Culture

The 21^st edition of the International Festival of Advanced Music and New Media Art Sónar 2014 is set and ready to take over the Catalan capital from the 12^th -14^th June. As in recent years, the festival will alternate between two different locations depending on whether it is a day or a night event. Fira Montjuïc is the location for Sónar by Day whereas Sónar by Night takes place in Fira Gran Via L’Hospitalet. In this way, the festival offers two different venues for the crowd, one for those who prefer a relaxing chill out in the Mediterranean sunshine and another for a greater party atmosphere as the night draws in. The two locations are ready to play host to the performances of a packed line-up made up of more than 130 artists, bands and deejays. With several stages and a program replete with star names, the Sónar crowd is in for a treat as top notch electronic musicians from all over the world will perform before a local and international crowd.

Promising Catalan architect Josep Alegre Torrents has presented his 'Arquitectures Empeltades' project to the 14^th International Architecture Exhbition held at the Venice Biennale, sponsored by the Ramon Llull Institute, the public body promoting Catalan culture abroad. "We want to show an attitude, a way of working to make the architecture relate and work with existing elements" explained Torrents, who said he wanted "to show the ways of doing things in Catalonia." It is the second time that Catalonia is participating in the Biennale International Architecture Exhibition in Venice. The current edition of this prestigious exhibition is entitled Fundamentals and is directed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. It will be open to the public from June 7 through to November 23, 2014.

The 2014 Primavera Sound Festival, taking place from the 28^th to the 31^st May in the Catalan capital, is offering more concerts in its largest-ever space with a capacity for 60,000 people per day. Most of the 348 concerts will be on stages distributed throughout the Forum Park, next to the sea and Sant Adrià del Besos' marina. Other artists are programmed in concert halls such as the Sala Apolo or Barts. Headliners this year include Arcade Fire, Queens of the Stone Age, Mogway and Caetano Veloso, among many other international artists. Furthermore, top Catalan bands such as Mishima will also be playing.

This year the Barcelona International Comic Fair celebrated its 32^nd edition by looking back at the golden age of superhero comics and the wars that shaped History. Organizers FICOMIC increased this year´s event space from 19,000 to 32,000 square meters, which resulted in attendance figures of 106,000 throughout all four days and an increase in sales of comics and other products. The Fair Director, Carles Santamaría, stated that “weare satisfied with the high participation of the audience in an edition that has beaten its record for space”. The festival was once again characterized by the presence of well-known names of the comic universe, such as Spanish artists Paco Roca and Francisco Ibañez, Canadian Ramón K. Perez and Maltese Joe Sacco.

Barcelona's Sagrada Familía Basilica and Museum and Figueres' Salvador Dalí Theatre-Museum topped Catalonia's visitor rankings with 3.18 million and 1.58 million respectively.  In total, 21,593,992 people visited Catalonia's museums and collections during last year. FC Barcelona's Museum came in third place with 1.51 million people, followed by the science museum CosmoCaixa (1.25 million) and the temporary exhibitions' centre CaixaForum Barcelona (979,000 people). The last two are owned and managed by the Catalan savings bank La Caixa. The Art-Nouveau buildings designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí La Pedrera and Casa Batlló are also among the highlights, with 973,000 and 796,000 visitors respectively. Barcelona's Picasso Museum (915,000) and the Joan Miró Foundation (911,000) are also among the most popular art centres.

The Trapezi International Circus Festival was a success with more than 100,000 visitors in its 18^th edition, thanks to the evolution of the event. This year, after two editions affected by the economic crisis, Trapezi changed its goals and presented a festival focused on new languages and techniques. Jordi Gaspar, the Artistic Director since 2012, has been an essential part of this evolutionary process bringing new creative companies to the fair and conserving the more consolidated ones. Also he has increased the number of Catalan companies to the detriment of international ones with the aim of creating a showcase of Catalan proposals without leaving behind the importance of international circus trends.

Trapezi, the main circus fair of Catalonia, which takes place in Reus from the 8^th to the 12^th of May, is bringing more than 36 theater and circus companies, performing more than 80 shows. With 24 domestic proposals and 11 international ones, Trapezi is filling the streets and theatres of Reus this month with different shows and a great diversity of spectacles. The aim of the fair is to internationalize the Catalan circus factory and to promote meetings among all those involved in the event. The Catalan Government wants to turn Trapezi into a professional event and make it a tool for projecting Catalan circus troupes all over the world. Throughout this edition the organization is emphasizing innovative performances and new formats.

