Tradicionarius: International Folk Festival

The Tradicionàrius International Folk Festival takes place for the 23rd time, featuring nearly 50 artists, seven album presentations and four new shows that will fill the CAT stage with folk songs and rhythms while including other city venues.

Once again Tradicionàrius wants to make local traditional music and culture more accessible to city residents, without abandoning its aim to evolve and expand. So, until 26 March, Barcelona will be moving to the rhythm of folk.

More inf@: Tradicionarius Website

Art on the Street with August Rodin in Barcelona

Art on the street (”Art al Carrer“), an initiative organised by the La Caixa Social Work Foundation with the City Council, is back in Barcelona for the third time. It has previously put on two exhibitions, on Manolo Valdés and Igor Mitoraj.

Rambla de Catalunya will become an outdoor museum from Friday 18 December to 6 February 2010 .

And this will be courtesy of the exhibition Art al carrer. Auguste Rodin a Barcelona, which is putting seven sculptures on display from the Musée Rodin in Paris, including The Thinker.

The exhibition was officially opened by Barcelona’s Mayor, Jordi Hereu, in the company of Eixample’s District Councillor, Assumpta Escarp, the secretary-general of the La Caixa Foundation, Lluís Reverter, and the director of the Musée Rodin in Paris, Dominique Viéville.

Rodin’s exhibition includes the famous work The Thinker and six studies of the six leaders making up The Burghers of Calais. You can see it on the Rambla de Catalunya, between Carrer Consell de Cent and Carrer Diputació.

Source: www.bcn.es  |  NN Hotels: www.nnhotels.com

MNAC celebrates 75 years

MNAC is 75 years old and is celebrating this by inviting everyone over to its open evening. It will take place thoday Friday 18/12 and visitors will be able to enter its permanent and temporary exhibitions for free. What’s more, there will be talks on some of the museum’s works and live music.

From 7 pm to 12 am, visitors will be able to see for free both its permanent exhibitions and the temporary exhibitions, Guests of Honour and The Wise Princess. The Santa Caterina de Seu d’Urgell Paintings, organised by MNAC and the Museu Episcopal de Vic.

In addition, the museum will also be offering live music by the Rino Dixie Band, from the Taller de Músics, in the Sala Oval. And there will be talks on the most important items in the permanent collection.

Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya - www.mnac.es
C/Mirador Palau Nacional, 6 - Sants-Montjuïc

BAC! 09 - The Barcelona Contemporary Art Festival

The Barcelona Contemporary Art Festival BAC! 09 opens Pandora’s box. At least, this year’s date with international creation is subtitled “Pandora’s Boxes“. An ironic title, as we won’t find all humanity’s ills there, rather an assertion of feminine art, but without any of the clichés normally associated with it.

Neither social criticism nor discourses on gender discrimination; the sixty-or-so female artists whose works are on display in BAC!’s main exhibition at the CCCB, free of charge, prefer humour, irony and a fresher perspective.

This is what we find in Ariadna Arnés’s photos, in Hanamaro Chaki’s illustrations and Bárbara Sánchez Barroso’s embroidery. You can be sure to find installations and videoart there too, such as those by Marta Jiménez Salcedo and Ms Woolman.

One of the highlights of this tenth BAC! is the section entitled “BAC! CAM“. This will feature one of the fullest retrospectives on women’s videoart.

To be more specific, the programme called “Indomitable Women” reviews female videoart over the last forty years, from the field’s pioneers like Maya Deren, celebrity names like Yoko Ono and Joan Jonas, up to more recent creators like Dora García, among others.

X Festival Internacional Barcelona Art Contemporani - BAC Pandora’s Boxes  - website Festival
From01/12/2009 to 03/01/2010
Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB): C/Montalegre, 5

NN Hotels: www.nnhotels.com

The Tibidabo Hall of Mirrors wins FAD awards

After its remodelling in July 2008, the Tibidabo Hall of Mirrors was awarded both the jury prize and the public-opinion prize that are presented by the FAD every year.

The jury awarded the attraction their prize, under the category of “momentary interventions”, at the 51st appearance of the prize-giving ceremony.The prize was awarded to “highlight the magic, imagination and mastery of optical illusions enjoyed by the attraction, which was designed to make children laugh and think“, the jury remarked on its decision.

The attraction was designed by Dani Freixes and works using modern technology in conjunction with the park’s classic mirrors.

The Hall of Mirrors takes its visitors on a ten-point journey, featuring periscopes, stereoscopes, wall mirrors, floor mirrors and lasers.

Source: www.bcn.es

In-Edit: Music Documentary Film Festival

Born in 2003 with the intention of showing the most outstanding music documentaries, the In-Edit.Beefeater Festival continues its voyage into this extensive year, 2009.

 The festival, held at Cine Rex, will be reviewing the career of the videoclip and musical documentary pioneer, Peter Whitehead. During the final section of the festival, the first time it has been publicised, there will be various films focusing on the role music plays in cultural and popular celebrations.

