Culture

The 17^th edition of Barcelona’s 080 Fashion week started this Monday and is taking place at the iconic Casa Llotja de Mar in Barcelona throughout the week. The opening catwalk featured the previous edition’s National Award to Emerging Designer winner CarlotaOms. The eventwill combine offerings from newcomers such as Pau Esteve with those of consolidated firms such as Custo Barcelona and Sita Murt. Besides the fashion shows, 080 Barcelona Fashion will also host many other parallel activities bringing together different points of view on fashion. One of the highlights of this edition is the presence of Manolo Blahnik, the shoe designer and global icon, who will present his book ‘Fleeting Gestures and Obsessions’. The event will also pay tribute to designer Pedro Rodríguez.

The Catalan Film Academy celebrated this Sunday its annual Gaudí Awards ceremony, which recognises Catalan productions with a significant presence of Catalan artistic and technical staff.The debut film ‘El camí més llarg per tornar a casa’ directed by Sergi Pérez won the award for best film in Catalan language. ‘Truman’, starring Argentinian actor Ricardo Darín, won in six categories, including best film in non-Catalan language, best director for Cesc Gay, best actor in a leading role for Darín and best supporting roles for Javier Cámara and Dolores Fonzi. ‘El Rey de la Habana’ (‘The King of Havana’) and ‘Anacleto Agente Secreto’ (‘Anacleto, Secret Agent’) won four Gaudís each. 

One of Europe’s most well-known electronic music events, Barcelona’s Sónar Festival has announced the line up for its 23^rd edition. The legendary Manchester band New Order will again be on the bill, after performing at the festival in 2012. The British musician James Blake will present his latest album ‘Radio Silence’ and the French pioneer of synthesisers, Jean-Michel Jarre, has chosen the Catalan festival to mark his comeback to the stage. Sónar “has become everything a modern festival aims to be” stated Jarre. Last year, nearly 120,000 people attended the festival, which takes place at Fira ed Montjuic during the day and Fira Gran Via by night. 

The full line up for Primavera Sound’s 2016 edition was announced this Thursday through an animated film on YouTube, which was followed online by thousands of fans worldwide. Besides Radiohead, PJ Harvey, and the recently reformed American rock band LCD Soundsystem, Suede, Animal Collective, Sigur Rós, Beirut and former beach boy Brian Wilson will also perform at the festival, which is considered one of the most important in the independent music industry. Last year, more than 190,000 people attended the festival, which takes place over 8 different stages inside Barcelona’s Forum Park, right along the seafront. Primavera Sound 2016 will be held from the 2^nd to the 4^th of June and tickets for all three days will range from 175 to 195 euros.

The atelier where Catalan painter Joan Miró worked in Palma de Mallorca has been accurately reconstructed by the Mayoral Gallery, in London. Besides 22 paintings and drawings from the artist, the exhibition includes reproductions of personal objects from the artist, such as photographs and postcards, but also leaves, shells, roots and other natural items which Miró picked up and brought into his working space. “Visitors can appreciate Miró’s artwork within its original context”, explained ‘Miró’s Studio’s curator, Elena Cámara. The exhibition coincides with the 60^th anniversary of Miró’s settling in Palma de Mallorca, where he produced most of his works and where he died in 1983. 

The renowned performing arts festival which takes place in Girona has set a new record in its 24^th edition: 78,922 spectators and an occupancy rate of 91.8% in the paying shows. Temporada Alta presented this year its most ambitious, international and diverse programme yet. A total of 110 productions, 36 premieres and 25 international performances took place either on the street or on one of the festival’s 30 stages. "The festival has been a great success" assured its director Salvador Sunyer, who proudly announced that a new venue will be opened in Lima, to be added to those in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. This announcement confirms Temporada Alta's internationalisation strategy and the will to build bridges with other companies around the world. 

Barcelona's candidacy has convinced UNESCO's directors, international experts and the Creative Cities Network and has this Friday joined the list of UNESCO Cities of Literature. From now on, the Catalan capital will have to promote literature, integrate culture into its economic and social development plans and collaborate with the other Creative Cities. The Catalan capital presented the richness of its literary heritage in both the Catalan and Spanish languages and the international power of its editorial sector as some of its main assets. However, the celebration of Saint Jordi, Catalonia's patron day, when Catalans exchange books and roses with their loved ones, has been the focus of the candidacy. In fact, UNESCO's World Book and Copyright Day is celebrated on the 23^rd of April, the same day as the Saint Jordi celebrations.

London's Shard, in the Tower Bridge area, is Europe's tallest building. Its viewpoint, located on the 72^nd floor, opened its doors in 2013 and has offered a wide range of events since then: silent discos, winter experiences and in the near future a very ambitious project: a traditional Catalan human tower performance. "The image would be amazing" stated 'The View from the Shard's marketing head Anna Domingo. Although she admits that there is not yet a specific date, she declared to CNA that they are "working very tight" with the Delegation of the Catalan Government to the UK "to promote the Catalan culture also from here". In 2012, Castellers de Vilafranca, one of the most iconic group of Castellers, displayed a tower on the 20^th floor of a building located right in front of New York's Empire State building.

