Despite budget cuts, Barcelona Centre of Contemporary Culture (CCCB) has big plans for 2011

Barcelona (ACN).- The Barcelona Centre of Contemporary Culture (CCCB) will see their budget cut by 4.5% this year. Taking into account the new building, an old theatre space of 300 square metres, this number increases to 8.5%. According to the director of the CCCB, Josep Ramoneda, this is the situation and “those that do not want to acknowledge it should look in another direction”. He hopes that the budget cuts will not affect the quality of programming and is happy about the new exhibitions, such as ‘The Trieste of Magris’, which has just opened at the centre. The exhibition “sets out to talk about Trieste’s great writer, Claudio Magris and his relationship with Trieste, a singular city that represents a frontier of various cultures that have come together there in recent centuries.” The centre will also be undergoing renovations, including the opening of the new theatre space and the removal of characteristic features such as the escalators.

Josep Ramoneda spoke of the 2011 programme, which is intended to revolve around three points: revealing new social and cultural foundations of the urban imaginary, experimenting with new exhibition formats and cultural expression and using the crisis as a platform for reflection about the future. 

The programme includes a photography exhibition of Brangulí, one of the lesser-known Catalan photographers whose work is in the Catalan National Archive. The exhibition will focus on the great transformations that occurred in the city in the second half of the 20th century.

Another photography exhibition scheduled for next year is entitled ‘Disappeared’. It will feature the work of photographer Gervasio Sànchez. Sànchez’s work centres on topics such as the forced disappearance of people all over the world. The exhibition is part of a collaboration project between the Contemporary Art Museum of Castilla y Leon and La Casa Encendida.

Also on the programme for 2011 is a photography exhibition about September 11th, or 11S (1714 Siege of Barcelona defeat during the War of the Spanish Succession and the current National Day of Catalonia). The exhibition will analyse how different societies cope with a traumatic phenomenon such as an assault or a terrorist attack.

Infrastructures

This year, the CCCB will finish restoration on an antique theatre. The new space, currently called the Teatre CCCB, is an auditorium capable of seating 500 people. The new theatre may be used for stage arts, but the idea is still tentative and will not take affect until 2012 as they are still “hearing proposals”. The idea is to find a niche in the Barcelona stage arts market to avoid competition with other theatres. The renovation work has cost 6 million euros and installation work has cost 2 million.

The museum also plans to remove its characteristic escalators. According to Ramoneda, escalator maintenance is very costly and if they were to install 4 to 5 panoramic elevators, they would spend 50% less.

Conceptual Framework

One of the main themes that the museum is working toward for the future is catering to the ‘post-sònar’ generation. This new generation of diverse cultural clusters is interested in the city’s development and a wide variety of cultural productions.

Regarding debates and conferences, the centre will focus on four themes: the crisis as a moment of change, immigration, science and publications. Themes such as love, ethics and Europe and the idea of the Ghetto are also planned for 2011.

The centre will of course continue its festival programming. The ‘Kosmopolis’ festival will coincide with the opening of the new theatre space and will centre on the relationship between technology and literature. The Xcèntric film series, which is receiving worldwide recognition, has already begun.

Finally, the CCCB will also be incorporating an element of deprogramming. ‘Urgent!’ will collect proposals from various formats and subjects in need of urgent action.