IV Japan Weekend Barcelona

You can immerse yourself in the newest, latest Japanese youth culture, in other words all things manga, without leaving Barcelona. Japan Weekend, which is being held at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya this time around, offers you video games, anime, music and all kinds of competitions, from cosplay to karaoke and para para.

This year’s guests include the international cosplayer Lina Lau and the Esprit d’Air band. You will also find all kinds of workshops and activities for having a really good time.

It is the event dedicated to the world of manga and all aspects surrounding it. This translates into much anime and manga, video games, Japanese culture and tradition, superheroes, technology and cinema but above many activities, contests, games, courses, workshops, exhibitions and concerts.

All in 2 days for spectacular not to be bored a single second.

Palau de Congressos de Catalunya
Address: Av Diagonal, 661

The Four Puig i Cadafalch columns, symbol of Barcelona’s Historical Memory

In 1919 the architect Puig i Cadafalch built four columns in Montjuïc symbolising the stripes of the Catalan flag but they were demolished by Primo de Rivera in 1928 are back again opposite the Magic Fountain in Montjuïc.

Now, almost ninety years later, the Puig i Cadalfach columns can be seen again in all of their glory opposite the Magic Fountain in Montjuïc, following the removal of the scaffolding around them.

The columns are 20 metres high and have been erected at their original site in the Plaça del Marquès de la Foronda.

The monument was reconstructed using the architect’s original plans and period photographs.

The project will include improved paving for the surrounding area. What is more, the area underneath the columns will be the site for a new Line 2 metro station connecting the Fira de Montjuïc with Gran Via.

OVNI (Unidentified Video Observatory), audiovisual exhibition at CCCB Barcelona

The CCCB is holding the 13th “Unidentified Video Observatory” (OVNI), from 22 to 27 February. This year it will be reflecting on the concept of “disreality“. It will feature 45 items selected from the 190 acquired by the observatory’s archives this year.

Silvio Berlusconi‘s media model is reflected in his television which, among other things, draws a grotesque, vulgar and humiliating image of women. This is the reality portrayed in Lorella Zanardo’s documentary Il corpo delle donne.

Life 2.0, by Jason Spingarn-Koff, shows how Second Life has become an alter ego of reality. And Goldfarmers, by Ge Jin, reflects on the duality of secret workshops in China, where men spend hours playing multi-player games online to win virtual goods.

All these films reflect on reality. Or, rather, on “disreality“, which is the main theme of the audiovisual exhibition OVNI (Unidentified Video Observatory).

An archive that contains over 2.000 items of video art, independent documentaries and media archaeology, it aims to encourage criticism of contemporary politics, culture and society.

Festival audiovisual OVNI 2011 ‘desrealitat’
Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona -> C Montalegre, 5 | Ciutat Vella

6th Hong Kong Cinema Week in Barcelona

Ann Hui, representing the new wave of “made in Hong Kong” films, and the indefatigable Johnny To and Herman Yau, are just some of the names you will be hearing about in the 6th Week of Hong Kong Cinema.

With the collaboration of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Brussels, Casa Asia and the Filmoteca are once again presenting this cycle, which has been growing in fans and followers of films from China.

And that is because the Hong Kong film industry is the second busiest in the world, after Hollywood, and ahead of Bollywood.

The cycle opens with Brian Tse‘s cartoon McDull Kungfu Ding Ding Dong on Friday evening, 25 February.

From then until 6 March, will be screened Night and Fog in Tin Shui Wai, by Ann Hui, Crime Story, by Kirk Wong, with Jackie Chan, and The Storm Warriors, from the brothers Oxide and Danny Pang, Sitges regulars.

Click over the image to visit the Casa Asia website.

Museu Picasso’s Knowledge and Research Centre

With the smell of fresh paint in the air and the future library’s shelves still empty, the Museu Picasso has presented its Knowledge and Research Centre, a new building located just next to the medieval mansions that have, until now, housed the museum’s activities.

The building, which received funding to the tune of €6.7 million, will open soon but gradually, with school activities the first to move there and then the library and archives, which will be on the second floor.

The first floor of the centre, designed by the architect Jordi Garcés, will have a series of four multipurpose spaces intended for workshops, talks, seminars and master’s-degree courses. The basement will have facilities and storage spaces for non-artistic objects, among other things.

Thanks to the new building the Museu Picasso will now have 13.000 square metres at its disposal. The plan is to re-organise the spaces freed up with the launch of the new centre.

In addition, the museum will gain a new entrance on Plaça de Jaume Sabartés, though the ticket offices will not be moved from their current location for the time being. This will help to reduce crowding on Carrer de Montcada.

