Patatas Fritas Falsas

Agnés Mateus and Quim Tarrida

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Live performance

1h30
Le Grand Sud, Lille
Pass Latitudes

“Being ridiculous is one of the best ways to tell the truth.” Animated by these marching orders from the feminist punk group Pussy Riot, Agnés Mateus and Quim Tarrida dissect with a biting humor and visible anger the mechanisms of fascist violence and its insidious development.

Patatas Fritas Falsas [Fake Fried Potatoes] is the third radical section of the trilogy about violence created by Agnés Mateus and Quim Tarrida. After police and sexist violences, the Catalan duo now takes on the subject of political violence, using the history of fascism and its contemporary echoes. This is a current issue in Spain, itself recovering from a 40 year dictatorship, which unfortunately resonates with current world affairs. Standing alone onstage, initially backed and physically dwarfed by a giant franquist flag, Agnés Mateus takes us on an uncomfortable but necessary journey. We will meet a puppet Franco, for whom she appoints herself bodyguard; a washing machine to clean up those pieces of the past we cannot face directly; a live lesson on corruption … This theatre is confrontational, visceral, terribly relevant, reminding us that critical thought is actually a weapon, impertinence an act of survival, and collective memory an essential arsenal against authoritarian overstepping.

Accessibility infos :

Show in Spanish with French subtitles
Presence of strobe lights
High sound intensity. A blank shot is fired by the performer during the show.

With the support of the Lieux Culturels Pluridisciplinaires de la Ville de Lille

Biography(s)

AGNÈS MATEUS, Barcelona 1967.
A performer and multidisciplinary artist, she has recently collaborated with Quim Tarrida, with whom she created her first two shows, Hostiando a M and Rebota rebota y en tu cara explota, which premiered at the TNT Festival and won the 2017 Prix de la Critique for best ‘new trends’ show. A play about violence against women, which is still touring.
Agnés Mateus has also collaborated with the Colectivo General Eléctrica, Roger Bernat, Rodrigo García and Juan Navarro. Rebota rebota y en tu cara explota is her second work as a creator. In the first, Hostiando un M, she began collaborating with the artist Quim Tarrida. She studied journalism and theatre at the same time, until she entered the world of performance under the aegis of Txiqui Barraondo and Manuel Lillo in Barcelona. She then combined her theatre and dance studies. Her career began in 2006 with the creation of the Colectivo General Eléctrica (Barcelona). Agnés was a key member of this group and worked with them until they disbanded eight years later.

QUIM TARRIDA, Barcelona 1967.
A multidisciplinary artist whose neo-pop aesthetic leaves a certain weight on the legacy of conceptual art. He began in the 1980s with drawing and comics, creating his own universe (Monde sous-cutané). Alongside artistic production more closely linked to music and performance, Tarrida produces photographic, video, pictorial and sculptural works in which links are established with the world of lost childhood, a fascination with toys, organic matter, comics and the experience of a kind of horror vacui to which he constantly returns. In recent years, some of his work has also been related to sound art, contemporary music, sound action and performance. This includes concerts in which he uses electronic musical toys. At the same time, he has developed his professional career as a creative and art director in advertising agencies, graphic design studios and online interactive communication.
He is currently collaborating with the actress and director Agnés Mateus on the shows ‘Hostiando a M’ and ‘Rebota rebota y en tu cara explota’ as co-director, designer and director of audiovisuals.

Credits

Author: Agnés Mateus and Quim Tarrida
Directed by: Agnés Mateus and Quim Tarrida
Cast: Agnés Mateus
Scenography: Quim Tarrida
Sound and video: Quim Tarrida
Lighting design: Quim Tarrida et Laura Morin
General and lighting control: Laura Morin
Assistant director and producer: Marta Gon
Production assistant: Isabel Bassas
Photography: Quim Tarrida
Ceramics: Anna Benet
Costume: Teresa Melgosa
Translation and subtitles: Marion Cousin
Co-production: TNC-Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, CDNO Centre Dramatique National d’Orléans, Théâtre de La Bastille, Antic Teatre (Barcelone), Konvent (Berga) et A.Mateus & Q.Tarrida.
With the support of: El Canal – Centre d’arts escèniques (Salt, Gérone), and the Institut Ramon Llull.
Patatas Fritas Falsas was first performed on 4 May 2022 at the TNC-Teatre Nacional de Catalunya.
Agnés Mateus and Quim Tarrida are associate artists of the Parlement du Théâtre de la Bastille-Paris (2024-2027).