Culture

During the Congress of the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) in New York, the managers of the Bescanó Theatre (Northern Catalonia) will discuss their peculiar protest against the Spanish Government’s VAT increase on cultural products from 8% to 21%. In November 2012, instead of selling traditional tickets at a higher price or lowering their profit margin, the Bescanó Theatre managers decided to sell carrots to their audience, due to the lower VAT on fresh food. Spectators bought carrots for a price equal to the usual entrance fee and were gifted a theatre ticket in exchange. This ‘carrot rebellion’ as well as the “devastating” consequences of the VAT increase on the performing arts in Spain will be addressed on the 15^th of January.

The Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) in Paris will open on Wednesday, January, 15^th an exhibition entitled ‘Camouflages’, devoted to the renowned photographer Joan Fontcuberta . Thanks to 10 series of photographs, visitors will journey through the works of the Catalan artist, who was awarded the prestigious Hasselblad prize in 2013, considered as ‘the Photography Nobel Prize’. The jury had highlighted that Fontcuberta was “one of the most imaginative contemporary photographers” of our time. The exhibition, which will occupy three of the four floors of the MEP, explores the notions of ??camouflage, concealment, and disguise: camouflage of the artist, of photography, of reality, and of truth.

The Dalí Museums welcomed a total of 1,580,517 visitors in 2013, meaning an 8.42 % increase over 2012. This is the most important figure ever achieved by all three museums of the Dalí Foundation, located in north-eastern Catalonia: the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, the Gala-Dalí Castle in Púbol (near the Costa Brava) and the artist’s house in Port Lligat, Cadaqués (a Costa Brava town). The Dalí Foundation congratulated itself and insisted such record attendance would spread even further the artist’s legacy in Spain and across the world.

The novel ‘La vida era eso’ by Carmen Amoraga has won the Nadal Award, in the 70^th anniversary of this literary prize given by Destino publishing house. Albert Villaró with his roman ‘Els ambaixadors’ was awarded the Josep Pla Prize for prose in Catalan, also given by Destino, on the same evening. Amoraga’s book tells the story of a woman who dives into the social networks after the death of her husband. The novel by Villaró invents an alternative outcome of the historical facts that happened in October 1934, when the Catalan President Lluís Companys proclaimed the “Catalan State of the Spanish Federal Republic”.

The Picasso Museum of the Catalan capital will no longer be solely run by the municipality. From the 1^st of January 2014, it will be managed by the public-private Picasso Museum Foundation. This will be the beginning of a new era for the museum, which is set to focus on the conservation, study and development of its own artistic heritage, by launching the ‘Centre de Referència Picassiana on-line’, dedicated to researching and teaching Picasso around the world. The managers of the museum also wish to delve into the influence of Picasso on contemporary art. Such an idea is at the core of the next exhibition dedicated to the illustrious painter: Post-Picasso: Contemporary Artists' Response to His Art, held from the 7^th of March to the 29^th of June, 2014.

The National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) hosts the retrospective ‘I work the street’ dedicated to photographer Joan Colom. It is the very first time an exhibition presents all of the artist’s works, amongst which are many previously unpublished images. From the 12^th of December 2013 to the 25^th of May 2014, visitors will be able to see 500 pictures, notably Colom’s most iconic images: black and white photos secretly taken in Barcelona’s Raval in the 1960s. His feature stories from the 1990s are also presented to the public. Colom’s donation of various photographic materials in 2012 enabled such a comprehensive exhibition to take place. The Director of the MNAC, Pepe Serra, said the exhibition was unusual in many aspects.

Catalan writer Eduardo Mendoza was proclaimed winner of the European Book Prize 2013 in the novel category for An Englishman in Madrid (Riña de gatos, Madrid 1936). Mendoza rose to fame in the late 1970s and the 1980s by publishing several books on his home-town, Barcelona. However, in his latest novel, the writer has decided to explore the political tensions in Madrid at the very beginning of the Spanish Civil War (1936), through the perception of a foreigner, an Englishman. The other finalists were Luciana Castellina for Discovering the World, Vassilis Alexakis for The Greek Child (L’Enfant Grec), and Petros Markaris for Lixiprothesma dania. Furthermore, Arnaud Leparmentier has won in the essay category for Ces Français fossoyeurs de l’euro.

The Temporada Alta Theatre Festival, held each year in Girona and Salt (Northern Catalonia), welcomes back one of its most loyal international companies: Propeller, which is indeed back on stage at the Municipal Theatre of Girona. It is the 6^th time the English troop is performing in this northern Catalan city, and they have claimed to have fallen in love with it. In the past 16 years, Propeller has staged Shakespeare plays in over 22 countries, attracting thousands of people. This year, they are presenting their reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s Classic A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in both Girona and other cities across Spain. The company is formed only of male actors, in a similar fashion to Elizabethan era theatre troops. Their staging of the play is full of magic and surrealism, creating a variety of different atmospheres and leading to many smiles in the audience.

