4th Mediterranean Currach Regatta in the Port of Barcelona

Since 2009 IOMRAMH has organized the Mediterranean Currach Regatta in the Port of Barcelona. Participation in this annual event has grown in numbers year after year, bringing international crews to the competition. The regatta has become both a sports event and a celebration of Irish tradition and culture on Mediterranean waters.

In 2011 the Coonagh Currach Club, from Limerick (Ireland) traveled to Barcelona to compete and demonstrate the full capacity of a currach in the hands of a skilled and experienced crew. More crews from Ireland are expected to participate in 2012, as well as more crews from Norway, Catalonia and elsewhere, meaning more craic and more sport for this wonderful event.

Timetable for the day – March 18th 2012
12.00 – 12.30
Crews meet at Reial Club Marítim de Barcelona. Every crew must wear their sponsor T-shirt “The morning after fill”- Complimentary sandwich and tea will be offered to rowers to gather strength

12.30
Team Draw with two categories: Amateurs and Pros

13.00 – 16.00
Regatta (watch it from any point along the Maremàgnum Bridge)

16.00 – 18.30
At Terrace of RCMB: Live Irish Music with Drónán (16-17.30) / Dancing with Aires Celtes (17.30-18), Award Presentation (18-18.15). 100% Irish Black Angus Burgers with Cheddar Cheese and Catalan beer available for all guests!!!

18.30 – 20.00
At Saló Noble of RCMB: as the sun goes down outside we’ll move inside for some live Funk&Soul with amazing Sinead & The Sinners!

20.00 – 21.00
DJ Ben (UK) will spin his groovy tunes to close the event in style!

:: IOMRAMH ::

Myths and Ancient Coins

Gods and heroes adorned the coins of Hispania. Now an exhibition explains some of the beliefs associated with them. They were not just used to pay for products and services but also as amulets, talismans, offerings and funeral and even items. We are referring to the coins of Roman Hispania now on display at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) in an exhibition entitled Gods and Myths of Antiquity. The evidence from Hispanic coins.

In fact there are 289 items, coins and archaeological objects, which clearly show the proliferation of images, of gods and heroes, that appeared on coins produced before the arrival of the Visigoths in the Iberian Peninsula, after which the Christian cross began to replace the images of Heracles and Europa.

Gods and myths of antiquity, an exhibition organized by the Numismatic Cabinet of Catalonia, proposes an approach to the gods, myths and cults of the inhabitants of the Iberian peninsula from the fifth century before Christ, and until the arrival of the Visigoths about one thousand years later.

MNAC is located in Montjuic, just beside the Magical Fountains and very near our B-Hotel in Plaza Espanya, next to Las Arenas Shopping Mall.

The largest retrospective of Delacroix, now in Barcelona

Every facet of Eugène Delacroix can be seen at the exhibition on at the CaixaForum. This is the most important retrospective dedicated to the French painter for half a century, and features over a hundred and thirty works. These will include paintings from the world’s most important museums; works that are milestones in Western visual culture. You will be able to see not just Delacroix’s most famous oil paintings but also a series of works that explore the painter’s relationship with Spain. CaixaForum offers you an Interactive visit.

This exhibition, jointly organized by CaixaForum and the Louvre as part of an agreement of collaboration is the most important in Spain that has been organized around the figure of Delacroix. It has loans of such important institutions as the National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum in New York or the Art Institute of Chicago.

CaixaForum has been designed as a space for dissemination and debate on culture and its many manifestations. It offers a miscellaneous range of subjects that covers all periods, from the initial manifestations of art to the most innovative and recent avant-garde, and feature the greatest ever exponents of art and culture. CaixaForum also periodically runs cycles of conferences, seminars, courses, concerts, performances and special events that help to prompt reflection on this changing world and better understanding both of our society and that of other cultures.

CaixaForum is located in Montjuïc, just a few meters from our B-Hotel in Plaza Espanya and next to Las Arenas shopping mall.

