Con mucha tristeza comunico a toda la gente que ama y admira a Carlos Giménez en todo el mundo, que hemos tenido que cancelar el Homenaje que le estábamos preparando para el día de su cumpleaños, 13 de abril, para celebrar su vida y su obra a 30 años de su partida, en el Teatro Real de Córdoba, en la sala que lleva su nombre.
El motivo es que no encontramos reemplazo para el director al que habíamos convocado para que dirigiera el homenaje, el Sr. Ángel Fernández Mateu, a quien agradecemos profundamente que nos haya conseguido el Teatro Real y haya aceptado trabajar sin cobrar honorarios, quien renunció "por motivos personales".
Agradecemos también al director del Teatro Real, el Sr. Raúl Sansica.
El homenaje, que no contaba con ningún apoyo económico del estado ni privado, y en el que trabajamos más de un año, estaba organizado por Roberto Magurno (quien tuvo la idea) y Amelia Almada, amigo y amiga respectivamente de Carlos e integrantes del grupo teatral que Carlos creó en su infancia: El Club de los Corazones Unidos. Y por mí, autora del libro ¡Bravo, Carlos Giménez! y creadora del canal de you tube Carlos Giménez Creador Teatral, de la página de Facebook con el mismo nombre y de este blog, dedicados a rescatar el legado de Carlos.
El Homenaje "CARLOS GIMÉNEZ 30 AÑOS DE AUSENTE PRESENCIA" iba a ser muy sencillo:
30)Ángel
Fernández Mateu: anécdotas. El Coronel no tiene quien le escriba. El Campo.
El Juglar.
31) Texto El
Caballo de Troya, de Carlos Giménez, leído por todas las personas
participantes del homenaje.
32) Coro cantando, a capela, Te
quiero, la canción favorita de Carlos. Se le dará la letra al público para
que cante junto con el coro.
En el hall del teatro, si se acaba la pandemia del COVID, se proyectarán
los siguientes videos durante todo el día y de ser posible, desde el 28 de
marzo, día de la muerte de Carlos, hasta el 13 de abril.
Mariel Jaime Maza, actriz, directora, pedagoga, amiga de Carlos desde la juventud de ambos; cofundadora junto con él del mítico grupo Rajatabla en Caracas; miembro del prestigioso grupo El Juglar de Córdoba creado por Carlos con el que ganó sus primeros premios internacionales, le dedica un sentido homenaje.
El próximo 28 de marzo, cuando se cumplen "30 años de ausente presencia" del gran creador teatral Carlos Giménez (1946-1993), se le rinde un homenaje junto a otro gran artista venezolano, Enrique León, en este caso para celebrar sus 80 años de vida. Hermoso encuentro de la vida y la muerte de dos seres que han dejado y siguen dejando una gran huella que perdurará para siempre en el arte del mundo.
La cita es en el Teatro Baralt de Maracaibo, Venezuela. "Agua de Colonia" de Enrique León con José Luis Montero, Milton Quero Arévalo, Valeria Barrios y Amanda Morales. Producción y dirección de Milton Quero Arévalo.
Entre los asistentes estaba el rey Juan Carlos de Borbón, Fidel Castro y Carlos Andrés Pérez entre otros. El Divo alternó con Serrat, Gal Costa, Susana Rinaldi, la Negra Grande de Colombia, Amalia Rodrigues y Tania Libertad. El final de fiesta sorprendió a todos.
Por iniciativa de los gobiernos de España, México y Brasil, en el marco de la conmemoración de los 500 años del primer viaje de Cristóbal Colón a América, fue convocada la I Cumbre Iberoamericana, como encuentro para incrementar la cooperación entre las naciones de Latinoamérica, España y Portugal.
El encuentro tuvo lugar en la ciudad mexicana de Guadalajara los días 18 y 19 de julio de 1991, con asistencia de los presidentes y jefes de estado de todos los países convocados y del entonces rey de España, Juan Carlos de Borbón.
No todo fue análisis y discusión política. Al finalizar las deliberaciones del primer día, todos los mandatarios y miembros de sus delegaciones se dirigieron al Teatro Degollado, un edificio de mediados del siglo XIX, en el cual se ofreció un concierto de música popular con el acompañamiento de la Orquesta Sinfónica de Guadalajara y los cantos del español Joan Manuel Serrat, la portuguesa Amalia Rodrigues, la brasilera Gal Costa, la argentina Susana Rinaldi,La Negra Grande de Colombia, la peruana Tania Libertad y el mexicano Juan Gabriel. La prensa no tuvo acceso al espectáculo pero tuve el privilegio de asistir por invitación de su productor y artífice de la puesta en escena, Carlos Giménez, director del grupo Rajatabla, a quien se le encomendó esa tarea en representación de Venezuela.
