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Presentation

Temporada Alta is a program designed by PROA21 to support and accompany the creation of original scenic pieces for a specific space: the garden. It provides a welcoming yet challenging context for exploring the languages of theater, dance, performance, music, and literature—a bold invitation to experiment with an open-ended approach.

Since its first edition in 2023, the program has evolved based on the discussions and reflections that emerge from the experiences of the programming and production teams, as well as the exchanges with participating artists and mentors. What we learn each year nourishes a project that aims to foster the creative audacity of artists.

Four artists with diverse disciplinary profiles and strong creative pursuits are invited to create a work for our garden, presented to the public on summer Saturdays at sunset.

For this third edition, we have invited Grupo BESA, Dana Crosa, Malena Giaquinta, and Santiago Nader. The four artists began working at PROA21 in late October to develop their preliminary ideas presented at the start of the program. This process unfolds in constant dialogue with the PROA21 team and a mentor, with the goal of enriching the unique potential of each proposal.

This year, the mentorships are led by Florencia Bergallo, Mariano Llinás, Demián Rugna, and Santiago Loza. Through these sessions, the program encourages exchanges between emerging artists and key figures from different artistic fields.

During the research and creation phase, PROA21 becomes a witness to intense days of discussion and physical work, both in the garden and indoors, when the sun or rain necessitates seeking shelter. Week by week, each group of artists engages with the space, exploring and shaping it according to their creative pursuits. To support this process, group activities are planned to extend their exploration to the La Boca neighborhood.

The 2025 public presentation cycle runs from January 11 to March 29, featuring three unique and consecutive performances of each project with free admission. As in every edition, the selection of artists and the guidance of their projects aim to shape a constellation of diverse languages and aesthetics, offering a snapshot of what is happening in the local performing arts scene today.

Acknowledgments: Benito Quinquela Martín Museum, Javier García Elorrio - DGLIM Riachuelo

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For the selection of artists for TEMPORADA ALTA 2025, we invited the 2024 artists and mentors to submit nominations. Additionally, we, as the program's production and programming team, also made nominations. After compiling a list of 58 profiles, we conducted in-depth research and a group debate to decide whom to invite to present an original scenic project to be developed in the garden of PROA21.

Grupo BESA
@grupobesa

Interdisciplinary group dedicated to scenic exploration. BESA approaches composition like one entering a forest: observing, being surprised, discovering, collecting samples, or simply lying down to rest. Since 2020, they have been investigating the creation of pieces where interdisciplinarity and the crossing of aesthetic languages construct narratives that unfold, fold, transform, and traverse various stages through sound, visuals, and acting. Their first work as a group, “BREVE ENCICLOPEDIA SOBRE LA AMISTAD” (BRIEF ENCYCLOPEDIA ON FRIENDSHIP), positions friendship as a pillar of survival in contemporary times. BESA was invited by PIEL DE LAVA to participate in TEMPORADA FLUORESCENTE directed by Matías Umpierrez. This project involves staging the play FREESHOP by Victoria Vera (Uruguay). The work premiered on Friday, September 2, 2022, with a two-month run at the Centro Cultural San Martín (San Martín 1551, Buenos Aires). The production is inspired by an editorial text written by PIEL DE LAVA addressing the environmental collapse we face as a generation, viewed from a South American and specifically Río de la Plata perspective.

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Dana Crosa
@danacrosa

Dana Crosa (1992) is a creator, actress, director, screenwriter, and playwright working in Buenos Aires' independent circuit, specializing in site-specific projects in recent years. She graduated from the Escuela Metropolitana de Arte Dramático (EMAD, Actor Training Program) and holds a diploma in Corporality and Techno-Narratives (UBA). Her work has been recognized and awarded nationally and internationally: Festival PULSO (Bolivia, 2025), Temporada Alta (Proa21, Argentina, 2024/2025), Cannes Writers Club (France, 2024), International Forum at Theatertreffen (Germany, 2024), Abasto In Situ Award (Buenos Aires Ministry of Culture, 2023), Best Female Creator (AMC Networks, USA, 2022), Best Short Series (Canneseries, France, 2021), Luna de Valencia (Cinemajove, Spain, 2022), Outstanding Acting Performance (Fiesta Nacional de Teatro, 2021), among others. Her recent works include Dj Cucaracha (Playwriting and Direction, Abasto In Situ, 2023-2024), Cinematique Abasto (Acting, composition, and playwriting, Abasto Barrio Cultural, FIBA, 2022-2025), La retrospectiva de Bianca Kumercampf (Acting, co-production with Roseti Espacio, 2022), and Santa Coxa, la desapegada (Direction, playwriting, acting, CeCAP 2021, Winner of Mu Trinchera Creation Lab 2021).

