Culture

The coastal city, located in southern Catalonia, is experiencing a significant renovation of its cultural infrastructure and will host special events throughout the year such as the inauguration of the Tarragona Theatre. Tarragona’s new status as Capital of Catalan Culture 2012 has triggered this year’s local artistic activity with a vast cultural agenda accessible to all citizens. Activities started in February with the first Congress of Catalan Booksellers. Initiatives like the inauguration of the Tarragona Theatre, the Historical Archive, the new Center of Contemporary Art and the Banc de la Cultura are some of the novelties expected to take place at the city this year.

No workers will be laid off and no strikes will be organised. The management and workers of Barcelona Opera House have reached an agreement on the theatre’s deficit reduction measures. The management has decided not to proceed with the temporary mass layoff of 90% of the staff for 2 months after accepting the workers proposal to give up their extra payment in the summer. The agreement guarantees the regular schedule of the opera season, with the exception of ‘A Florentine Tragedy’, due out in April, which might be cancelled.

Barcelona’s Opera House faces a deficit of 3.7 million euros, after a reduction of public funds and other revenues. In the last weeks tense negotiations between the theatre’s management and employees are taking place. Workers are facing the temporary suspension of their contracts from March 20th to April 19th. Workers will also be affected from June 5th to the July 8th.

Catalan actors such as Jordi Bosch, Marta Marco and Jordi Boixaderas will go on stage to represent a “poem which treats and mistreats the spectator”. It tells the story of a businessman who wants to monopolize the world and ends up by taking other businesses to bankruptcy.

Legendary British band to play alongside Wilco, Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab for Cutie, XX, Beirut, Yo La Tengo, The Drums, and Mudhoney, among others in a strong 2012 lineup. The festival will be held from May 30th to June 3rd in Barcelona.

Mientras duermes’ (‘While you sleep’), filmed by Catalan Jaume Balagueró, was the winner of the night, with 6 awards. The hot favourite ‘Eva’, by Catalan director Kike Maíllo, followed it with 5 prizes. Catalan filmmaker Pere Portabella was given the Honorific Gaudí award for his cinematographic career.

The Catalan artist was considered one of the world’s main painters and sculptors in the 20th century. Antoni Tàpies, whose works are on show in contemporary art museums all over the world, was one of the main representatives of the Art Informel and Symbolism movements. Family sources confirmed Tàpies’ death in his Barcelona home, after a long illness.

‘Eva’, by Catalan director Kike Maíllo and casting German-Catalan actor Daniel Brühl, is the hot favourite after receiving 16 nominations. The Gaudí Awards gather directors, actors, producers and other leading names from the filmmaking world from Catalonia, Spain and worldwide. A total of 29 productions have been nominated, within 22 categories.

The Catalan artist’s work is yet again the main attraction of a major UK exhibition. After the success of the painting retrospective at Tate Modern in 2011, Yorkshire Sculpture Park will stage the first major exhibition of Miró’s sculptures in the country in the spring. Also, some of the most exquisite work of the artist will be on sale next week in Christie’s and Sotheby’s, with record prices expected.

From the 2nd to the 11th of February, Barcelona is at the centre of the thriller novel. The Carvalho Prize will be given to Greek writer Petros Màrkaris and tribute paid to the recently-deceased head of the Antifraud Office of Catalonia, David Martínez Madero.

During last year 8,217 human towers built. According to latest data, just 3.5% of the total number of human towers collapsed.

The city theatre offers 26 very different shows in its winter-spring season, which will focus on opera and Spanish-style operetta (zarzuela). Puccini’s ‘La Bohème’, Verdi’s ‘Aida’ and two zarzuelas respond to public demand for more classical-based shows.

Woody Allen’s ‘Midnight in Paris’ produced by the Catalan company Mediapro and the Catalan Public Television Broadcaster, has been nominated for Best Movie, Best Director, Best Art Direction and Best Adapted Script and has already won a Golden Globe. The film ‘Chico y Rita’ has been nominated Best Animated Feature. The movie was developed in the Catalan capital by Barcelona-based Javier Mariscal. However, the Catalan film ‘Pa Negre' has not been nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

‘L’exili’ (The Exile) is part of Barcelona-based Teatre Lliure’s series “Cartes lliures” (Free Letters) directed by Pau Carrió. The series focuses on the correspondence of Catalan intellectuals, and each “chapter” has a theme. The veteran theatre actors Núria Espert and Josep Maria Flotats, who are considered to be two of the best actors in Catalonia, perform in that focusing on the exile. They read on stage the letters of intellectuals who were obliged to leave Catalonia because of the Spanish Civil War.

MNAC’s new Director and its new President presented their plan to foster the identity and singularity of a museum known for hosting, among others, the most important collections of Romanesque art in the world. More space, more contemporary artwork and more visitors are the three keywords that will guide the museum’s new stage. Furthermore, the MNAC wants to vindicate its position as Catalonia’s top museum and within the museum’s first division at international level.