The Barcelona of Prodigies, by Paula Prats
To be very much from Barcelona is to live alongside the wonders of the past while aspiring to a functional modernity. To be very much from Barcelona is to reconcile tradition with the eclecticism inherent to innovation. To be from Barcelona is to create a sense of neighborhood while also taking a breath outside the city. New baths, old changes.
If there is one area in which the Catalan capital enjoys unanimous prestige and value, it is culture. It goes by many names: heritage, memory, gastronomy, art, language, community. Through guilds, neighborhood associations, and the collective strength of clubs and societies, the city’s popular and cultural spirit has been forged, a spirit that does not understand progress without the involvement of all sectors of civil society. Few places in the world have citizen-led cooperative projects as their backbone. The Palau de la Música is perhaps one of the most glorious examples of this associative tradition behind our country’s social and cultural projects. Built in just three years thanks to widespread popular fundraising, it was born from a dream of spiritual and artistic elevation: the vocational choir of the Orfeó Català, led by Lluís Millet and Amadeu Vives. Its history perfectly illustrates this Catalan model: born of an individual idea, it flourished with the support of civil society and ultimately came under the stewardship of an institution with a social and artistic calling. The project was inaugurated on April 23 and brought together the finest Catalan craftsmanship in one of the great marvels of Modernisme. What project could better embody the symbol of our culture’s humanist mission? It is an ode to total art, in the broadest sense of the term, to the power of a people’s voices joining together in a shared, fraternal song.
On October 24, the participants in the Barcelona Global 2046 edition had the privilege of visiting the Palau and discovering some of the most fascinating details of this temple, guided by Mercedes Conde, the institution’s current artistic director. It was the closing event of a meeting featuring three leading voices from the cultural scene: Núria Cabutí, CEO of the PRHGE publishing group; Juan Manuel Sevillano, general director of Stoneweg Places & Experiences and former director of the Gala–Salvador Dalí Foundation; and Conde herself, with Andrea Coll, art director at Santa & Cole, moderating the conversation. Brought together to reflect on the current state of Barcelona’s cultural market, none of the speakers doubted the city’s potential, nor the urgency of positioning it as a cultural destination capital before the renewed moment of effervescence we are experiencing slips away.a From the 37th America’s Cup to record attendance at music and literary festivals, and the opening of new cultural centers such as Casa Seat, it seems that we, Barcelona’s own residents, are not fully aware of the scale of what we have right under our feet, unlike tourists or foreign residents, who are often enthusiastic participants in these events and even key contributors to their funding.
According to Sevillano, it has been thirty years since the last large-scale local projects, such as the Sónar or Primavera Sound festivals, conceived by sons and daughters of Barcelona. Now leading the major mission of shaping the future Museu Thyssen Barcelona, Sevillano stresses the importance of remembering how the Barcelona of the Universal Exhibitions, the Cerdà Plan, or the 1992 Olympic Games transformed the city and demonstrated our extraordinary capacity to achieve historic, successful milestones, with unmistakably Barcelonan DNA. Today, he argues, we find ourselves in a similar convergence of attention, resources, and momentum, and we must not let this opportunity slip away. Among his passionate appeals to future entrepreneurs, he emphasized the need to rebuild trust in private initiative within the cultural sector and to strengthen collaboration with public service. Proving and promoting that culture can be a sound and worthwhile investment is one of his main causes. Equally strong is his belief that there is still much economic and generational education to be done, so that young people can step in and take part, with their own perspective, in shaping Barcelona’s new cultural scene.
Remembering that first electrifying concert, the book we read in bed when it was time to turn off the light, or the film that made us dream is to relive a foundational emotion, the driving force behind a sensitivity and love for culture that we will most likely carry into adulthood. Everything takes root in childhood. Education and access to the arts must be a priority for both institutions and citizens, but the substance that gives them shape must come from private initiative: it cannot all rest within the limits of public resources. It is a collective task. Cabutí emphasized the multidisciplinary and democratic nature of culture, so that it can reach all audiences and allow each individual to feel part of a cultural sphere, to belong to a like-minded community. This interaction between people and cultural offerings is a two-way flow of energy: part of the mission of content creators is to find new ways of sharing and communicating in order to capture the public’s attention. Today, one can easily feel lost, disconnected, or overwhelmed by the constant, almost infinite supply that reaches us through so many different channels and formats.
In keeping with the work being done at the Palau, Conde highlighted the central role of education in this field: it is the transmission of an interest — often a shared one — and therefore a guarantor of the survival of the common good and a bond between people. As Andrea Coll aptly put it, culture is a vehicle for social cohesion: a space to come together, the social agora we need at a time of dispersion and a lack of rootedness in the territory and its identity.
Talking about commitment to, and the promotion of, local art can sound almost anachronistic, at odds with the expansion promised by globalization. And yet Barcelona has shown that its seeds can grow into universal successes, as seen recently with Rosalía or with the world’s best restaurant in 2024, Disfrutar. Let’s avoid condemning local artists to “por amor al arte”, to relying on goodwill and the sheer generosity of their creations, as so often happens in the cultural scene. The city’s business fabric and institutions must equip themselves with resources, high-quality training, and strong management in order to provide local artists with the fertile ground they deserve and need to develop. Professionalization is urgent and non-negotiable, a condition we cannot shy away from if we want to be a city rich in culture and opportunity.
The Barcelonan temperament is marked by an age-old tendency to complain, combined with an almost boundless pride when the city is attacked or missed. When we lift our eyes to the skylight of the Palau’s Grand Hall and are met by a charming field of roses; when we stroll through the Modernist streets of the Eixample; when we have to choose which lovely little bookshop to buy our next read from; or when weekends are never enough to lose ourselves in an exhibition hall, we feel the same emotion that once moved the patrons and citizens of the last century. We must not lose sight of the enrichment that comes from a full cultural life, rich in varied and local offerings. The experience of our city brings us closer to one another and strengthens our bond and commitment to it, a city that, once again, needs us and calls on us.
Boldness, partnership, and emotion. Boldness to believe in what contemporary Barcelona can become. Partnership between the public and private spheres. The kind of emotion that builds loyalty and enriches. These values strike me as possible driving forces behind the strengthening of Catalan culture and the pursuit of excellence we aspire to, taking inspiration from our admired predecessors, idealists and master craftsmen of works such as the oft-cited Palau de la Música. May the young, the newcomers, the experienced, and those in positions of responsibility have the boldness to come together once again and make Barcelona the City of Prodigies it truly is.
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