The exhibition 'Big Bang Data' commissioned by Barcelona Centre of Contemporary Culture (CCCB) shows the big data explosion of the 21^st century and how it has transformed our lives by displaying a varied collection of pieces from international new media artists. "The exhibition is about changes" stated 'Big Bang Data's commissionaire, José Luís de Vicente "and how these big data has affected our privacy, relationships and even security". After touring in Madrid, Buenos Aires and in many other Latin America capital cities, the exhibit arrives in London absolutely renewed, with 20 fresh projects and 3 especially designed for London, such as an interactive map of the British capital according to the moods reflected on Twitter or a collection of selfies taken in the city. More than 125,000 visitors all over the world have already seen Big Bang Data, which will go to Singapore after London.

Although the candidature was presented by the Andorran government, there are Catalan, Spanish and French villages amongst the 63 municipalities from the Pyrenees which share the celebration of this festival. In fact its transversal nature was one of the most valuable points of the candidature, according to UNESCO's committee. On the night of the summer solstice, people carry flaming torches from the mountains to light traditionally constructed beacons. The descent is a special moment for young people, signifying the transition from adolescence to adulthood but also a time for regenerating social ties and strengthening feelings of belonging and identity. In 2010 UNESCO recognised another Catalan tradition, Catalan human towers, as one of the most genuine and unique cultural practices in Europe.

‘Fotografia a Catalunya’ compiles Catalonia’s photographic patrimony into one website. This initiative is the first of the measures set out in the Photography National Plan, approved in 2014. “This website starts to make Catalonia’s photographic patrimony visible” stated current Catalan Minister for Culture, Ferran Mascarell, and added that by launching this website “a lifelong pending issue has been sorted out”. There are 1,600 pictures from 497 different photographers already available which summarise outstanding collections from the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC), the Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) and Barcelona’s Photographic Archive, amongst many others, and the aim is to extend the offering to 15,000 by the end of next year. Catalonia’s photographic patrimony includes more than 35 million pictures, kept in more than 323 public archives, museums and other centres all over the territory.

Madonna, U2, Bjork and Kate Perry are just some of the international artists that chose Barcelona as their only stop in Spain on their international tours in 2015. During the first half of 2016, Adele and Coldplay's only tour dates in Spain will also be in Barcelona. The Catalan capital is also famous for its festivals, such as Primavera Sound, Sonar, Festival del Mil·leni and the International Jazz Festival, which attract hundreds of thousands of  people from all over the world. This Thursday, a less mass-oriented festival, Guitar BCN, announced its programme and it will also be able to count on international names. Former Oasis leader Noel Gallagher and his band High Flying Birds will be amongst them, as well as the emotional pop-rock of James Bay and the Cuban music ambassadors, Buena Vista Social Club, whom added Barcelona to the list of cities that will be part of their farewell tour. 

The exhibition 'Drawing Versailles. Charles Le Brun (1619-1690)', from the Paris Louvre Museum's collection, will be displayed in Barcelona’s CaixaForum until the 14^th of February. The exhibition shows the preliminary cartoons and sketches that painter Charles Le Brun did for the Staircase of the Ambassadors and the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. The drawings include studies of characters, allegorical figures, trophies and animals that formed part of the artist’s compositions, conceived as a great symbolic jigsaw puzzle. The Louvre Museum has 300 of these drawings and 78 of them will now be displayed in Barcelona's CaixaForum. The exhibition is the fruit of an agreement reached in 2009 between the two institutions through which many exhibitions from the Louvre can be shown in the Catalan capital. 

Catalan human towers, ‘Castellers’, celebrated Monday their fifth anniversary of their recognition by UNESCO as an element of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The ‘Castellers’ community had been awaiting the committee’s decision for years, as the candidature was first submitted in 2007. “The number of ‘Castellers’ groups has increased by 30% in the last five years, totalling 97 groups all over Catalonia”, stated ‘Castellers’ Groups Coordination president Maria Cortès, “our goal is not to reach 100 groups, but to make higher, stronger and safer ‘castells’ each time”. Cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’s top member, Raül Romeva, also attended the event, as he is also a member of a group of Castellers. “Castellers teach us that things must be done well, in an organised way and to add to each other, as everybody has their role” he declared in an interview, probably in reference to the negotiations between pro-independence forces ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and CUP.

‘Canigó’ is regarded as one of the most outstanding works in Catalan literature. The epic poem was written by the 19^th century Catalan writer and leading figure of the Catalan renaissance movement, Jacint Verdaguer. Named after Mount Canigou, the poem is set in Catalonia at the beginning of the 11^th century at the time of the Reconquista, the gradual liberation by the Christians of the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim rule. The poem tells the story of the young knight Gentil who left his fight against the Saracens for the love of Flordeneu, queen of the fairies. English engineer James William Millard had already published part of the poem in 2000 but ‘Mount Canigó. A tale of Catalonia’ by translator and professor at Universitat de Vic Ronald Puppo represents the first complete translation ever made.