Pier Paolo Pasolini, writer, poet, filmmaker, and one of the most provocative voices of 20th-century European culture, belongs to that category of artists whose work does not end when the curtain falls. His perspective on power, consumer society, and the contradictions of the contemporary world continues to offer material for new interpretations. Palma will now dedicate a day to him, during which his legacy will go beyond conventional formats to engage with experimental music, electronic music, and visual arts.
The event will take place on Saturday, November 21, as part of the eighth edition of the Festival of Experimental Arts and Advanced Music (ME_MMIX), which will be held from November 12 to 22 at various venues throughout the city. The tribute to Pasolini will be one of the central themes of an edition that specifically celebrates the ability of artistic disciplines to come together, influence one another, and generate new forms of expression.
Tonight’s main venue will be the Aljub of the Es Baluard Museum, where the Enigma Group will present a show inspired by Petrolio, Pasolini’s unfinished and posthumous novel. The production, created by Asier Pueyo with music by Carles de Castellarnau, will bring to life one of the Italian author’s most complex works through sound and performance: a text intertwined with the relationships between power, politics, sexuality, and society, which remained unfinished after his death in 1975.
The choice of Petrolio is no trivial matter. Far from the more widespread image of Pasolini as a director of provocative films, the novel offers a glimpse into his more radical side: that of an intellectual willing to dissect the hidden mechanisms of modernity and to question the structures that sustain the established order. Its fragmentary nature and narrative ambition also make it especially fertile ground for reinterpretation through experimental arts.
The evening will continue with a Pasolini-inspired rave party, headlined by Hor-G and Alba Vinton, accompanied by visuals from Catalina Coromina. The finale will be performed by Barolec and INTVL, with a techno set that will translate the tribute to the language of the dance floor. The day will close at the Terreno Barrio Hotel with an electronic set from Selin Kaya DJ-2 Rombos. A journey that connects the intellectual depth of the Italian writer with the contemporary forms of electronic culture.
The members of INTVL, who were present at the press conference, expressed their gratitude for the opportunity that participating in an event of this kind offers to local creators. One of the goals of ME_MMIX is precisely this: to create spaces where musicians and artists from different backgrounds can share the stage and discover new forms of expression.
A festival that transcends creative boundaries
The desire to unite diverse audiences and artistic languages is at the heart of the project. Mateu Malondra, artistic director of ME_MMIX, has launched a program aimed at reaching a diverse audience by bringing together musicians from different backgrounds and sensibilities. As a precedent, he recalled the tribute to writer Josep Maria Llompart held at the previous edition, which brought together artists such as Toni Toledo and Joan Miquel Oliver alongside Jaume Pons Alorda.
This year’s program once again explores that hybrid territory where contemporary music coexists with film, visual arts, and new forms of sound experimentation. The festival will begin on Thursday, November 12, with an opening concert by violinist Irvine Arditti, a leading figure in the performance of contemporary music.
The next day, the Principal Theatre of Palma will host the Austrian ensemble Phace with The City Without Jews, a film-concert that revives the classic film with newly composed music by Olga Neuwirth and musical direction by Nacho de Paz. The production exemplifies one of the most interesting themes of this year’s festival: the reinterpretation of works from the past through a contemporary musical lens, without turning them into museum pieces.
On Saturday the 14th, another highlight of the program will take place: the Mallorcan premiere of the full version of Entre Feldman, the project by Niño de Elche and Héctor Cavallaro. Until now, the work had only been available as a preview in A Coruña and Madrid. On the island, it will be performed in its entirety, lasting 50 minutes, accompanied by a live performance from artist Albert Pinya and musicians from the Orchestra Symphony of the Balearic Islands.
The program returns on Thursday the 19th with saxophonist Xabier Casal, in dialogue with electronic music, and a joint project by Joan Miquel Oliver, Joana Gomila, and Laia Vallès, with visuals by Javier Lerín. The project, the result of a collaboration between ME_MMIX and S’Uralita, brings together four creative perspectives with very different backgrounds in a new initiative that explores the intersections between disciplines.
This is Baluard and its commitment to contemporary art.
The festival’s relationship with Palma’s cultural institutions is another key factor in its longevity. David Barro, director of Es Baluard Museum, has highlighted the professionalism and quality of an initiative that he considers “one of the most important festivals in the country” and which, in his view, helps fulfill part of the museum’s programming objectives.
Malondra also expressed his gratitude for the support of the Regional Government, the Council of Mallorca, and the City Council of Palma. Representatives from these bodies were unable to attend Wednesday’s presentation event due to the train accident in Toledo. Alongside public authorities, the festival counts on the collaboration of organizations and venues such as Es Baluard, the Palma Auditorium, the Superior Conservatory of Music, the Symphony Orchestra of the Balearic Islands, Red Carpet, the Principal Theatre, the Joan Alcover High School, the Lullian General Studies Institute, Bar Rita, Huguet, and the Terreno Barrio Hotel, among others.
From November 12 to 22, ME_MMIX will take place in various venues in Palma, from the Es Baluard Museum and the La Misericòrdia Cultural Center to Plaça Llorenç Bisbal, Can Campaner, the Palma Auditorium, the Principal Theatre, the Xesc Forteza Theatre, the General Lulian Studio, Ca n’Oleo and the Casal Balaguer.
In a city accustomed to celebrating its heritage, the festival offers a different way to approach culture: not just by preserving works, but by putting them into circulation, subjecting them to new interpretations, and allowing them to enter into dialogue with the present. The day dedicated to Pasolini encapsulates this philosophy. His legacy, far from being confined to the history of cinema or literature, will be projected over experimental and electronic music to remind us that some voices remain unsettling—and necessary—long after their time.