Llegué a Guadalajara un día antes del concierto, por lo que también pude ir al último ensayo, donde todo salió bien, salvo que se eliminó de la escenografía una carabela que aparecía al fondo, por sugerencia de uno de los organizadores por México, que lo consideraba un “símbolo colonial”.
Giménez, por su parte, decidió prescindir del Orfeón de Guadalajara, pues su estilo no se ajustaba al sentido que le había imprimido al montaje, donde cada artista interpretaría únicamente una sola canción, para que no fuera tan largo.
En un amplio palco del balcón, frente al escenario, fueron ubicados los presidentes y jefes de estado. Allí estaba el anfitrión, Carlos Salinas de Gortari (México), junto a Alberto Fujimori (Perú), Alfredo Cristiani (El Salvador), Carlos Andrés Pérez (Venezuela), Carlos Menem (Argentina), César Gaviria (Colombia), Felipe González (España), Fernando Collor de Mello (Brasil), Violeta Chamorro (Nicaragua), Fidel Castro (Cuba), Guillermo Endara (Panamá), Jaime Paz Zamora (Bolivia), Joaquín Balaguer (República Dominicana), Jorge Serrano Elías (Guatemala), Juan Carlos de Borbón (rey de España), Luis Alberto Lacalle (Uruguay), Mario Soares (Portugal), Patricio Aylwin (Chile), Rafael Ángel Calderón (Costa Rica), Rafael Elías Callejas (Honduras) y Rodrigo Borja (Ecuador).
Fue un espectáculo sobriamente medido, aunque no por ello menos atractivo y lleno de emotividad. Confieso que hasta entonces nunca había visto a Susana Rinaldi, de quien me conmovió su interpretación del tango “El último café”, acompañada al piano por Juan Esteban Cuacci, su esposo. Ambos aparecieron, desde un lateral del escenario, en una plataforma rodante. Ella lucía como una reina con aquel traje blanco, largo y vaporoso, y peinada al estilo Eva Perón. ¡Qué clase de artista! Esta apertura marcó la pauta de la excelencia de lo que veríamos después.
Serrat cautivó con “Cantares”, una de sus cartas de presentación; Gal Costa, regia como siempre, cantó un bossa nova respaldada musicalmente por un virtuoso guitarrista; Amalia Rodrigues, a su avanzada edad y casi ciega, acaparó nutridas y efusivas ovaciones con su personalidad carismática y su voz dulce y prodigiosa al interpretar su emblemática “Lisboa antigua”, mientras La Negra Grande inundó el recinto con un lamento de raíces africanas de la costa colombiana y Tania Libertad llevó el sonido de su Perú natal en clave de nueva canción.
Hasta allí la atmósfera predominante fue de absoluta intimidad, de canciones sentimentales revestidas de poesía. Hasta que llegó Juan Gabriel y transformó la tranquila velada en un show.
Para empezar, salió con su propio grupo musical, lo que le permitió saltarse a la torera, sin permiso y con su habitual desparpajo, la norma establecida de cantar una sola canción. Pues bien, el más famoso cantautor mexicano, quizás consciente de su carisma y arrastre, decidió hacer un popurrí de sus éxitos que, hay que decirlo, provocó inicialmente cierto desconcierto entre la atípica audiencia de diplomáticos y funcionarios públicos de alto nivel, para relajar la tranquilidad reinante y convertir la sala del Teatro Degollado en una fiesta, mejor dicho, en un fin de fiesta que animó hasta a los más indiferentes.
Particularmente disfruté de dos espectáculos: el del Divo de Juárez desatado en escena y el que había en el palco de los presidentes, del cual tenía una vista privilegiada en mi espectro visual. Salinas de Gortari y Fidel Castro, totalmente abstraídos de lo que ocurría, conversaban como si nada; Violeta Chamorro sonreía y batía palmas, Carlos Andrés Pérez hacía lo propio, pero más mesuradamente y el rey Juan Carlos tenía cara de como que no podía creer aquel intempestivo desenlace, que terminó con una ovación que, sin ser desmesurada -quizás por aquello de “guardar las apariencias”-, sí resultó un indicativo de que Juan Gabriel, como siempre solía ocurrir cada vez que desplegaba su desbordante energía en sus espectáculo, terminaba metiéndose a todos en el bolsillo.
Siempre recordaré aquel momento como algo muy especial. Y todo gracias a Carlos Giménez, quien al invitarme me dijo que no podía perderme de algo semejante. No solamente movió mi interés, sino que se quedó corto en sus apreciaciones previas en torno al espectáculo que preparaba y que, gracias al recientemente fallecido Juan Gabriel, tuvo un toque de pimienta, que le dio aún mayor atractivo y singularidad.
