Following its successful short weekend festivals in Segovia, Spain and Cartegena, Colombia, Hay is embarking on its first festival in Granada at the Alhambra from 3 to 6 April 2008. Hay has been expanding its festival activities to include visual art and film, and given the Moorish influence on Granada, an implicit focus of the festival will be on literature and arts of the Middle East.
As part of the festival, the London-based Delfina Foundation will present La Tierra de Nadie (No man's land, 2008), a video-based, cross-discipline commission resulting from a collaboration between three critically acclaimed artists: Eugenio Ampudia, film and digital artist from Spain, Yazan Al-Khalili, a photographer from Palestine, and Noel Wallace, a British choreographer and dancer who has danced with the English National Ballet, the Houston Ballet and Béjart Ballet.
Shot in the Alhambra de Granada, La Tierra de Nadie explores the symbolism of Alhamra’s architecture, and the particular significance of the narrow strip of land which, without ownership or identity, lies between the Carlos V Palace and the Nasrides Palace. It investigates, through the metaphor of 'No Man’s Land' issues such as the tension between world heritage and tourism, individual artistic practice and collaboration, public and private space, and eastern and western perspectives on the historical significance of the Alhambra. A multi-screen video installation has been created to present the work, a first for the historic venue.
La Tierra de Nadie will be presented alongside a programme of short films which juxtapose issues and ideas common to both the Middle East and West. Countries represented include Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Kurdistan (Iraq/Turkey), Egypt, Britain, Spain, Colombia, Germany, Tunisia, and Argentina. The Mapfre Hay Festival Alhambra will take place in various locations in addition to the Alhambra itself. Over four days, says a Festival notice, "we will be bringing fine minds together from around the world to explore the unique nature of the Alhambra as a meeting place of European, African and Arab culture." Among others, Tariq Ramadan, Umberto Eco, Almudena Grandes, Sami Moubayed, Ahdaf Soueif, David Starkey and Joaquin Sabina will be sharing their stories, thoughts and experiences.