The most obvious example is ‘Favela on Blast’, a film that avoids clichés on Brazilian faveles and which focuses on the most festive point of view. This is the work of Wesley Pentz, better known in the music world as Diplo. The film itself is expected to be an all-round festival of rhythm and fun.

What we find in ‘Soul Power’ is a celebration of being black. We journey to the Zaire of 1974 to relive the concert given by James Brown, Miriam Makeba and B.B. King. It will fill you with the playful spirit of Black Power.

The role of music in black civil rights movements is explored in ‘Soundtrack for a Revolution’, another film which regards music as a part of culture.

As for more local culture, ‘Febrero: cuando la vida es carnaval’ (February: when life’s a carnival) will take us to the Cadiz carnival from a whole array of perspectives.

On concert documentaries, we’ll be able to relive the performance by Johnny Cash in Folsom prison. What’s more, we’ll discover a deeper side to the United States in ‘The Folk Singer: A Tale of Men, Music & America’ and the influence of Brazilian music on the West in ‘Beyond Ipanema’.

What: In-Edit.Beefeater Festival
When: October 29th - November 8th
Where: Cine Rex Barcelona
Gran Vía Corts Catalanes, 463
More inf@: In-Edit Website

Barcelona in the movies

Today, Barcelona is at center-stage in the movie market, for both world-renown actors as well as prestigious directors of international prestige. Proof of that is the great many films that have used the city of Barcelona for a set.

 Núñez i Navarro Hotels offers you an interesting report, featuring the most succesful movies shot in Barcelona. If you still need a reason to visit our city, you will fall in love after watching those movies with the Catalan capital.

Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Calista Flockhard or Penélope Cruz are part of the long list of actors and actresses who have been in Barcelona and can recommend you a visit. The recent Woody Allen’s film Vicky Cristina Barcelona  features also Scarlett Johanson and Javier Bardem.

Many other directors have shown the best of the city on their movies, making Barcelona universally available through the screen. From the old Gothic Quarter with its medieval palaces to the modernist buildings by Gaudí and Puig i Cadafalch, from the city coast line to the impressive views you have at Tibidadbo hill, Barcelona has a lot to offer you, and you can discover it on the cinema!

More inf@: Barcelona in the movies

Tardor de l’Art, season of cultural activities

“Tardor de l’art” was created with a clear objective: that art should be seen, be entertaining and thought provoking, be exciting and provocative, and help bring about more art lovers.

Catalonia’s four associations of art galleries: the GGAC (Catalonia Guild of Art Galleries), (art) Catalunya, Art Barcelona (Abe) & the GIC (Catalonia Association of Independent Art Galleries) have joined forces for the first time to promote a joint project, “Tardor de l’art”, which aims to make art galleries more accessible to and more widely appreciated by the general public through a season of free exhibitions and cultural activities.

“Tardor de l’art” will be defined through four great events and coordinated by each of the associations. It will include events ranging from painting, sculpture, video-art, photography, installations, editing, digital arts, drawing and even gastronomy.

More inf@: Web de Tardor Art

NN Hotels: www.nnhotels.com

Barcelona: one of the world’s happiest city

Barcelona is the third happiest city in the world, according to the American magazine Forbes, overtaken only Rio de Janeiro and Sydney, at first and second places, respectively.

 The list was drawn up from data supplied by a survey among ten thousand people from twenty countries.

Barcelona is recognised for its warm climate, lively culture and football team, as well as its classic Mediterranean nature.

Barcelona is followed by Amsterdam, Melbourne and Madrid, in fourth, fifth and sixth places respectively. Next come San Francisco, Rome, Paris and Buenos Aires, which make up the ten cities perceived to be the happiest in the world, according to Forbes. 

So, why not joining this happiness-circle in one of the best hotels in Barcelona? Núñez i Navarro Hotels brings you 9 centrally located hotels in Barcelona, all different but amazing.

Discover the happiness of Barcelona with www.nnhotels.com

Dalí sketch for the Marx Brothers on exhibit

Salvador Dalí and the Marx Brothers were planning to do a film together. It would be titled ”Surreal Women” and the argument focused on two women: a high-class snob and a woman daydreaming in the ethereal world of the genius of the Empordà. One of the drawings that Dalí made for the film can be seen from 20 August at Púbol Castle, and later will move to the Dalí Museum in Figueres.

“Surrealist Piano” is a drawing with charcoal and pastel to Salvador Dalí painted in 1937. The work was made during a trip to the United States. There, the artist met the Marx Brothers and decided to collaborate together in a film. This picture is a testimony that proves the link to the artist with Marx.

The picture is displayed from Thursday at the workshop of the artist, in Púbol. When the summer season finishes, it will be moved to the Museum in Figueres. The work adds to the over 300 pieces of Dalí Foundation has acquired since 1991.

More inf@: Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí

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