Carlos Giménez (born in Córdoba, Argentina, on April 13, 1946, Aries) is the founder and director of the Caracas International Theater Festival, together with María Teresa Castillo, one of the major drivers of culture in
Venezuela, who has not hesitated to support him since 1971, when the first
festival was held, and who then hired him as Art Director for the Caracas
Athenaeum, an institution she has helped create and of which she is the
president.Carlos is also the founder and director of the Rajatabla
Group, with which he has traveled around the world, winning hundreds of
awards, and which put Venezuelan theater at the center of the global theatrical
stage.
Working
as a director since he was a teen, in 1965 he participated in the First
Nancy Theater Festival with his group El Juglar. He was
19 years old and he achieved something impossible at the time: without any
previous performances in Buenos Aires, he gained international exposure
directly from Córdoba to Europe. After that, they traveled to Poland, where the
group shared the Honorable Mention with East Germany in Warsaw
and received the First Prize in Krakow. Back in Argentina he
faced the indifference of the capital's theatrical world towards his
achievements in Europe. In response, Carlos created in Córdoba the First
National Theater Festival, but was excluded from its organization in 1967,
when political repression was starting in his country. This event decided him
to abandon his home country.
This
interview took place in the context of the Pirandello Festival, which is held in every auditorium and every
space within the Caracas Athenaeum, and which he is in charge of organizing.
According to Carlos Giménez, the “main idea for organizing the Festival
comes from the need to connect theater as a social event within the community
it is inserted in”—in this case, the significant Italian immigrant
population—, to involve private business in cultural activities, to take
culture to all social classes, all aspects in which Venezuelan theater has
stayed a bit on the sidelines. With this purpose, the Caracas Athenaeum plans
to organize annual festivals about other important figures in world
theater.
If you
had to create a minimal autobiography, what aspects of your life would you
choose?
My
arrival to Venezuela in November 1969. Because this defines a lot, not only
professional aspects in my life, but also personal aspects, that is, what I was
going to do with my life and my career.
Then, as
this event divided my life in two, going back to my experiences in Argentina,
one of the most important moments was my high school graduation in 1964 and my
departure to Europe. There I discovered a world that was completely unknown to
me and I was dazzled by it, which meant, at least for me, that I was not going
to stay locked within the parameters set by the city or the country I was born
in. I realized there was a mismatch between what I wanted and what my
environment, my habitat, gave me.
During
that time, I met Jack Lang, who is the director of the World Theater Festival
in Nancy, and now Minister of Culture in France, so that was how in 1964 I came
into contact with international festivals, which was going to be really
important, because Jack Lang invited us to participate in 1965 in the First
World Festival in Nancy. This invitation also extended to the group of people
who at that time were in Europe without having constituted the El Juglar group
yet - the creation of which is another important moment in my life, even though
El Juglar never had neither the influence nor the impact that Rajatabla has had
in Latin America. This participation was extremely important if we consider
that this group that went to the Nancy World Festival and to festivals in
Warsaw and Krakow, Poland, in 1965, was a provincial theatrical group that had
not left Córdoba to go to Buenos Aires, but to participate in these really
important events.
Moreover,
1965 was the year when all the movements which would have a huge impact in the
theatrical world started all at the same time, like Nancy, Grotowski, Eugenio
Barba, Jack Lang, Els Joglars from Barcelona and La Comuna from Portugal. In
Poland, we presented a play which won one of the awards of the International
Theatre Institute (ITI-UNESCO), called “El Otro Judas” (The Other Judas) from
Abelardo Castillo, one of the most eminent Argentine intellectuals from that
time and director of “El Escarabajo de Oro”. With this play that I directed we
won the Honorable Mention together with East Germany in Warsaw and, in Krakow,
we received the First Prize.
How important
was your success in Europe for your career?
It was
crucial. That moment and then the cold reception we had in Argentina when we
presented the same play decided me to leave my country.
And did
you come directly to Venezuela?
No, I
started in 1968 with what would be another fundamental event in my life: a tour
by land from Córdoba to Caracas, which took us 3 months. We went to the
main mining centers in Bolivia, where we presented our shows. I vividly
remember the experience we had in Chorolque, a peak that is 5,000 meters
above sea level and has the highest tin mine in the world. There, since there
was no electricity, we performed using the miners' lights - that is, surrounded
by 40 miners who provided us light with their helmets while we performed a
children's play. This tour meant a terrifying discovery of Latin America, not
just skin-deep. We came into contact with utter poverty in Latin America. We
also performed in fishing centers in Peru, we did a wonderful tour around Peru,
we performed in Colombia and in 1968 we arrived at the Manizales Festival. In
this festival, we presented a play called “La Querida Familia” (The Dear
Family), a baroque anthology by Ionesco, and the jury formed by Ernesto Sábato,
Pablo Neruda, Jack Lang, Miguel Ángel Asturias, awarded us the prize. However,
we still couldn't get to Venezuela - we only managed to do that after
participating in the Second Manizales Theater Festival in 1969, where we met
Omar Arrieche, Director of the Barquisimeto Educational Experimental Theater,
who got us a visa to enter by land.
