Fabra i Coats will once again become, from May 29 to 31, the epicenter of the Other International Festival of Performing Arts and Mental Health. This year, the event reaches its twelfth edition with more than 40 shows of theater, dance, music, poetry, and new scenic formats that seek to “give visibility to proposals created or starring people with and without mental health problems,” as explained by the organization, Martina Cumova.
The festival, which was born in 2015 precisely at the industrial complex of Sant Andreu, has consolidated itself as one of Barcelona's most unique cultural proposals. “We are a mental health festival and we try for it to be for everyone, for all people, with and without mental health problems,” explains Cumova. According to her, the great differential of the project compared to other festivals is that “we try to implement accessibility measures for other people with functional diversity” and, at the same time, make them protagonists.
Cumova assures that the festival starts from a very clear idea: “We treat mental health in a collective way, because we believe that all people have mental health, some better and others worse.” A philosophy that permeates the entire program and seeks to move mental health away from an exclusively medical or healthcare approach.
A festival rooted in Sant Andreu
It should be noted that the relationship between the Other Festival and Sant Andreu goes back a long way. “The first festival was already at Fabra i Coats, and it was very different from what we organize now,” recalls Cumova, who highlights that the project was born driven by Manel Anoro and Bea Lieve as “a tribute” to psychiatrist Josep Clusa, a reference in community mental health in Catalonia.
This year's edition will be inaugurated this May 29 with a concert by Macaco and Divina Molécula, a group linked to the Matissos Association. “We always look for a more well-known artist and combine them with local groups,” she points out. The objective, she assures, is to generate “this interaction” between different audiences. “It won't be the typical Macaco concert, because the audience will be very diverse,” she adds.
For three days, Fabra i Coats will host proposals that reflect on concepts such as stigma, vulnerability, or the idea of normality. Among them will be pieces such as Llamada entrante, based on testimonies from workers on suicide prevention lines in Uruguay; the sensory labyrinth of Lunatika; or the new creations by Pau Masaló, Teatro de los Invisibles, or Blanco Bual.
Path pending
For Cumova, still “there is much fear and stigma” around mental health, although she considers that after the pandemic “the problem is more collective mental health”. In this sense, she assures that the festival also wants to be “a bit of joy and take care of ourselves”. Precisely, beyond the shows, l’Altre Festival vindicates culture as a space for meeting and mixing. “We think a lot about horizontal social contact”, she details. “You find yourself in a place that perhaps is not the usual one and you meet people that in other circumstances you could not meet”.
After eleven editions and more than 40,000 accumulated spectators, the festival will once again fill Fabra i Coats with stages, performances and concerts with a central idea: “Culture needs new interlocutors and to be more representative of society as a whole”.
