream approach with which most of the Iberian media have been superficially covering this topic.

 

LISTENING SESSIONS IN FESTIVALS
Documentary series
Avant-premiere: 16th Radio Festival Longueur d‟ondes, Brest, France, 1st February , 2019
ECREA Radio Research Conference, Radio Papesse, Siena, Italy, September 2019
Dias do Desassossego – Fundação José Saramago & Casa Fernando Pessoa, Lisboa, November 2019
LUCIA Festival, Radio Papesse, Florence, Italy, December 2019

FM broadcasting and podcast publication to be scheduled

 

Short version

Premiere: HearSay International Audio Arts Festival 2019, Kilfinane, Ireland, 3rd April 2019
(this short “Puzzle of Borders” – 7 min long – was shortlisted for HearSay Prizes Celebrate Gold and Celebrate GanBéarla Awards)
ANTIFIL Festival of Art and Culture listening session, Lima, Peru, August 2019
Utopie Sonore, résidence ouverte de création radiophonique, Nantes, France, August 2019

Soon to be published by Radio Atlas with English subtitles.