At the party to mark the end of the academic year in 1986, Xavier Olivé and the students on the EINA Stage Design workshop, with the collaboration of Beth Galí, prepared a montage consisting of a tableau vivant, which used stage language through a dramatic portrayal to transcribe an imaginary painting inspired by the work of painters such as Nicolas Poussin and Jean-Honoré Fragonard.
A giant gold frame surrounds a section of the EINA gardens. In the scene, a shepherd transformed into a faun plays the flute, a girl on a swing crosses the frame of the painting, a statue comes to life and a Venus eats the forbidden apple, all the while interacting with each other. The action is complemented by the music of Philip Glass, Vivaldi, Handel, Corelli, Rossini and Beethoven.
The real flora in the gardens is accompanied by old hand-painted decorations consisting of trees, bushes and period balustrades that serve to emphasise a bucolic scene reminiscent of Arcadia, while offering a confrontation between the real world in which the action takes place and the unreal world represented in the montage, explored in previous actions such as Open-Air Sculptures and Dante’s Dream.
For Antoni Marí (programme, 1986), the landscape recreated in La Pastoral is the perfect place in which to create the ideal of humanity, where happiness is a manifestation of order and calm. It is a scene that nostalgically evokes the simple life of these pure and naive shepherds who lead the flock to pasture, sing and write poetry in an idyllic setting, in clear contrast to the present values, rejected by modern civilisation.
Related documentation
Technical specifications
- Action: Xavier Olivé and the students on the EINA Stage Design Workshop.
- Collaborators: Toni Marí (texts), Beth Galí (stage design) and Germans Salvador (paper decorations).
- Actors: Paul Adams, Nuria Bagena, Jessyka, Rafael Navarro, Ramón, Viky Sensat, Mónica Verdú from the Teatre Arnau.
- Hair, make-up and accessories: Susana G. Körver, Joan Alonso and Gregori Ros (Make-Up Academy).
- Hairstyles: Marcel (Hairdressing Workshop).
- Costumes: Ramon Ramis.
- Photography: Josep Gol.
- Video: Carles Ameller Ferretjans.
- Graphic design: Anna de Tord.
- Place: EINA Gardens.
- Date: 18 June 1986, from midnight to 1.30 am.