culture

The Institut Ramon Llull (IRL) is a public body in charge of promoting Catalan culture and language abroad. On Thursday, "it expressed optimism for the first time" about a collaboration with the new Governments of Valencia and the Balearic Islands, both led by left-wing coalitions. The Director of the institute, Àlex Susanna, said that, following the May 2015 elections, "positive signs" are emerging but still could not confirm any conclusive agreement. According to him, the new political landscape opens a "great opportunity" to promote the international mobility of artists and intellectuals from Catalan-speaking territories. Asked about the new Head of Barcelona City Council – part of the consortium constituting the institute – Susanna said that he foresees "continuity" with the work of previous local Executives.

Every year the sounds of fireworks popping and crackling perforate the air in Catalonia in the days leading up to Sant Joan's Eve (Nit de Sant Joan). The yearly festival culminates in a massive party on the night of 23 June, when locals celebrate the holiday by setting off mass amounts of fireworks and igniting bonfires, known in Catalan as 'fogueres'. At midnight, there is a spectacular fireworks display, marking the climax of the celebration. The bonfires of Sant Joan have special meaning for Catalan-speaking regions, and the festival is considered a Catalan national holiday. The tradition as it exists today traces its roots back to pagan rituals and coincides with the summer solstice, marking the beginning of the summer.

Barcelona ranks 9^th in the list of the cities with the best reputation in the world, according to a study presented by the prestigious ESADE Business School. The Catalan capital stands out especially in areas of tourism, sport and culture. The City RepTrak 2014 study was presented on Tuesday at ESADE, which has its headquarters at the Catalan capital. The report measures the reputation of 100 cities around the world, and the 5 cities at the top of the list are Vienna, Munich, Sydney, Florence and Oslo. European cities were the highest ranking, followed by those in the United States, and well ahead of those in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa. While Barcelona has risen from being 23^rd to the top ten, Madrid has dropped from 27^th to 32^nd place.

Photographer Colita has rejected the National Photography Prize awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture because of "the pitiful, shameful and painful" situation of the cultural sector in Spain. Colita, who was one of the main photographers portraying Barcelona's bohemian life of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, did so after another Catalan artist, the world-famous musician Jordi Savall, did the same last week for similar reasons. In both cases, the two artists highlighted that their reasons for rejecting the award were linked to the Spanish Government's cultural policies and had nothing to do with its blocking attitude towards Catalonia's self-determination process. Colita ironically stated that she "does not know where [the Spanish Ministry of Culture] is located, neither if it exists".

Catalan author Jaume Cabré’s latest novel 'Jo confesso' has been translated into English and is finally hitting bookstores in the Anglophone world for the first time since its original publication in 2011. It was translated by Mara Faye Letham and published by Arcadia books. The novel, which this year won the Courrier International Prize for 'Best foreign novel', as well as several Catalan literature awards, has already been translated into Spanish, German, Italian and Chinese, among others. This is another success for Catalan literature, after the publication in English of 'Quadern gris' ('The Grey Notebook') by Josep Pla and the Joan Sales classic 'Incerta Glòria' ('Uncertain Glory'). Catalan literature is blossoming among English readers, thanks to the recent translations of several other classics.

The 17^th Mediterranean Trade Fair, specialised in folk and world music, will take place from Thursday to Sunday, expected to attract 100,000 people to the city of Manresa, in central Catalonia. The most international fair of its history, it will feature over 300 art activities, host 107 companies and show 35 exhibitions. Highlights of the programme include the popular Portuguese singer Dulce Pontes and the musical duo Toumani Diabaté -the world famous African harpist-and his son Sidiki. Pluralism and the question of "what is popular culture today" will be the defining themes of this year’s event, which will host over 1,000 professionals, including 30 speakers and 180 cultural projects. The Fair will also be a tribute to the late musician Peret, the ‘father’ of Catalan rumba who sadly passed away in August.

