La Caixa Foundation launches festival In other wordsan engaging cultural initiative that will take place at CaixaForum Barcelona with the word as the central axis of a wide program of proposals that bring together different artistic disciplines.
From May 8 to 30, the Cultural Center will receive distinguished voices from the national and international literary scene, and from culture in general, as part of a series of activities around literature, where there will be space for conferences, dialogues, concerts and poetry performances. Wines, family workshops and performing arts. In this multi-format festival, visitors will discover from a different perspective the role that the word plays in various artistic creations. The “la Caixa” Foundation co-organized this unique proposal in the city in collaboration with the cultural production company La Sullivan.
The word in dramaturgy
The festival will open on May 8 with a play that puts the power of words at the center of the stage: The rape of Lucrezia. In collaboration with the Consorci del Teatre Fortuny de Reus, the Cultural Center hosts one of the most important tragic poems in William Shakespeare’s works, a thoughtful and excellent piece interpreted by Mercy Sampietro I Martha MarcoTwo of the best actresses and undisputed authorities on the national theatrical scene.
Mercy Sampietro and Marta Marco in “The Rape of Lucrezia”. © Consorci del Teatre Fortuny de Reus
The word in poetry and digital art
If there is anything that sets this festival apart from other activities, it is its diverse format. The word can be understood from different perspectives, but in this competition there is always a common denominator: presentation. May is also the month when poetry crosses borders to become a true hybrid. This is the case with the proposal New York in the PoetWhich will be held on May 16, in which the actor will perform Alberto San Juan I the band. This presentation reproduces the text – in prose and verse – delivered by Federico García Lorca at a 1930 recital at the Residencia de Señoritas in Madrid. In fact, the text already includes the basics of the well-known Poet in New York. Alberto San Juan picks up Lorca’s influence and brings back a new interpretation of a poem that is a cry against power and unbridled capitalism, which artists like Leonard Cohen or Enrique Morente have already composed in their own way.
Part of the exhibition “New York in the Poet” © Alberto San Juan
Still in the field of poetry and combining it with technological innovation, on May 23, the proposal will reach the Caixa Forum Someone collected my parts, charged my battery and leftWith him is the digital artist and writer Mighty Gomez He wants to expand the space of the readable word through musical and audio-visual experimentation. A good example of how 3D and VR can become a poetic medium.
Classical and electronic music lyrics
The performances continue with two concerts around the word, aimed at two very different audiences. On the other hand, the Cultural Center will host May 19 Babylon Bachwith Dio Inn party. The technical team consisting ofCriticize Mehdi Krüger and Artistic Director Franck-Emmanuel Comte came up with an idea that combined Bach’s youth music with poetry written in Italian, German and French.
“Babylon Bach” from Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu. © Florent de Gaudemar
On the other hand, under the umbrella of the DNIT cycle – which for years has presented electronic proposals aimed at a restive and avant-garde audience – CaixaForum Barcelona presents on May 24 a performance Nicholas JaarComposer and producer who grew up between Santiago de Chile and New York. With his works published on labels such as Warp, R&S or his own label Other People, he is considered one of the main exponents of avant-garde music on a global scale. First, he will invite the audience to enter this new universe through a close and relaxed talk, and then he will take the stage and perform at CaixaForum Barcelona as a world premiere.
The word and literary echoes
Writer Marta Sanz © Ana Martín Zurdo
Without the voices of great writers, this festival would have no meaning. Bringing the word to life in literature itself, the Cultural Center will welcome some of the great names in contemporary literature. Thus, it will be held on May 14 Wounds and literature, The dance of words between writers Edward Lewis I Roy Galan. The Frenchman Louis won the public’s approval with his first novel, Goodbye Eddie Beligol, a story that tells of a childhood filled with homophobia, masculinity, racism, alcoholism, and above all, poverty that extends beyond the walls of his home and that is what makes the story universal. Lewis will talk about his work and the themes that define it with writer Roy Galland, with whom he shares an interest in describing how dominant discourses operate in our culture, both in literature and in social networks.
A week later, on May 21, International Booker Prize finalist Guadalupe Nittel will perform. The chemistry of literature, a short unpublished lecture on how pain becomes art. To do this, she will explain some examples of authors who, in her opinion, have succeeded. then, I will talk to the writer Marta SanzHe is also flawless when exploring what is subconscious and most intimate about his characters in his work.