Joan Colomo, Alberto Montero and the band Anímic are playing on the same day, Saturday 3^rd May, at one of the main musical events of the UK, combining international artists with cinema and digital arts. The festival gathers more than 40,000 punters and 3,000 professionals, taking place from the 1^st to the 3^rd of May in different Liverpool venues. The Sound City Festival is a must-go event to discover new pop and rock talents, among which are the 3 Catalan representatives. The first is the singer and song-writer Joan Colomo, who will be presenting his latest album 'La fília i la fòbia'. The second is Valencia-born composer Alberto Montero, who will play parts of his 'Puerto Príncipe' album. Finally, the last Catalan band is Anímic, who will show their latest work 'Hannibal'.

Catalan Rumba is part of the Catalan cultural heritage as much as the traditional folk dance Sardana or the famous human towers known as Castellers. This musical genre, born on the streets of Barcelona during the Sixties, is often mistaken for flamenco or other popular Latin sounds. Musicians such as Peret, Antonio González ‘El Pescaílla’ or Gato Pérez were pioneers of this style and contributed to its institutional and social recognition. Different waves of groups and artists have left their footprint on the Catalan Rumba, which is experiencing a third new age defined by a more eclectic sound that reflects Barcelona’s multicultural and cosmopolitan lifestyle.

Josep Maria Subirachs died in Barcelona after a neurodegenerative illness aged 87. Subirachs had a long career in several artistic disciplines but he will be mostly remembered at international level for the work he created in the Sagrada Familia basilica designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. In 1986, Subirachs was commissioned to create sculpture groups for the church's Passion Façade, picturing Jesus Christ's Via Crucis. He devoted 18 years of his life to creating a unique and controversial composition; he did not follow Gaudí's style but used his own. Instead of picturing rounded ornaments inspired by nature, Subirachs designed straight stone figures with a solid and sharp aspect, inspired by geometry and with a wrinkled texture. Caixa Penedès intended to create an exhibition centre devoted to his work near Barcelona Picasso Museum, but the financial crisis stopped the project.

The History Museum of Manresa’s Cathedral (Central Catalonia), which was closed to the public until now, will reveal among its most valuable pieces a Florentine altar frontal dating back to the mid-14^th century. Such a work is one of the world’s most unique frontals, considerably large, embroidered with gold thread and portraying key events in the life of Jesus Christ, with a specific focus laid on his crucifixion. Art Historian Sílvia Ruiz, said to the CNA that this piece is the “cathedral’s jewel” and explained that it was purchased by Catalan merchant Ramon Saera in 1357. Visitors will be able to discover the frontal and others of Manresa’s gems in special guided tours once a month.

Marcel·lí Antúnez Roca, one of the founders of the Catalan theatrical group ‘La Fura dels Baus’ has presented an exhibition in Arts Santa Mònica, a cultural centre run by the Catalan Government in Barcelona's famous Les Rambles. The display showcases the artist’s unusual dramatic method, which he names ‘Sistematúrgia’. This concept conceives theatre as a combination of robotics, corporal interfaces and audiovisuals systems. Apart from the exhibition, which will be open to the public until April 4th, this initiative also includes live performances by Antúnez once a week. ‘La Fura dels Baus’ produced the opening ceremony of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

From April 2014, thanks to an agreement signed with the Institut Ramon Llull (IRL), the public body in charge of promoting Catalan culture abroad, the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) will offer a comprehensive course dedicated to the Catalan language and culture. The TUFS, one of the most prestigious institutions for language studies in Japan, will be the second university in the country to provide such training after the Hosei University - also in Tokyo - implemented a similar course in 2010. In the coming months, the TUFS will also host several events to strengthen the bonds between Catalonia and Japan, notably the symposium ‘Facts and fiction about independence, a plural view on Catalonia’.

With all tickets sold out months ahead, the audience which gathered Saturday in the Sadler 's Wells Theatre listened with much emotion to Barcelona Singer Sílvia Pérez Cruz and Guitarist Raül Fernández Miró, during the closing concert of the 11th Flamenco Festival London. The Catalan musicians have interpreted three Flamenco themes and performed songs from their latest album, still unnamed, which will also lead them to New York next week. The new album, the first common release after eight years of collaboration, includes songs in Catalan, French, English and German. The musicians will officially present it in a concert at the Tívoli theatre in Barcelona on the 25th of April.

The 16th International Festival of Short Films and Animation of Catalonia opened with a presentation led by director Roberto Barrueco. This year Barcelona’s festival received 5,300 projects from 110 different countries, of which 350 will be shown in 47 sessions and 80 hours of programming. Mecal is a festival held annually during the months of March or April in the Catalan capital. The festival is a review of short films and animations which takes place at different places in Barcelona, such as the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), the Institut Français, the Cinemes Girona movie theatre, l’Antic Teatre cafeteria, Arts Santa Monica cultural centre and the Fàbrica Moritz gastronomic space.