Barcelona es una trampa
Barcelona es una trampa. Barcelone is a tramp. A trick. The Ciudad Condal nowadays has nothing to do with the magic city of Eduardo Mendoza nor with “the place of thousands of places” of Manolo Vazquez Montalbán. The enchantment is over, the infatuation has passed. Or at lest “that” enchantment” and “that” infatuation. Barcelone is a tramp weel served, the exit of high turistic magic trick. A non-place, the perfect small-scale model of the Wester moral.
The Olympic Games of 1992 gave birth to a perfect daughter, a Barbie of the capitalist dream: blond hairs, blu eyes, sculpted physique. And that flamenco dress to wear now and then, just to please the visitor and his expectations. During sixteen years, the Catalan Barbie has grown up, has become a woman. The Swimming World Cup, the Forum of Cultures in 2004. the child has transformed, and has changed her wardrobe. “Let's make room to progress!” seems to have been the motto of the '80s. A mix of yuppism Wall Street style and of positivism of the XVIII century.
The relief scream of a Catalonia (and a Spain) bowed down by a hard dictatorship and by a heavy clericalism has turned too soon into a multi-coloroud cage. The necessary renewal of a city and a country abandoned to degradation (the Montjuic zone, the port, wide areas in the outskirts...) has undergone – maiby unconsciously – the “quick that's late” syndrome. A lot has been done but to rapidly, without thinking to the civic consequences. The old quartes immediately became half a city made of cardboard, victim of the rich frenzy of the consumistic and consumer's people. The popular neighborhoods made room to the living areas of the XXI century, where new and nice doesn't always mean better.
This provocative opinion doesn't want to defend the unuseful and eternal refrain “times have changed...” Nevertheless, I think that manners - although no always - often end being the substance. I mean, the crazy run for an accelerated modernization has not been such an adventage. The need for a urban regeneration. That’s to say, the crazy race to an accelerated modernization was not what it was supposed to be. The need for a urban requalification often hidden choices at least debatable. One for all: the vast area destined a few years ago to the Forum of Cultures, which led to impressive expropriation in a popular district as the Poble Nou. The same is happening to the beautiful Barceloneta, the triangle of land that enters the sea between Port Olimpic and Port Vell, mainly inhabited by the elder people. We cannot say the same for areas that do feel the need for fresh air and basic renovations, such as Mina and Florida. But-as it’ easy to see- it is difficult to imagine money investments in the basic needs of poor neighbourhood’ population, where the advantage would be practically null. The revenue of tourism stuff the pockets of both public and private sectors.
Barcelona however enchants half the world, like a childish fairy tale. In Italy you can deeply breathe the myth of Barcelona. Of this Barcelona. Promised Land for massive tourism, destination for low-cost holidays, place for meeting and passing by, homeland of sol, see and fiesta. The same propaganda, as if by chance, that Franco used in the golden sixties to promote foreign tourism on the Mediterranean coast. So what else is Barcelona, in the end, for the much criticised (but much, much sought) “Sunday tourists”, apart from this poor and desired triad? Paella and sangria? Flamenco and Latin music? Culture is one of the few props that save Barcelona from plunging into the abyss on whose bottom flash the neon of Las Vegas. A rich, lively, never sleeping culture. A modern, independent, often original culture. Something else than the usual half a dozen museums for weekend tourism. Short films and documentaries reviews, theatres art centres dominated by experimentation. Street art, street music. Popular culture accepted and promoted by the Academia. A stimulating tornado open to Africa, Americas and the Far East releasing the sounds of heterodoxy, as SoBarcelona revealed last summer.
But still let’s keep in line with the dominant commercial morality, and end up with a more reassuring overview. Barna is closed by the small mountain chain of Collserola, which pushes it into the sea. On the highest hill, the Tibidabo, a church by Gaudi is flanked by an entertainment park. A large terrace allows you to admire the city in all its ambiguous beauty, Barbie of the Mediterranean Sea: from the expanses of the Prat Airport to the hills of Vallés. And in the middle of many kilometres of roofs, lie the geometric lines of the long Eixample ditrict, the sweet profile of Montjuic, the Gothic bell tower of the Cathedral, the twin towers of the Olympic Port, the cranes supporting the uncompleted Sagrada Familia, the Agbar Tower and just below us, the green ass of Gaudi’s DisneyWorld: the Park Güell…
By Steven Forti
…And so where does the myth of Barcelona come from? Why do thousands of Italians choose it every weekend for a brief escape and many of them decide to move and live there every year? A possible answer would be that in a few convulsive and “fiesteros” days you cannot avoid being enchanted by the most superficial and charming dress of the city… but I think there is something more and I would like to tell you Barcelona from the eyes of who’s still a victim of his charm. I think that one of the main reasons why Barcelona never palls – and indeed one of its treasures – is “multiplicity”: the multiple faces and the infinite shades that every quarter encloses and that cannot be appreciated at full if you don’t spend time living them every day. We could chose many view angles and follow them all along the city in a sort of thematic itinerary (as the best guides propose…): cook, architecture, history, art. Passing through the Raval, the multiethnic quarter at the east of the Ramblas, where barber shops, Muslim butcheries and Paki’s restaurants rarely give way to decadent hostels. Continuing through the Gothic quarter, with its little squares and churches with a certain French atmosphere; going down to the Born, which until the XVIII century was the city centre and which maintains its medieval aspect, especially in the little square of Santa Maria del Mar. And we finally reach the Barceloneta, the old fisher quarter smelling like sea and fish and where the clothes hanging out of the balconies, the chairs out of the doors for the afternoon chats and the narrow streets remind to Napoli or Genova's old quarters.
