The first decades of the 21st century have been marked by a succession of crises that can no longer be considered in isolation. The climate crisis, forced migration, persistence and reconfiguration of armed conflicts, erosion of a sense of commonality, depletion of the planet’s resources, and a growing mental health crisis all constitute the same field of tensions, in which both humans and non-humans are simultaneously at risk and in a state of transformation.
It is within this unstable terrain that FITEI – Festival Internacional de Teatro de Expressão Ibérica – has been developing its thinking and practice in recent editions.
Rather than merely reflecting the world, the festival seeks to create conditions that allow us to interrogate it, bringing artists and audiences together for a collective exercise in attention, listening and critical imagination.
The warning signs are numerous and persistent. However, it is precisely at this point of saturation that the possibility of displacement also emerges. A space of friction emerges between the recognition of collapse and the insistence on hope, where artistic creation can operate: not as an answer, but as a question; not as a resolution, but as an opening.
The theme of this 49th edition, 'Collapse and Hope', is not presented as a steady opposition, but as a field of forces in constant negotiation. While it is impossible to ignore the processes of degradation and rupture that characterise the present, it is also in the persistence of practices, gestures and imaginaries that the possibility of a future is re-engraved.
This year's programme is part of this movement. The co-productions and creations
presented address urgent issues — such as immigration, work, housing, memories of struggle, forms of collective organisation and historical and contemporary violence — without ever settling on a single interpretation. Instead, they propose mechanisms that destabilise, displace and reconfigure the gaze, encouraging spectators to adopt an active stance.
In parallel, the artistic and technical residencies establish the festival as a space of expanded time, where the process is central and creation occurs through encounter, sharing and experimentation. It is in this timeframe, between what is already known and what is still being sought, that new ways of thinking and doing are constructed.
The festival’s territorial dimension, which extends across different cities, reinforces its commitment to proximity and connection. However, this geography is also crossed by another, more diffuse and porous one: that of international artistic networks, transnational collaborations and digital presences, which extend the reach and resonance of FITEI.
In this context, commitment to accessibility — physical, intellectual and sensory — and to mediation takes centre stage. This is not an additional element, but an integral part of the artistic experience itself. Creating conditions that allow more people to access, participate in and become part of this space is also a way of resisting fragmentation and rebuilding common ground.
At a time when so many narratives point towards exhaustion, FITEI insists on creation as a form of resistance and reinvention. A space opens up between collapse and hope — fragile and unstable, yet deeply necessary — where it is still possible to imagine other ways of being and building the world together.
Gonçalo Amorim, Artistic Director of FITEI
It is within this unstable terrain that FITEI – Festival Internacional de Teatro de Expressão Ibérica – has been developing its thinking and practice in recent editions.
Rather than merely reflecting the world, the festival seeks to create conditions that allow us to interrogate it, bringing artists and audiences together for a collective exercise in attention, listening and critical imagination.
The warning signs are numerous and persistent. However, it is precisely at this point of saturation that the possibility of displacement also emerges. A space of friction emerges between the recognition of collapse and the insistence on hope, where artistic creation can operate: not as an answer, but as a question; not as a resolution, but as an opening.
The theme of this 49th edition, 'Collapse and Hope', is not presented as a steady opposition, but as a field of forces in constant negotiation. While it is impossible to ignore the processes of degradation and rupture that characterise the present, it is also in the persistence of practices, gestures and imaginaries that the possibility of a future is re-engraved.
This year's programme is part of this movement. The co-productions and creations
presented address urgent issues — such as immigration, work, housing, memories of struggle, forms of collective organisation and historical and contemporary violence — without ever settling on a single interpretation. Instead, they propose mechanisms that destabilise, displace and reconfigure the gaze, encouraging spectators to adopt an active stance.
In parallel, the artistic and technical residencies establish the festival as a space of expanded time, where the process is central and creation occurs through encounter, sharing and experimentation. It is in this timeframe, between what is already known and what is still being sought, that new ways of thinking and doing are constructed.
The festival’s territorial dimension, which extends across different cities, reinforces its commitment to proximity and connection. However, this geography is also crossed by another, more diffuse and porous one: that of international artistic networks, transnational collaborations and digital presences, which extend the reach and resonance of FITEI.
In this context, commitment to accessibility — physical, intellectual and sensory — and to mediation takes centre stage. This is not an additional element, but an integral part of the artistic experience itself. Creating conditions that allow more people to access, participate in and become part of this space is also a way of resisting fragmentation and rebuilding common ground.
At a time when so many narratives point towards exhaustion, FITEI insists on creation as a form of resistance and reinvention. A space opens up between collapse and hope — fragile and unstable, yet deeply necessary — where it is still possible to imagine other ways of being and building the world together.
Gonçalo Amorim, Artistic Director of FITEI