institut ramon llull

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.

"Between 2015 and 2016 the Catalan Government will open new Trade & Investment offices in Belgrade, Tehran, Accra, Tel Aviv and Lima and enlarge its San Francisco-based one", Catalan Business Minister, Felip Puig, announced on Monday. Similarly, the Catalan Executive recently launched a new 'technological antenna' in Boston (Massachusetts) and will soon do the same in Panama, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Senegal and Angola, enlarging its network of business promotion offices abroad. The Minister said that in 2014, Catalan companies exported more than 51% of the Catalan Gross Domestic Product and the Executive is set on further enhancing their internationalisation. "Official data seem to confirm that companies with a stronger global presence suffered the economic crisis less and the Government wants to support them", he concluded.

The Catalan film director Albert Serra, best known for his film 'Story of my Death' (winner of the Locarno International Film Festival, 2013) will present his latest project 'Singularity' commissioned for the fourth Catalan participation at the major, contemporary art exhibition Venice Biennale. The exhibition represents Catalonia in this 56^th edition of the international exhibit, within the 'Collateral Events' section. The official opening of the event was held on Thursday and is part of an ongoing collaboration between the cinematographer and the curator of the project, Chus Martinez. Catalonia's participation at the Biennale is driven and coordinated by the Institut Ramon Llull (the public body promoting Catalan culture and language abroad), and this year has cost a total of 497, 000 euros.

As was expected, the Constitutional Court has accepted the Spanish Government's appeal against the Catalan Law on External Action and Relations with the EU, which was approved last November and was already foreseen in the 2006 Catalan Statute of Autonomy. The Court's acceptance of a Spanish Government appeal automatically represents a temporary suspension of the legal measure for an initial 5-month period. The temporary suspension does not mean that the law will ultimately be suspended, but that there are enough reasons to study whether the Catalan law fits within the Constitution or not. According to the Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy, the law goes beyond the Catalan Government's attributions and invades the Spanish Executive's exclusive powers regarding international relations and the direction of Spain's external policy.

This year, bands Oques Grasses and La iaia, singer-songwriter Sílvia Pérez Cruz and DJ Guillamino will perform in Central Park. The New York SummerStage Festival will present the 2^nd edition of 'Catalan Sounds on Tour' on 28 June, a Sunday afternoon of Catalan music at this internationally-renown festival. More than 5,000 people are expected to attend, with the event being free and running from 2.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m. The initiative is the result of a partnership between the Institut Ramon Llull (a public body for the promotion of Catalan language and cultural production abroad) and the SummerStage Festival. Its purpose is to bring Catalan music to international audiences.

This year the Catalan Government wants to highlight a number of important events and personalities and its goal is to promote them internationally. One of the most important figures is Catalan writer Ramon Llull, who died 700 years ago. Ramon Llull was an important writer rom Mallorca, who is credited with writing the first major work of Catalan literature. Furthermore, he was one of the greatest thinkers and writers of the Middle-Ages in Europe and North Africa. Catalonia’s institute for culture and language promotion abroad is named after him.

The former European Commission’s Spokesperson for Economic Affairs during the Eurozone crisis, Amadeu Altafaj, is to become Catalonia’s Permanent Representative to the EU institutions. This position has been created as a way to increase the political weight of the already existing Catalan Government Delegation in Brussels in the middle of the debate about independence from Spain. Altafaj, who has also worked as Deputy Chief of Cabinet of the Commission’s Vice President for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Olli Rehn, since 2012, will now direct this delegation and become Catalonia’s voice in the EU institutions’ offices. On many occasions, Altafaj has been vocal about Catalonia’s self-determination, supporting it and emphasising that an independent Catalan State would be economically viable.

On Wednesday the Catalan Parliament passed two important bills. With 74% support, it has approved the Law of External Action and Relations with the EU. Only two parties voted against it, the Spanish nationalist People’s Party (PP) – which runs the Spanish Government – and Ciutadans (C’s). A third party, the alternative left and radical independence party CUP, abstained because it considered that the law was not “ambitious enough”. All the rest supported the bill, which mainly puts in order the existing bodies and mechanisms, although it also creates some new ones, in line with the Catalan Government’s powers in this area, recognized by the Catalan Statute of Autonomy. The other bill is the tax on Internet suppliers, which aims to fund the Catalan audiovisual sector, affected by Internet piracy. No party voted against it. The new tax aims to collect some €20.5 million per year and it is welcomed by the cinema industry, and rejected by the main Internet suppliers.

On Friday, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival opens in Yorkshire, England, and once again the line-up features many Catalan musicians and composers. This is thanks to an agreement with the Ramon Llull Institute (IRL); the public body promoting Catalan culture abroad. The festival is internationally renowned in the fields of contemporary and experimental music, and aims to create exchanges between artists from different countries. Running until November 30, the festival will also have a presence in Barcelona, through cooperation with the British Council and Barcelona’s L’Auditori concert hall. Carlos Casas, Ferran Fages and Hèctor Parra (who was Huddersfield’s resident composer last year) are some of the Catalan artists that are in this year’s line-up. The festival will begin on Friday with Carlos Casas’ ‘Avalanche’, a track that was released at Barcelona’s music festival Sonar in 2010, and has now hit the UK.

This year, Barcelona will be the focus of the Beijing Design Week (BJDW), to be held between the 26^th of September and the 3^rd of October in the Chinese Capital. The international exhibition will dedicate 8 spaces to Barcelona, the biggest being 79 Tank, a 3,500 square metre pavilion housed in an old gas tank. The BJDW will devote a total of 5 exhibitions, 17 conferences and more than 20 activities to the design made in Barcelona. In addition, alternative design will also be present during this week-long event that brings together the capitals of China and Catalonia: 3 small projects will to take place in District Dashilar, one of the oldest neighbourhoods of Beijing. The BJDW event that last year attracted 5 million people, previous invites have included London (2011), Milan (2012) and Amsterdam (2013), making Barcelona the 4^th largest city to be chosen.

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.

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.

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'.

The rock star, who died on Sunday aged 71, participated in activities promoting Catalan culture and literature in the world. Lou Reed had stated on several occasions his admiration for some Catalan poets. The Velvet Underground founder worked with the Ramon Llull Institute (IRL) in two readings of Catalan Poetry in English. The first one took place in New-York in 2007 and the Punk icon Patti Smith as well as Reed’s life partner, the artist Laurie Anderson, also participated. The other was in Barcelona, in 2008, with only Lou Reed on stage. Some of the poems read were from Gabriel Ferrater, Perejaume, Enric Casasses, Maria Mercè Marçal and Miquel Martí i Pol.

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.