Three of Catalonia´s most popular music groups played in Central Park in New York City on Sunday 21^st July as part of the SummerStage Festival. The three Catalan performers, Mishima, Txarango and Headbirds, participated in the event under the slogan ´Catalan sounds on tour´, with the aim to internationalise Catalan musicians and performers. The festival is organised by New York´s City Parks Foundation with the object to raise awareness of the richness of different cultures, and this year includes the participation of the Ramon Llull Institute (IRL), Catalonia's public body to promote Catalan language and culture abroad.

In Girona there are 65 music festivals and more than 250 performances scheduled throughout the year. Often, however, these festivals are not marketed effectively abroad and there is a lack of international promotion. Therefore, the Costa Brava Tourism Board has facilitated the creation of a single brand, through a website that brings together all of the different musical delights on offer in the region, in order to make these events more accessible and better advertised. For now, the site costabravagironafestivals.com gives the music festival programme for Girona, but has a goal to expand to include theatre, circus and dance events.

In the last week of August, over 600 amateur actors from across the world will be descending on Girona for one of the liveliest dramatic art summer festivals, the International Festival of Amateur Theatre (FITAG). In the 14th edition of the festival, taking place from the 26-30 August, 33 performances will be staged over just five days, at various venues in the Girona capital and surrounding towns such as Figueres, Lloret de Mar, Palamós, Palafrugell, Maçanet Selva and La Jonquera. 15 of the participating theatre groups are local companies from Girona; a further 5 are from the rest of Spain and 11 are international. The aim of this year’s festival is to bring together the culture and theatre from different immigrant communities and strengthen international exchanges.

Sónar+D is an international conference for creativity and technological innovation which coincides with the Sónar by Day Festival. The conference will organize lectures, project exhibitions, stage activities and hold meetings with experts to enhance talent and further opportunities in the digital environment creating a strong parallel to the music festival. This year is the second edition of Sónar+D and the conference is growing now bringing together more than 100 companies, as well as artists, entrepreneurs and technicians from around the world to promote talent and business opportunities in the area of ??culture. The festival's co-director Enric Palau recently revealed details about this year’s program, which is a new initiative divided into four areas. An area dedicated to round table conferences, an exhibition area where more than 40 featured worldwide technology projects are to be on show, a space for art shows and an area where attendees can meet renowned professionals.

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’.

Barcelona, divided into ten districts which are then subdivided into 73 neighbourhoods, is rich with streets and squares with historical significance. Many of them honour world-famous figures, such as a square named after George Orwell which can be found in the Gothic Quarter, a square honouring John F. Kennedy in the district of Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, Christopher Columbus Avenue and monument near Les Rambles, John Lennon and Anne Frank squares both located in the Gràcia district, and a garden and a statue dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi in the neighbourhood of Poblenou. However, iconic Catalan figures such as surrealist artist Salvador Dalí do not have a street or square named after them.

Coinciding with the Mobile World Congress, the Catalan Ministry of Culture has organised the conference ‘Digital 4C’, which aims at “providing answers” to questions about digital contents and “bring closer” the world of technology and culture. The EBook, music, the audiovisual sector and video games will be the main topics of discussion among professionals through seminars, roundtables, conferences and meeting points to exchange about past experiences and new initiatives. Barcelona holds such an event as part of the Mobile World Capital project, a title the city was awarded until at least 2018 in order to act as the main international platform for the mobile-related industry. ‘Digital 4C’will be held at the Arts Santa Mònica Centre on the 27^th and 28^th of February, overlapping with the Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest fair in the sector which ends this Thursday.

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 city of Barcelona will be the Guest of Honour at the 2014 Beijing Design Week (BJDW). This festival is one of the biggest cultural events in China and will be attended by three and a half millon visitors from all over the world. The news was announced on Thursday by Mayor of Barcelona Xavier Trias, Minister for Culture Ferran Mascarell and Director of the Ramon Llull Institute for Catalan Culture Àlex Susanna. The event is dedicated to Design, Architecture, Urbanism, and Contemporary Creation. Susanna insisted it was the most significant cultural project since Catalonia’s invitation to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2007.