The ‘Butaca’ Awards have recognised the best Catalan Theatre performed during the 2012/2013 season. Lluís Pasqual, the Director of Barcelona's Lliure Theatre, has been awarded Best Director for his reinterpretation of Carlo Goldini’s The Boors comedy. The play was just as acclaimed as its Director, winning 5 of the 8 prizes it was competing for, including Best Show. Contemporary plays such as Smiley and Barcelona were also distinguished, winning 3 awards each. Albert Triola was presented the Best Actor Award for his part in Smiley while Emma Vilarassau won Best Actress for Barcelona. Famous Actress Rosa Maria Sardà received the honorary award in acknowledgment of her career.

Majorcans Antònia Font, who have probably been the most successful Catalan-singing band in the last decade, have announced they are splitting up “without controversies or internal traumas” after 17 years together. They will offer a last concert in Palma de Mallorca on the 27^th of December. The band has issued a press release on Thursday explaining that the “time has come to put an end to this path”. From January onwards “they will focus on personal projects, which do not necessarily have to be related to music”. They added they are “satisfied with the work done” and “aware of their legacy”. Antònia Font became a great success in the early 2000s in the Catalan musical landscape with a unique style combining plain lyrics about everyday life and Majorca with surreal and science-fiction elements. Its sound is rich, with touches of experimental music, and with influences from pop, folk and electronic.

Georg Friedrich Händel’s opera ‘Agrippina’ is opening this Friday the season of Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu. In addition, it is the first time ‘Agripina’ will be performed at the Catalan opera house, 300 years after it premiered at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo in Venice. This contemporary staging of Händel’s first great opera, with stage direction by David McVicar, is led by Baroque specialist Conductor Harry Bicket.  Mezzo soprano Susan Connolly, soprano Danielle de Niese, and countertenor David Daniels are the lead singers. ‘Agrippina’ will be performed in the Catalan capital until the 29^th November.

Catalonia’s music is one of the highlights of this year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival with a specific programme called ‘Catalan Series’. Barcelona’s Hèctor Parra, who achieved international recognition with pieces performed by KNM Berlin, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, or the National Orchestra of Ile-de-France, is the resident composer. The festival will feature several of Parra’s pieces, notably the world premiere of his latest work, FREC, performed by the composer himself alongside famous Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández. The well-known BCN216 Ensemble will also give a concert within the ‘Catalan Series’ in this year’s festival, which opens this Friday and will run until the 24^th of November.

Writer Luís Goytisolo, who was born in Barcelona in 1935, was awarded on Thursday the 2013 National Prize for Spanish Literature. The € 40,000 prize is awarded each year by the Spanish Ministry of Culture to distinguish the entire literary work of one Spanish author. Luís Goytisolo, the youngest son in a family of writers, was one of the core members of the ‘Generación del 50’ (The 1950 Generation) in Barcelona. This post Spanish Civil War generation of writers, who are considered to be the ‘War’s Children’, have reflected on literature as the ultimate human art form and they have redefined its aesthetics. The Prize’s jury praised this Catalan writer, who writes in Spanish, for his “narrative work and his constant commitment towards expanding literature territory”.

The 2013 winner of the prestigious Hasselblad Foundation Photography Award – which is like the Nobel Prize in this field – has been exploring the “aesthetics of censorship” in texts dating from the 16^th to the 19^th century. The “violent interventions” of censors are revealed in ‘Deletrix’, a series of photographs taken by Catalan Joan Fontcuberta and exhibited at the Santa Mònica Arts Centre of Barcelona. In addition, Fontcuberta also releases a book displaying the artist’s 6 years of delving into archives and libraries. Fonctuberta did not wish to solely condemn censorship and defend freedom of expression.  He also observed that the “violent” and “visceral energy” expressed in these human interventions influenced some contemporary works of art. And therefore, the photographer sought to explore the relationship between art and censorship.

Catalonia’s National Museum of Art (MNAC) proposes a new way to discover its Romanesque Art collection – which is the most important in the world – through the eyes of an important figure of European Contemporary Art: the Catalan Painter, Sculptor and Essayist Antoni Tàpies (1923 - 2012). The Barcelona-based museum has carried out a “small intervention” in the halls of the Romanesque collection so that visitors are able to see the exhibited works with interpretation elements and views linked with Tàpies’ work and thoughts. In addition, the MNAC is also exhibiting one of the artist’s most emblematic works: the Romanesque Painting with Barratina (Pintura Romànica i Barretina, 1971)