The multiplicity, of course, is visible also in the city's artistic and cultural life. To wake up in the morning and know that today you could end up listening to a concert of Wim Mertens in a big auditorio, drink Pastis in a little Parisian bar or attend a music and dance jam session in the artists' barrio. Isn't it a great sign of civilization?
If we really lust for complaining and nitpicking, we could say that with such an offer what you risk is paralysis and impossibility to take whatever decision. But in this case the suggestion is simple: focus on one single subject and follow the horizon, without prohibiting yourselves occasional incursions in other territories. Have you ever heard of Serendipity? It's a proved technique and surprising encounters are guaranteed.
First of all we must say that in Barcelona, as in many other cities, the artistic-creative circuit runs over two rails: the “official/institutional” and the “alternative” ones, although the boundaries between them are quite liquid. Some of you probably heard about the CCCB (Centro de Cultura Contemporanea) at least for the SONAR, festival of advanced music and multimedia arts that it organizes every year: exhibitions and concerts with more than 300 international artists alternate without pausing during three days, occupying the different spaces of CCCB of the whole city centre.
Or maybe you've heard talking about the MACBA, the Museum of Contemporary Art considered by many people in this sector as the “poor cousin” of the CCCB. And again the Centro d’Arte Santa Mónica, at the end of the Ramblas next to the port, the Miro Fundation, the most institutional of the institutions. And finally –‘cause dulcis always comes in fundu- the Mercat de las Flors, point of reference in town for dance, with an international program that ranges from ballet to contemporary dance, from video-dance to children laboratories.
Fine. And now, aside this due, although incomplete, review of Barcelona's “temples of culture” stands all the (more or less) “off” panorama. And when I say off I refer to the experimental work and the alternative circuit of contemporary art, in its widest meaning.
I would say that one of the strength points in the Barcelona cultural activity is the net, the awareness that united we are stronger and that we can work more and better if we collaborate, especially in a sector where economical stability seems to be a mirage. Also for this reason exists XarxaProd, production network (Xarxa) in the field of Catalunia's visual arts.
It wouldn't be correct to say that Barcelona's artistic and creative heart is the barrio of Gracia, it would be wrongful toward all the productive realities that exist in the whole city. However, since my aim here is to give you a taste of the air you can breath everyday in Barcelona, I think that Gracia really makes my case. And this is because it encloses both the retró charm of the beginning of the XX century -in its architecture and in its numerous cafés- and the contemporary creative spirit that turned the city in a development model for many European capital cities.
To wake up in Gracia on Sunday morning is an experience, cause if it happens to step out of your home sleepily and with you eyes half-closed you could forget to be in a city with more than a million and a half inhabitants. The newsagent will welcome you with the usual newspaper with no need to ask it. At the corner you'll chock with you neighbour and in the queue for the brad you'll have a chat with the waiter of the bar in the corner. 'Cause for some strange reasons Gracia maintains the air of the outskirts village it has been until the beginning of the last century, when the development city plan known with the name of the architect Cerdà widened the urban nucleus until including the external circle.
Faithful to his village identity and to the strong cooperative heritage, the main artistic realities in the barrio created a network, “Gracia's knots” in order to have a stronger voice and reach the public more effectively. All the arts and forms of creative communication are represented here. Dance and movement arts by the centre la Caldera, born in 1995 form the association of nine indipendent choreographers; today this ancient belts factory in the heart of Gracia has become an investigation, creation and production centre, as well as match point for many professionals in the field. Visual arts are represented -among the others- by the association Experimentem amb l’art, whichpromotesstrategies to approach the public to the artistic production, paying a special attention to young people. Or Saladestar, cultural project promoting artistic projects with the aim to generate links between contemporary creation and social environment through interventions in the public space. Gràcia Territori Sonori is an artists collective dedicating to music experimentation and it has been realizing since 11 editions the LEM, festival of experimental music with the participation of international artists working on the sound and its infinite possibilities. And of course all the artistic and artesanal talleres (laboratories) distributed all over the city which usually work unperceived all the year long excepted one week, when they open their doors to the public.
Going out of Gracia I just want to mention a small but interesting reality called L’Antic Teatre, an ancient theatre right in front of one of the temples of the city, the Catalan Music Palace. It is an alternative pluridisciplinar platform, a creation area available to all the experimental artists that uually do not have access to the public and who want to show their work. Theatre, performance, dance, music, video, photography, circus, literature and much more find here a space out of the conventional artistic circuit, open to the most innovators and chancy proposals.
To conclude I would venture to say that the myth of Barcelone as a land of free artistic expression, where everyone with something to say can come and finds rich soil for his creations maybe is not real. It is not an happy island, this is sure. But it's surely true that you can still breath a sparkling air, a will of renewal and most of all an attitute toward dialogue that can only produce benefits. And not only to art.
A cura di Giulia Guerrini