2018

The winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of Architecture, will represent Catalonia at the Venice Biennale 2018. The Catalan Minister of Culture, Santi Vila, and the manager of the Institut Ramon Llull (IRL), Manuel Forcano, explained that this is the proposal they will submit to the Biennale. “It is important that, when Catalonia's talent and excellence are recognized, that the institutions should be able to find the displays in which they can express their style, what they do and what they think,” said the minister. Vila also explained that this decision was taken through a consensus with the sector, so no tender needs to be announced. The studio RCR Arquitectes, which won the Pritzker Architecture Prize on March 1, has 30 years of experience in Olot, Catalonia. The announcement made by Vila and Forcano comes just ten days before the architecture studio receives the award in a ceremony in Tokyo.

A new season of music is ready at the Auditori Concert Hall, in Barcelona for the 2017-18 season. Worldwide artists will perform at the Catalan home of classical music in a mix of multicultural performances from beloved soundtracks to concerts by famous orchestra directors as Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel. The 17/18 season will continue to promote the emerging artists but it will also include ancient music through an ambitious project: the ‘Jove Capella Reial de Catalunya’. This new ‘ensemble’ of young talents, led by the world-famous Catalan musician Jordi Savall, will offer a concert dedicated to the first great Catalan baroque composer, Joan Cererols.

The joint bid between Andorra la Vella, the capital of the Principality of Andorra and the closest Catalan town, La Seu d’Urgell, to organize the 2018 Special Olympics Games has been successful. The Mayor of Andorra la Vella, Marc Pons, and the mayor of La Seu d’Urgell, Albert Batalla, made this public last week. The two mayors said the games would be a challenge and there will promote the two cities as sports centers and towns of solidarity. The event will be held from the 4th to 7th of October and will bring more than 2,400 people from more than seventeen international delegations. This will be the first time that the Special Olympic Games, the most important international sports event for athletes with mental disability, will be held in the Pyrenees.