Barcelona Beer Festival

Water, barley malt, hops and yeast are the ingredients used for craft beer: it has more aroma and shades, its foam is thicker, it leaves dregs at the bottom of the glass – drinking it in bottles is not recommended -, its gas is made naturally and, above all, it is not filtered or pasteurised. Introducing craft beer, a product that is starting to gain considerable traction in Catalonia, where it has over twenty producers.

That is why Barcelona is turning into the production epicentre for this type of beer over the weekend, with its first festival dedicated to promoting the drinking of craft beer: the Barcelona Beer Festival, which takes place at the Sant Agustí Convent.

Still behind craft beer production in countries like Belgium, Germany and the United States, which have gained 20% of the beer industry market over the last few years, Catalonia leads Spain in its production, which always involves genuine ingredients: water, barley malt, hops and yeast.

Despite the recent increase in the number of producers, the factories where this type of beer is produced are still thin on the ground, with many of the brands using others’ infrastructures to start the production process, which is quite complex.

To brew this type of beer you need roughly one month during which the water is heated and mixed with the malt. Once the malt has soaked for a few hours, yeast is added to it and the mixture is allowed to ferment.

:: Barcelona Beer Festival ::

New season at Tibidabo Amusement Park

Last Saturday, 3 March, a new season started at the Tibidabo Amusement Park, offering lots of new ideas, events and activities specially designed for families. 442.693 people visited the Tibidabo Amusement Park last year, 10% more than in 2010.

New films in 4D, new shows to end the day and a varied programme of cultural activities and solidarity events, to give regular visitors something new.  To keep them coming, Tibidabo is opting for a programme with a marked family character this season.

So, from this Saturday, visitors enjoy two new films in 4D and some new shows to round off the day. In May the park is planning to open a new trampoline installation designed by Dani Freixes, winner of the 2011 National Design Award.

The adventures of Robin Hood and Dracula feature in the two new films that will be screened in Dididabo in 4D, in other words, the 3D picture will be accompanied by all kinds of special effects to create the fourth dimension. For Christmas there will be another new film with a Christmas theme.

All kinds of entertainment is planned for the closing shows each day. To kick off the season a lively musical procession and in spring a theatre production about the young Dalí, El petit Dalí.

Summer visitors will be able to enjoy a laser light and audiovisual spectacular, while autumn will bring the Supertibis in a show featuring circus acts.

..::.. Tibidabo Amusement Park ..::..

The new Filmoteca de Catalunya

The new Filmoteca de Catalunya centre in Raval is ready to start screening. It will be back to business on 21 February, though it will also be holding an open day two days before that on 19 February, from 1.30 pm to 7 pm.

The same day will see the official opening of Plaça de Salvador Seguí, near the new 6.000 square-metre Filmoteca building. The library will be open to visits, as will the exhibition Imatges confrontades: la guerra civil i el cinema [Confronting Images: the Civil War and Cinema] and there will be free film sessions.

The new Filmoteca centre, boasting two cinema halls with a total of 555 seats, also has a specialist bookshop and a cafeteria, besides offices and admin buildings.

The opening film in the regular sessions is El hombre de al lado [The Man Next Door] by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, considered one of the best films of 2011.

It will immediately be followed by a screening of West Side Story, marking the 50th anniversary of its premiere, and a double programme during the night session on the cinema of the Civil War, with Valentín R. González‘s Nosotros somos así, and Celuloide colectivo.

Other cycles on the 2012 programme will be going over the works of Bigas Luna, Luis Garcia Berlanga and Jacques Tourneur.

Barcelona Opportunity Week

The second edition of the Barcelona Opportunity Week, until 5 February, is seeing 20% more restaurants, hotels, markets, florists’ and cultural venues joining in and offering discounts. This year’s initiative includes offers on flights to visit the city, although a good many of the discounts are aimed at Barcelona’s own residents.

Michelin-starred restaurants with 35-euro menus, bouquets of flowers for 11 euros, half-price theatre tickets and special rates at hotels are just some of the offers in Barcelona Opportunity Week.

Last year more than 15.000 people took part in this week of discounts, there were 600 overnight stays and over 20.000 euros were collected through charity contributions.

