Culture

The Japanese writer wins the 23rd edition of Catalonia’s top award. Other winners have included Jimmy Carter, Aung San Suu Kyi, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Harold Bloom, among others.

‘Construir la Revolució. Art i arquitectura a Rússia, 1915-1935’ (‘Building the Revolution. Art and architecture in Russia, 1915-1935’) will run until April 17th. The exhibition focuses on the first Soviet art during the Russian Revolution, Lenin and the first Stalin period.

Some of the confirmed performances are M.I.A, Janelle Monáe, The Human League and Baraka Som Sistema. The music festival will be held in Barcelona from the 16th to 18th June. The festival will keep its Galicia showcase, scheduled on the 17th and 18th of June.

Barcelona’s ‘La Virreina’ centre opened an art exhibition about the important changes that happened in 1979 at local and global level. Some of the moments captured in the display are revolutions in Iran and Nicaragua, Margaret Thatcher being sworn into office, the first democratic elections in Spain and Sony’s walkman era.

A total of 40 bands will play in this summer music festival in Barcelona. The ‘Primavera Sound’, the ‘Sonar’, and ‘Cruïlla Barcelona’ are the most important indie, pop and electronic music festivals in the Catalan capital.

Dalí’s Foundation and the Spanish National Organisation of the Blind (ONCE) sign an agreement to allow visually-impaired visitors to enjoy the work of the Catalan artist. The Museum in Figueres, the Castle-House in Púbol and the House-Museum in Cadaqués will adapt their itineraries.

The festival consolidates its position in the animation movies industry. Chinese professionals bought Catalan-made products. A documentary film on the score composers of Disney movies kicked off the festival. The festival was held in Lleida from Thursday evening to last Sunday.

The masterpiece ‘Tres ics’ is now the artist’s most expensive work. The painting that represents a bullfighting arena was sold at Christie’s auction house in London this week for 1.5 million euros.

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona has created a new area to show artworks from the 1950s to the present. The updated exhibition aims to become a 'narrative' to better understand the evolution of modern art.

The Catalan movie 'Pa Negre', directed by Agustí Villaronga and filmed entirely in Catalan, is a huge hit at the Goya Awards taking home 9 awards out of 14 nominations, including the awards for the best film, the best director, and 4 of the 6 acting awards. The movie pictures the dark years after the Spanish Civil War in Catalonia.

At an auction this week at the Sotheby Art Auction House in London, a Salvador Dalí painting was sold for no less than 16 million euros setting a world record for the Catalan artist and for any Surrealist work of art in the world.

Three Catalan movies compete in various categories at the Berlinale film festival. In addition, during the 10 days of festival, 13 Catalan movies are screened to the public in the German capital.

‘The Selected Stories of Mercè Rodoreda’ is the book’s title. It is the second English translation of this Catalan author from the second half of the 20th century.

Roser Capdevila created the 'The Triplets' in 1983 based on her own three daughters. The stories of the three sisters have been published all around the world and the author has decided to offer the original paintings to the Catalan Library.

The British film director Peter Greenaway was the guest of honour at the international documentary festival that took place in Barcelona from the 1st to the 6th of February. With up to 42 screenings all around the city, the festival showcased the crème de la crème of documentary making. In the end, the American documentary 'Foreign Parts' scooped the top award for best film this year and 'Enemies of the People', a chronicle of the horrific genocide of the Khmer Rouge won the Catalan Public Television prize for Human Rights