Culture

The Catalan photographer who contributed to the Nuremberg trials with more than 20,000 photographs

55% of the ticket-holders were from outside of Spain and 125 nationalities were registered

The first digital platform to distribute European cinema and television series in Catalan was launched on Friday in Barcelona

The Canadians will play again on Saturday night after their unexpected performance on a small stage on the first day of the festival

Bon Iver, Grace Jones, Arcade Fire, Van Morrison, and The XX are some of the most outstanding names in the line-up

The Catalan Government will guard geographer and journalist Gonzalo de Reparaz Rodríguez-Báez’ legacy, which was seized in 1939 and has been stored at the Spanish Civil War Archives since then. The Catalan Minister for Territory and Sustainability, Josep Rull, thanked Reparaz’s family for trusting the Catalan Government and praised their years of “judicial struggle” to recover the documents, and therefore part of its family’s history. Rull emphasized Reparaz’s contribution “to explaining the Catalan cause to Europe” and his “commitment to freedom and democracy”. Reparaz established himself in Barcelona in 1921 and came into contact with many representatives of Catalonia’s political and cultural life.

One of the most important singer-writers in the Catalan language took the stage for the last time on Sunday at the iconic Palau de la Música in Barcelona. Raimon, leading voice of the Nova Cançó cultural and protest movement, said good bye with an emotional concert after more than 50 years on stage. With all the tickets sold out, Raimon said he wanted to finish his career with the same attitude as he started it, and sang ‘Al Vent’, an anti-Franco protest song that became a popular anthem against the fascist dictatorship in Spain. The concert on Sunday was the last of twelve evenings at the Palau de la Música in which the singer from Xàtiva performed old favorites but also more modern songs accompanied by a children’s choir.

The Dutch architecture studios NL architects and XVW architectuur, received the EU Mies Award 2017 (Contemporary Architecture prize of the European Union – Mies van der Rohe) on Friday in Barcelona for the rehabilitation of a big apartment building in Amsterdam. According to the jury, this year’s edition communicates two important messages: First, modern architecture has to fulfill citizens’ needs, and second, citizens participation in urban projects is essential for solving urban challenges. In an interview with the CNA, representatives from both of the prizewinning studios, Kamiel Klaassen (NL) and Xander Vermeulen Windsant (XVW), commented about the “incredible richness and variety” of Barcelona’s architecture and praised the potential of the city’s structure for future urban development.

Global support in Catalonia to reduce VAT on cinema tickets from the current 21% to 10%. Compared to other EU countries, in which cultural activities including the movie sector benefit from reduced VAT, Spanish citizens have to live with high taxes on culture. Politicians and associations of the cinema sector in Catalonia consider the 21% VAT on cinema tickets “discriminatory” in comparison to other EU countries. In Germany, for example, there is reduced VAT (7%) on movies (not including damaging content for youth). In Belgium cultural events have a VAT of 6% and in neighboring France, VAT on cultural activities is 7%. That is why these cultural groups have lined up to urge the Spanish government to change it in the 2017 budget and set it at the same level as bullfighting, which is currently taxed at just 10%.

“Strength, balance, courage, and sanity” are the four key elements that guide the new Human Tower Museum of Catalonia in Valls, 100 km south of Barcelona. This ambitious project, aims to become a reference for the human tower world. All that is on show at the moment is indoor equipment with the most spectacular set ups: latest videos, support tools, and interactive games. The aim of its creator, Ignasi Cristià, who has designed the space for both experts from the ‘castells’ world and for the more inexpert public as well, is to create a new space for explaining human towers.

The 15th edition of the Barcelona LOOP festival opens its doors from May 18–27, presenting a retro-perspective of international video art production. The festival will show the works of video artists from the 60s, 70s, and 80s in different formats at more than 80 venues around Barcelona. According to Carolina Ciuti, the LOOP festival coordinator, the aim of this year’s edition is to “build bridges between the past and the present” in order to understand modern audiovisual art. The festival’s program was elaborated under the supervision of the renowned Catalan historians of audiovisual art and new media in Spain, Eugeni Bonet and Antoni Mercader. An Andy-Warhol-exhibition as well as a six-hour video marathon of the works of Paul McCarthy are among the festival’s highlights.

The winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of Architecture, will represent Catalonia at the Venice Biennale 2018. The Catalan Minister of Culture, Santi Vila, and the manager of the Institut Ramon Llull (IRL), Manuel Forcano, explained that this is the proposal they will submit to the Biennale. “It is important that, when Catalonia's talent and excellence are recognized, that the institutions should be able to find the displays in which they can express their style, what they do and what they think,” said the minister. Vila also explained that this decision was taken through a consensus with the sector, so no tender needs to be announced. The studio RCR Arquitectes, which won the Pritzker Architecture Prize on March 1, has 30 years of experience in Olot, Catalonia. The announcement made by Vila and Forcano comes just ten days before the architecture studio receives the award in a ceremony in Tokyo.

Salvador Espriu was one of Catalonia’s most significant writers of the 20^th century. He was proposed as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in 1971 and 1983, and won the highest award of Catalan Literature in 1972. His works, of universal interest, have been translated into more than twenty languages. The literary myth of Sinera is one of the keys to Espriu’s work. The geographic and human substance to Sinera is inspired in the town of Arenys de Mar, just north of Barcelona. In his book Cementiri de Sinera Espriu recalls his childhood in a paradise destroyed by the construction industry and war.

Björk, the famous Icelandic singer, will perform an exclusive four-hour DJ session for Sónar festival’s opening night on June 14. The same day, an ‘immersive’ exhibition dedicated to the artist (‘Digital Björk’) will open its doors at Barcelona’s Center of Contemporary Culture (CCCB) and the artist will give a talk at Sónar+D. The 24th edition of the Sónar festival will open Wednesday, June 14 with Björk’s DJ performance and close on Sunday, June 18 in Barcelona’s Auditori with a Nico Muhly concert accompanied by the German orchestral group Stargaze. As for the festival’s musical program, this year’s edition comprises of outstanding names such as Justice, Nicolas Jaar, Moderat, Masters at Work, Arca & Jesse Kanda, Soulwax, Dj Shado or De la Soul among others.

In 1545 the Catholic Church in Catalonia ordered the keeping of register of all the baptisms and deaths in local parishes. This way, the Church was the pioneer in the register of persons, since the current civil registry was not established until years later. Only a few cities still preserve all the baptismal books, and Solsona, in Lleida, is one of them. The city even keeps the first baptismal book of its history,  that dates back to 1565. The Center for the Restoration of movable cultural heritage of Catalonia has spent 6 months on its restoration and has reproduced it in a copy that everyone from Solsona will be able to access.