To conclude these dialogues and as a final edition of the festival on May 28 Mariana Enriquezwas converted to A Rock star From dark fantasy literature, You will engage in a deep conversation with Alana S. Porterauthor of the famous novel · la Bad habit. Together they will investigate the relationship between literature and fear, exploring the extent to which genre literature can represent reality.
Vermouth with the right words
Musician Ferran Palau © Ferran Palau
Festival schedule In other words It will also extend on Sundays in the emblematic spaces of CaixaForum Barcelona, such as the building’s modernist terraces. There will be an encounter between literature and music to find the rhythms of texts and explore how readings resonate. In this sense Poetic wines One of the highlights of this festival is an original proposal by the “la Caixa” Foundation in collaboration with the cultural production company La Sullivan that brings together figures from writing and music composition to investigate the intersections between both disciplines and analyze the words that serve as recurring themes in the works.
Shorfa will host the Cultural Center on May 12 Poetic wine among the charismatic David KarabinGuitar, voice and main composer of the band Mishima, Catalan pop icon, and famous writer Sebastian Alzamora, who will explore nostalgia together through songs, poems and texts. And at the next vintage, which will be held on May 19, Anna Andreu is a singer, guitarist and writer Sarah Torres They will discuss self-restraint as an ambiguous gesture that serves both repression and love. Together they will create the fabric of this encounter, exchanging ideas, songs and readings. Finally, on May 26, Ferran PalauComposer, singer and songwriter who left his own mark on the world of music Lo-fi folk-pop More intimate will be explored with the writer Myriam Kanu The fragile state of being and art from unexpected places through literature, film and music.
Meetings with professors of the journalistic word
If we talk about the word, we cannot exclude professionals who every day tell us in their words about everything that happens in the world. This festival also includes very interesting meetings with figures from the press. With activity Stop the rotating machines! Breakfasts with journalistsVisitors will be able to learn from the best communications experts. Thus, on May 9, journalist Miquel Molina, deputy director of La Vanguardia, will delve into the life of a multimedia newsroom and explain the processes that define news and the hierarchy with which it shapes the information presented on the web and in the Internet. The print version (and the critical impact that artificial intelligence can have on this decision-making process). On the other hand, on May 16, it will be the cultural journalist Sergio Villa Sanjuan, responsible for culture(s) of La Vanguardia, who will explain how the cultural attaché works and what the challenges, topics and methods of cultural journalism are.
Audience during a conference at CaixaForum Barcelona.© Fundació “la Caixa”
These breakfasts will continue on May 23, according to the analysis of Neus Tomás, deputy director of El Diario.es and head of the Catalan delegation. Thomas will analyze some examples of investigative journalism and a discussion will be opened about the blurred boundaries between information and opinion. And on May 30, it will be the turn of radio, with a presentation by Radio Catalunya journalist Roser Pereira y Moragés, who will talk about “the radio that cannot be seen, but which is never silent and which without images attracts listeners with every news scenario”.
The word in children’s and young people’s literature
Children’s and young people’s literature also has a place in this competition. On Saturdays 11, 15 and 18 and Sundays 12, 16 and 19 May, the Cultural Center will provide free access to a family space containing reference books, games and materials for participants to experiment, explore and be inspired by letters and words as a resource for creation. In addition, on Sunday in May the painter and photographer Anna FontWriter Joan de Dio Prats The painter and director Marta Connell They will pass through this space to activate the sessions.
Unique workshops to whisper words in the ear
For the little ones and their families, the festival In other words It will include activities such as a workshop Music and cinema are in harmonyIt is a participatory activity that will allow the whole family to create an audio-visual piece based on exploration using music, audio and video editing techniques. The most daring can try it Definitions of walkingshowcasing the workshop in which the participants will become Performers I Dictionaries: With the power of their observation, their body, their words, and the microphone, they will improvise definitions of things that are and are happening, but from an unusual, creative, and fun perspective.
The festival also offers Literary whisper, a mobile storytelling initiative in which a storyteller moves around the cultural center telling stories to visiting audiences. It is a bet on close and welcoming literary orality, because there are words that reach further when said in a low voice. This initiative was made possible thanks to the collaboration of the “la Caixa” Foundation with the FLICK Literary Festival.
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