Location -> c/ Montcada 15-23

Hotel Barcelona Universal: I shall recommend it to my friends

Myself and my husband stayed in your hotel for 3 night and cannot recommend it highly enough.  The room was immaculate and very large.  The staff most courteous and helpful.  When I enquired as to where we should go for something nice to eat, a beautiful Italian restaurant was recommended to us.  Not only that but but the staff were so helpful they even printed out a map of the restaurant location.

Should I ever visit Barcelona again I shall definitely stay in the Hotel Barcelona Universal or one of it’s sister hotels.  Furthermore I shall recommend it to any of my friend who are travelling to Barcelona.

Experience posted by Sheila, Feb 2011.

11-11-11 Teaser, new horror film shot at Hotel Granvia of Barcelona

A few days ago we told you that horror film director Darren Lynn Bousman was shooting his most recent film at Hotel Granvia in Barcelona. Best known for the acclaimed 3 Saw sequels (II, III & IV), he has also directed: Repo! The Genetic Opera and, most recently, the remake of Troma, The Mother’s Day (with Rebecca de Mornay) that will debut next April 1, 2011.

On rare occasions, the premiere of a film can match its title, it this a coincidence?, maybe not … But can this movie be considered a psychological thriller, a biblical apocalypse or a human disaster story? The film is about the “Phenomenon 11:11”.Apparently, there are people who claim that the numbers have appeared to them repeatedly throughout their life, which means  there are angels or guardian spirits who are trying to communicate with them. Rounding out the issue, these people suggest that 11 is a number that has been associated with important historical events.

And nothing better than including Hotel Granvia in this movie, since it has also served as a spectacular backdrop for world renowned series and films shot in Barcelona.

Emergencia! 2011 – 3rd Independent Music Festival of Barcelona

From 6 pm in the afternoon until 12 at midnight for the two scenarios will center a selection of the most outstanding artists in the emergent music scene both national & international with proposals from the pop and rock as the experimental sounds.

For the third year running, Emergencia! becomes a showcase for upcoming sounds in independent music, going out on a limb for a series of new names. Fiera!, Ornamento y Delito, Caballo, Dotore, Me and the Bees, and Patrick Bower or Stranded Horse are all coming to the forefront, and Emergència! has chosen them to present to the public on the two stages at the CCCB.

19 February 2011 – Limited capacity
Admission fee: 7 €
Concessions for students, senior citizens and the unwaged: 5 €.
Free admission for Friends of the CCCB

Barcelona could host the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in 2014

The Barcelona World Sailing Race, the European Athletics Championships, the World Swimming Championships and even the organisation of the Winter Olympic Games. These are among the many top events that have been establishing Barcelona as one of the world’s main sports capitals, though the new host bid is for a cycling event.

Having successfully hosted the sixth leg of the most iconic race in international cycling, the Tour de France, in 2009, Barcelona is now presenting its firm bid to host the epicentre of the race, that is, the Grand Départ or official start to the 2014 event.

Barcelona has no wish to have to wait another 44 years to see the world’s best cyclists passing through its streets again, and that is why it has now presented its bid to the director of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme, which he considers “magnificent“.

This is a bid about which the Mayor, Jordi Hereu, has insisted he feels “very hopeful“, a hope he aimed to justify through the Catalan tradition of cycling, the facilities the city enjoys and the multinational goodwill involved.

The decision will not be taken, however, until 2013, and Barcelona will have to compete with other European capitals such as Florence, Utrecht and Salzburg and, even big international capitals like Qatar.

Robert de Niro in Barcelona by Red Lights movie

The North American actor Robert de Niro is currently in Barcelona, taking part in the shooting of the film “Red lights”, directed by Rodrigo Cortés. Poblenou’s Casino l’Aliança was the chosen location on Wednesday.

Principal photography began in Barcelona on “Red Lights”, Cortés third feature film, with a cast that includes Sigourney Weaver, Robert DeNiro, Cillian Murphy, recently favorite Sundance sensation Elizabeth Olsen (“Martha Marcy May Marlene” and “Silent House”) with such names as Toby Jones, Joely Richardson and Leonardo Sbaraglia giving life to supporting characters.

The film is a thriller with a supernatural background in which the brain’s mechanisms of perception are explored. DeNiro plays a psychic that after a thirty year retirement reappears to become the subject of a worldwide science challenge, Weaver and Murphy are two investigators trying to uncover what they think is a fraud.

After a month of shooting in Barcelona the cast and crew will move to Toronto where the film will complete photography. Cortes mentioned that “Red Lights” is a much more ambitious project than his last film “Buried”

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