When was
Rajatabla founded?
On
February 28, 1971, when “Tu país está feliz” (Your country is happy) was
premiered. At that moment we expressed our desire to form a group with a
regular cast, a permanent producer, our own auditorium for the long-term, which
would allow us to evolve our aesthetics and have a very unique repertoire based
on the needs of the group. All of these expectations were surpassed by the
reality of our work. At that time, some important things happened, like the
Caracas International Theater Festival.
Was
Rajatabla already part of the Athenaeum at that time?
Rajatabla
has always been dependent on the Athenaeum in a rather informal way, but with
the success we achieved with our performances—“Tu país está feliz”, “Don Mendo”
(Mr. Mendo)—and finally after presenting the first show we prepared with the
name of Rajatabla, which was “Venezuela tuya” (Your Venezuela) by Luis Britto
García, we became the regular cast in the Caracas Athenaeum.
How
important is the Caracas International Theater Festival considered in
Venezuela?
I
personally believe it is of critical importance, because it consolidates a
whole perspective and a philosophy regarding theater. However, this is a relatively
misunderstood fact in the Venezuelan context, because of the investment it
implies. It's true that it would be really beneficial for the country if the
government invested that money in other important priorities, such as creating
a National Theater School, a National Theater Company, but we know that's not
going to happen. Our country is the empire of consummated facts, of de facto
culture. Furthermore, I believe that this Festival projects and creates an
international relationship for Venezuelan theater, it opens up new structures,
it raises the level of reflection, it powers and qualifies the work of our
creators and it means opening up to incorporate an enormous class to theatrical
activity, especially young people.
We
remember that in 1979 you suffered a serious accident. What did it mean for
you?
That was
another fundamental event in my life. Because through that accident and through
the response and support I got, people's emotional attachment, I established an
important connection with the country.
This year
you're going to direct “Chuo Gil” in the United States. How are you preparing
for this new experience?
With
great enthusiasm, because it means entering the United States professional
theater, with a very important cast, within a different framework and with a
huge production team and an almost mechanical production. It means entering a
state in my profession that is perhaps less human but very interesting to go
through.
What do
you think are the most important values in your theatrical work?
Firstly,
I'm getting more and more terrified of formulas. I find it hard to rationalize
my work method. I can use 4 or 5 of Stanislavsky's concepts, introduce elements
from Brecht's technique, but I'm not an educator, I'm not a teacher.
But are there
specific formulas you reject?
No,
that's something I did at the beginning, but I'm rejecting less and less.
There's an already trodden path that you need to travel sooner or later. What's
wonderful about theater is that inapprehensible sense that you never know
what's going to happen, that intangible element for which an actor might
perform in a completely different way than on the previous day. There are some
topics that I'm invariably interested in, such as timelessness - theater is not
a video, it's not a movie, it's something absolutely temporary in essence. When
the curtain comes down, we know that we've seen a performance that will not be
repeated ever again. Another fundamental topic is that of space and time, and
the reaction to these two elements from the director, the actor and the
spectator. That is why I have paid special attention to staging and to keeping
away, as I believe great creators have done, from acting mechanically, from
reading the text in a literal way. For example, Stanislavski, who made a
comprehensive analysis of actors, did not dissociate the work of the actor
himself from external elements, for example smell - he said he wished smell
would come from the stage. And that is what I call paying attention to reading
plays non-literally.
Why have
you decided to set up “Tu país está feliz” again?
Because
my aesthetical proposition is not dissociated from my ideological proposition.
I want to set up not only that play but also the 20 shows I did there once
again. To perform a kind of live dive to see what happened with everything that
has been done before. Reflecting from a long distance allows you to see things
much more deeply, and personally it allows me to discover what hidden territory
I can tread on to make a new recreation. I've been accused of being reiterative
and it's true - I am a kind of Manichaean who has enclosed himself within a
series of personal codes and I will not be free until I have exhausted them.
They are like the ghosts I accept I'll have until I get free of them.
Note by VMI:
Although all articles about Carlos Giménez say he was born in Rosario, which is
true, when we interviewed him Carlos was very busy organizing the Pirandello
Festival, so he asked us to leave him the questions saying he would answer them
in writing.. He loved writing and he did it very well. And he wrote:
“Carlos Giménez (born in Córdoba, Argentina, on April
13, 1946, Aries).”
People are not from where they were born but
from where they feel they were born. And he
is as Cordovan as he is Venezuelan.
