ferran mascarell

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.

Some 250 people have joined hands around the old Cathedral of Lleida (Western Catalonia) for the third consecutive year, urging the monument and its surroundings to be declared UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the heart of the Catalan city, the tremendous ‘Turó de la Seu Vella’, literally the Hill of the Old See, is formed of several buildings, with the most significant being the 13^th century cathedral, known as ‘La Seu Vella’. The hill also hosts the remains of La Suda or King's Castle (Castell del Rei o La Suda), well preserved military fortifications built from the 14^th to the 18^th century and other archaeological gems. An official nomination bid was eventually presented this January, setting up the first stage of a lengthy procedure.

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.

Japanese conductor Kazushi Ono was appointed the next main conductor of the Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National Orchestra (OBC) taking over from the current conductor Pablo Gonzalez in September 2015. The decision to appoint Ono has received the consent of "all parties". The Director of the L’Auditori concert hall, where the OBC is based, hopes that Ono will lead the ensemble to be a worldwide fame orchestra from Catalonia. Ono is currently the main conductor of the orchestra of the Opera National de Lyon and will also be the head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in Spring 2015.

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.

The world-famous English satirical writer, author of the ‘Wilt’ series and the novel ‘Porterhouse Blue’, died in the Catalan coastal village of Llafranc, where he had been living since the early 1990s. The writer’s doctor and secretary unveiled that Sharpe had left an unfinished autobiography with 30,000 words already written. The British author died from complications of his diabetes while he was sleeping in his house during the early hours of Thursday. He passed away “in the most peaceful way”, his widow Nancy told the press. Nancy Sharpe thanked medical services for the attention received in the last few days and stated that the family will keep the Costa Brava house, which was so dear to the writer. She explained that her husband “fell in love with the sunlight and the Mediterranean sea” of the Costa Brava.

The opposition has denounced “the insult to intelligence” and the “ridiculousness” of changing the official name of the Catalan language in Aragon. Catalan has been spoken in the eastern part of Aragon for almost a thousand years. In addition, the regional parliament has also changed the name of Aragonese, a minority language also spoken for many centuries in Aragon’s Pyrenean valleys. The People’s Party (PP) and a minority regional party called PAR have changed the law ruling Aragon’s official languages. Spanish is now considered the only official language in all Aragon and LAPAO (formerly Catalan) and LAPAPYP (Aragonese) are secondary languages. University experts have strongly criticised this decision which goes against all scientific criteria. From Catalonia, the situation is perceived as another attack on the Catalan language and an attempt to eradicate it from certain areas.

Classic and contemporary authors from Catalonia, writing in Catalan or in Spanish, are one of the main attractions of this year’s Salon du Livre in Paris, which is one of the main book fairs internationally. Running from Friday the 22nd to Monday the 25th of March in the French capital, this year the book fair has Barcelona as its guest city under the title ‘Barcelona, ville des prodiges’. The Institut Ramon Llull, the public body in charge of promoting Catalan culture abroad, is organising the presence of Catalan literature at the fair. During the first day, the visitors were mainly interested in Eduardo Mendoza, Carlos Ruiz Zafón and Josep Pla, who wrote ‘The Grey Notebook’ which has just been translated into French.

The Catalan ‘Gaudi’ Film Awards had a true international feel this year as ‘The Imposible’, directed by Barcelona-born moviemaker Juan Antonio Bayona, came out on top. Starring Ewan McGregor and Oscar-nominated Naomi Watts, the film won the six awards for which it was nominated, including Best Director and Best European Film. The Catalan-Spanish production ‘Blancanieves’, directed by Pablo Berger, was voted Best Catalan Film. Àlex Monner – famous for his ‘Red Band Society’ part – was recognised as Best Actor for the film ‘Els nens salvatges’ and Maria Molins won Best Actress for ‘El Bosc’.

The President of the Catalan Government has formed a new Cabinet with more political weight controlled by some of the people closest to him, such as Francesc Homs and Germà Gordó, who have been promoted. Half of the previous ministers will continue in the same position, such as the Vice-President Joana Ortega and the Finance Minister Andreu Mas-Colell. The new Executive combines a few Social-Democrat figures – as a gesture towards the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC) – with members of the Christian-Democrat side of the governing Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), in order to respect the internal equilibrium. The new Government has the objectives of organising the self-determination vote, reducing the public deficit and reactivating the economy.

Catalonia and the Balearic Islands opened their own pavilion and exhibition at the 13th Architecture Biennale in Venice on Monday. They are participating in the ‘Collateral Events’ alongside the official programme. The exhibit shows the work of 9 young Catalan and Baleric architects, focusing on an architecture with a greater human dimension.

The Cistercian monastery is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and receives around 130,000 visitors a year. It has had an 800,000 euro renovation of its cloister. Lasting 7 months, the task was funded by the Catalan savings bank ‘La Caixa’. The work was unveiled last Saturday by the Catalan Minister of Culture, Ferran Mascarell.

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.

In 1939, Franco’s troops entered Catalonia and plundered most of the official documents of the Catalan Government, institutions, political parties, trade unions, and cultural organisations. In addition, they also took personal documents belonging to Catalan personalities. In total more than 300,000 documents were sent to an archive in Salamanca. They were processed and the information they contained used by the Fascist regime’s repression in the post-war years. The documents are known as the ‘Salamanca Papers’. The Spanish Government ordered the return of some of the ‘Salamanca Papers’ in 1995, but political opposition has delayed the process until now. There are still around 300 boxes of documents in Salamanca.

The Catalan opera diva, acclaimed worldwide, gave a concert at the Gran Teatre del Liceu surrounded by her friends, colleagues, pupils and a grateful audience. Only three days away from reaching half a century of performances at Barcelona’s opera house, Montserrat Caballé also celebrated this special anniversary by unveiling an exhibition on her career in the same venue.