Culture

CaixaForum Girona, the social and cultural centre of “La Caixa” savings bank in the Catalan city of Girona played host to 131,158 visitors in its second year of existence. Among the different activities that took place during last year, the exhibitions registered the biggest affluence of visitors, followed by educational activities, concerts, family activities, conferences and social projects. The exhibitions dedicated to Monet, Gauguin, Rusiñol and Sunyer, the maternity photographs of Bru Rovira and the Louvre’s Egyptian collection were the most popular activities.

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 three Dalí museums managed by the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation were visited by 1.46 million people, 1.82% more visitors than in 2011. The Teatre Museu Dalí in Figueres, the Gala Dalí castle in Púbol and the Salvador Dalí house in Portlligat, all exhibit the work of the most important figure of Surrealism and represent a key tourism attraction for Catalonia and for the Costa Brava area.

The Contemporary Art Museum of Barcelona (MACBA) increased its number of visitors by 2.8% in 2012 with respect to the previous year. In 2011 the museum received the visit of 690,865 people, while in 2012 this figure grew to 710,435 visitors. The most visited exhibition has been ‘Oferta pública/Public Tender’ by Rita McBride with a total of 188,028 spectators.

Despite having a balanced budget in 2012, the National Theatre of Catalonia has decided to close the most alternative auditorium of the three it has since it will have smaller funds in 2013. The theatre expects a reduction in the occupancy rate due to the economic recession and therefore selling fewer tickets, resulting in a 28% reduction in its own resources. The institution has readjusted the 2012/2013 season by cancelling the spectacle ‘Panorama’ by Philippe Decouflé and by eliminating 70 performances of other plays in the other theatre rooms.

Ildefonso Falcones, the writer from Barcelona who rose to fame thanks to his best-selling debut ‘Cathedral of the Sea’, will publish his third novel on the 21st of February. The book, which will be on sale at the same time in Spain, Latin America and the United States, is about the friendship, passion and revenge between two women from Madrid and Seville in the 18th century, and is a call to freedom.

The 50th anniversary of the prestigious international competition of opera and oratorio-lied singing, named in honour of the Catalan tenor Francesc Viñas, awarded the joint first prize to Katerina Tretyakova, from Lithuania, and Michal Jakub Partyka, from Poland. The second prize went to Amartuvshin, from Mongolia, and the third prize was for Valeriu Caradja, from Moldova. The first junior prize was for Marina Nachkebiya, from Georgia. The final stage of the competition took place on Friday with 15 singers taking part in Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu. The award ceremony was on Sunday and the winners showed the audience their talent. Besides, the Liceu Theatre organised an exhibition and published a book to showcase Francesc Viñas’ career and the history of the competition named after him.

The Barcelona-born electronic and advanced music festival, which has become one of the world’s top events in its category, has unveiled part of its programme. The Pet Shop Boys, Kraftwerk, Darkstar, Two Door Cinema Club and Karenn are some of the artists included in Barcelona’s Sónar Festival, which will run in the Catalan capital between the 13th and 15th of June.

The Catalan theatre company, famous for its idiosyncratic style, will unveil its own particular vision of the opera classic ‘Un ballo in maschera’ by Giuseppe Verdi in Australia, which will be performed from the 16th of January to the 12th of February. Then the troupe will move its show to Brussels, Oslo and Buenos Aires. The Catalan group, started in the late 1970s, is famous for other opera adaptations including Wagner’s ‘The Ring of the Nibelung’, Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’, George Enescu’s ‘Oedipe’ and György Ligeti’s ‘Le Grand Macabre’, all of them having toured worldwide. In fact, with the latest two titles and now ‘Un ballo in maschera’, La Fura dels Baus will be returning to Brussels’ La Monnaie Theatre for their third time in four years.

The series, produced by the Catalan Public Television Broadcaster and Filmax, has been exported to several countries and Steven Spielberg and Marta Kauffman are going to shoot a remake for the ABC network. ‘Polseres vermelles’ – which literally means ‘red bracelets’ in Catalan - describes the life of a group of six teenagers who live in a hospital as patients. It is based on the personal experiences of its creator, Albert Espinosa, who had cancer as a child. The first season was aired in 2011 and it became a huge success with audiences. The second season premiered on Thursday and will be broadcast as from Monday on TV3 at prime time.

‘Blancanieves’ with 12 nominations and ‘El Bosc’ with 11 are leading the race at this year’s Gaudí awards ceremony. They are followed by ‘Els nens salvatges’ and ‘Fènix 11-23’, who are also candidates for the Best Film in Catalan. The Premis Gaudí are organised by the Catalan Cinema Academy and they recognise Catalan productions or movies with a significant presence of Catalan artistic and technical staff. They also award a prize for European productions. Out of the 89 films in the competition, 30 have received one or several nominations, becoming candidates to receive one of the 22 awards. ‘The Impossible’, ‘In The House’, ‘Le Havre’ and ‘The Intouchables’ are candidates for the Best European Movie.

Vinicio Capossela, Johny Winter, La Casa Azul, Quique González and Ron Sexsmith are some of the artists that are playing in the festival. The Catalan-speaking indie pop band Antònia Font will kick off the 24th edition of the Guitar Festival BCN on the 20th of February.

‘La Patum’ is a popular festival celebrated every year during Corpus Christi in the Catalan city of Berga. In this town, the earliest reference to this festival dates from 1454 although the celebration has its origins in pre-Christian festivities. Over the years, a new symbolism has been given to the festival – it also incorporates elements from theatre in the Middle Ages - which led to an original mix of giants, devils, angels and other peculiar-looking characters. In 2012, ‘La Patum’ celebrates its 7th anniversary since UNESCO declared it a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005. This celebration coincides with the launch of a documentary which shows how ‘La Patum’ was celebrated 50 years ago.

The opera is based on Vicente Ferrer, a Catalan who devoted his life to helping the poorest people in Anantapur, in India’s Andra Pradesh. Vicente Ferrer’s project brought aid to some 2.5 million people. He died three years ago. On the 1st of December, the “opera collage”, as its author Joan Martínez calls it, will be shown in Barcelona’s Sant Jordi pavilion. Martínez met Ferrer in India and created this show in his honour. ‘L’home del paraigua’ has already premiered at the Liceu Theatre in September 2010.

The French Arts Centre is organising one of the largest and most complete retrospective exhibitions on the Catalan artist. 33 years ago, when Dalí was still alive, the Centre Pompidou held a retrospective of his work. In the 2012 exhibition, which will run until the 25th of March 2013, it is claimed that Dalí is one of the most influential artists ever, who not only shaped surrealism but also pop art. The exhibition is full of masterpieces, such as the soft and melting pocket watches of The Persistence of Memory (1931), The Great Masturbator (1929) and Mae West’s room, shown in the Dalí museum in Figueres.