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Valentina Cottet
@valentina.cottet

Actress, teacher, writer, and musician, Valentina has been trained in various artistic disciplines since childhood, including acting, dance, singing, music, and painting. She graduated in 2019 from the Universidad Nacional de las Artes, and her most significant mentor in acting, art theory, and pedagogy was Nora Moseinco, with whom she studied for over 12 years and later worked as a teacher at her school. For the past decade, she has focused on developing artistic thought through collective, self-managed, and interdisciplinary projects with a strong emphasis on current social contexts as engines for aesthetic and critical development. She co-created DJ Cucaracha with Dana Crosa (Winner of the 2023 Abasto In Situ Award) and is part of the interdisciplinary group "Ela & Donna" (Grandes éxitos 2020, Liquidación x cierre 2021). In 2023, she directed her first audiovisual work, Adyacente (winner of Mecenazgo grants in 2020, 2021, and 2022). She is currently working on her first poetry book, Correcta y corrida, and an illustrated notebook titled Out of re-tratos. Valentina starred in Moscas by Aritz Moreno (2023) and Condor 105 by Nano Garay (2023) and teaches “Actor's Body Training” at the Universidad Nacional de las Artes.

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Malena Giaquinta
@malenamacaulay

Malena Giaquinta Díaz (Mendoza, Argentina) is a dancer, choreographer, and curator in the arts, holding a degree from the Universidad Nacional de las Artes. She is enrolled in the Film Program at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. Her recent work explores intersections between dance and horror cinema, investigating how they can dialogue and influence each other. She has performed at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin), Fundación Cazadores, Proa21, Fundación Santander, and CC Sábato. She has received support from the Fondo Nacional de las Artes and Prodanza on multiple occasions. As a performer, she collaborates on projects spanning visual arts, film, and theater, with presentations at the Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires, ArteBA, Centro Cultural Kirchner, and the Buenos Aires Contemporary Dance Festival, among others. She was a member of Rhea Volij's butoh dance company from 2016 to 2023.

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Santiago Nader
@santi.nader

Born in Tucumán in 1997, Santiago Nader is a writer and theater director. He received the Fulbright - FNA Scholarship in Literature (UCLA, USA), the Premio S for independent theater artists, and second place in the Germán Rozenmacher Prize for New Playwriting. He has participated as a playwright and resident director at Teatro Nacional Cervantes (AR), Panorama Sur (AR), LABRA (UY), and Piccolo Teatro di Milano (IT). He is part of the 2023 cohort of the Master’s in Creative Writing at UNTREF. His plays include La clase de rikudim (Festival El Porvenir), Garnett Kelly y el torso ganador (Bienal de Arte Joven de Buenos Aires, Festival Futuros), Hola casa de Aarón (Festival Monoblock), Potrillo Ben (FIBA), La volcán y Eliot (premiering 2024), and Mi hermano y el puma (premiering 2025). His work has been translated into English, French, and Portuguese. Santiago collaborated on the Diccionario Utópico de Teatros (Ediciones DocumentA) and the collective play Dans l’impasse (Paris, FR) as a member of the scenic collective MARTE. He has also published the short story collections Una curiosidad nueva (De Parado) and Todos los Kogan (Cuentos María Susana).

The Mentors

When inviting the four artists to join the program, we asked them to submit a preliminary project or hypothesis for scenic research to be developed in the garden. In their proposals, they were also asked to list three or four desired mentors. We curated these lists to select the mentors we believe are best suited to support each artist’s creative process.

Florencia Bergallo
Actress and Theater graduate from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba with extensive teaching and artistic experience. Since 2008, she has led the Acting and Improvisation Training Workshop at I.U.N.A. She has coordinated acting courses and seminars at the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities of U.N.C. As an actress, Florencia has worked in film and theater, joining important ensembles and collaborating with renowned directors, as well as founding an independent theater group.

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Mariano Llinás
Film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He graduated from the Universidad del Cine, where he currently teaches. Mariano has directed several highly acclaimed films and is a member of "El Pampero Cine," a group of filmmakers working outside traditional industrial film financing structures. In 2011, he received the Konex Award as one of Argentina’s top five directors of the decade.

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Demián Rugna
Writer and director specializing in horror and fantasy cinema. His fifth feature film, Cuando acecha la maldad (When Evil Lurks), premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was named the best horror film of 2023, becoming the first Latin American film to win the Sitges Film Festival. Demián studied drawing under Horacio Lalia and graduated in Audiovisual Design from the Universidad de Morón.

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Santiago Loza
Santiago studied at ENERC and the Escuela Municipal de Arte Dramático. He has written plays, scripts for film and television, and a novel. His films have been screened at international festivals such as Cannes, Locarno, Berlin, and San Sebastián. In 2014, he received the Konex Merit Diploma for his work as a playwright and, in 2021, was recognized as one of Argentina’s top five screenwriters of the decade. Santiago was part of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.

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Programme
 

est***do esperpento, by Grupo BESA
January 11, 18, and 25

De Riesgo, by Dana Crosa and Valentina Cottet
February 1, 8, and 15

Ríndete, Dorothy, by Malena Giaquinta
February 22, March 1, and 8

Penúltimo episodio, by Santiago Nader
March 15, 22, and 29

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