Barcelona Fashion Week

The inauguration of the “Hall of Fame“, an exhibition of photographs from Vanity Fair on Passeig de Gràcia, kicks of this year’s Barcelona Fashion Week, which features even more activities than before. Besides, Avinguda Maria Cristina has a display of work by Manuel Outumuro, an industry expert, for Marie Claire.

Several new initiatives are joining the urban fashion show, The Brandery, which opens on 27 January, the 080 Barcelona Fashion catwalk, which this year will be in the Gothic setting of the Plaça del Rei, and the pioneering ModaFad catwalk, dedicated to up-and-coming designers.

One of the new events this year is BeCo, the first ethical fashion platform in Spain, which aims to set up and promote sustainable projects in the fashion industry. This new platform, which champions issues like workers’ rights and products used to manufacture fashion goods.

Although it won’t be taking place until 5 and 6 February, the new show Little Barcelona also forms part of Fashion Week. This new event has an international profile and will bring together 50 brands drawn from the children’s fashion industry, as well as from related areas like the decoration and furniture sectors.

The 080 Barcelona Fashion catwalk, from 25-28 January, will showcase the work of 25 brands and designers, including Desigual, taking part for the first time. TCN will raise the curtain on 080, for which the special guest this year is Pierre Cardin, one of contemporary fashion’s true greats.

The Brandery Catwalk, which is circular, allows visitors to see the exhibitors’ designs in movement. Custo, Replay and Superdry are just three of the 40 brands parading there.

Fangoria, The Zombie Kids, 2manydjs and Dorian concerts are set to perform at the trade fair site and tickets to their performances include entry to the fair the same afternoon.

30th edition of the Barcelona International Comic Fair

From 3 to 6 May 2012, the 30th edition of the Barcelona International Comic Fair will be turning the spotlight on robots (dedicating its main exhibition): Mazinger Z, the Transformers, Arale from Dr Slump, Astroboy… The list of comic robot heroes goes on and on.

And featuring one of the big names in the world of comics & robots: Gô Nagai, the creator of Mazinger Z, the legendary robot with rocket fists is also celebrating his birthday: his 40th.

Also coming are Milo Manara, one of the great masters of European comics; Paul Cornell, the scriptwriter for the Doctor Who series; Scott Snyder, the scriptwriter for the new Batman series and The Swamp Thing; Guy Delisle, the author of Pyongyang and Burma Chronicles; Rags Morales, an illustrator for the re-launched Action Comics, and Sergio Aragonés, an illustrator for MAD magazine.

Robots in their ink (Robots en la seva tinta) is the title of the Fair’s robotics exhibition. The exhibition, which aims both to entertain and to inform, will explore the relationship between robots and comics, cinema and literature.

The exhibition will have a section devoted to the robots from the Star Wars universe, entitled, Droids from the Galaxies (Droides de les galàxies) as well as educational areas and an activities programme that include robotics workshops and classes on how to draw robots.

Ah, and for those of you who will turn 30 this year (born in 1982) you’ll have free entry. Many happy returns!

Claude Cahun at La Virreina Centre de la Imatge

Lucy Schwob used the pseudonym Claude Cahun during her multidisciplinary artistic career. She was a writer, a woman of theatre and a photographer, and for years unjustly forgotten about until the 1980s when two exhibitions on her were held in France.

This exhibition has organized by Jeu de Paume, París, and coproduced with La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, Barcelona, and The Art Institute of Chicago. The purpose for the exhibition Claude Cahun is to bring the image of this artist up to date and highlight her continued validity with regard to contemporary practices and discourses.

Nonetheless, this exercise is based, not only on pointing to contemporary works, artists or discourses that invite one to think of Cahun as a precedent, but also on exploring the successive ways in which the critical frames through which “her” work has been studied have been updated themselves. These revivals and evaluations of Cahun from different perspectives have thrown light on and complemented the many different facets of the artist’s creative practice.

La Virreina Centre de la Imatge -> la Rambla, 99 – Ciutat Vella
Dates: From 28/10/2011 to 05/02/2012 | Free entrance

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