There are events, works or exhibitions that are visited, first of all, because of the place where they are held. You have to go from the entrance to the Líneas duras exhibition, curated by Valentí Roma and which will remain open until June, because it provides an exceptional opportunity to look around the former headquarters of the Gustavo Gili publishing house, the rationalist building on Rosselló street that the City Council acquired in 2021. And then to see what is inside, which is very interesting. The sample includes 29 architectural projects built in the city between 1949 and 1974 by architects such as Francesc Mitjans, Antoni de Moragas or Josep Maria Sostres focused on the need to build affordable housing for the working classes (such as the houses of La Maquinista de Coderch), although there you can see the first sketches of projects as disparate as the Camp Nou, which Mitjans sketched on a sheet of paper in 1954, or the Meridiana Dog Track, now also converted into a public cultural space.
CONCERTS, ABOVE AND BELOW
In the coming months, Bruce Springsteen (at the end of April), Coldplay (in May), Beyoncé (dates are yet to be confirmed) and Madonna (on November 1) will pass through the city. Although it is commendable that the city continues on the map of the big tours, each of these events will reopen the debate on the exorbitant price of massive concerts and the Hunger Games that are unleashed on the Ticketmaster monopolist to get tickets every time that are put up for sale. At the time of writing this, that sales platform was offering a last and distant ticket to see Madonna on her Celebration Tour for 793 euros. Meanwhile, in a parallel reality, the city's small concert halls, such as Heliogàbal, Sidecar, Freedonia, VOL, Laut and Meteoro continue with their stable programming with not a few difficulties.
THE FATHER OF GRUNGE DESIGN AT THE DHUB
When people talk about “grunge”, that label that was invented in the nineties to refer to a deliberately dirty and anti-corporate aesthetic (which ended up, as was inevitable, engulfed by companies), one always thinks of music and a bit of fashion, but perhaps the discipline where grunge had the deepest and most lasting impact was graphic design. The considered father of grunge design, David Carson, will soon be in Barcelona participating in the OFFF festival (from March 23 to 25, at the DHUB) with a talk and a workshop. Originally a sociologist and surfer, Carson began experimenting with so-called "emotional" typefaces, which invaded all of 1990s graphics, starting with magazines (also, of course, the many independent cultural magazines that were published at the time). in Barcelona) and skipping the classic rules of composition. In the workshop that he will give at the festival, which has more than 60 speakers, each participant will create their own poster using the collage technique.
LA BARCELONA NETFLIX
Just as there is a Madrid Netflix, which geographically would be made up of a giant Malasaña with a bit of Lavapiés and then a Boadilla del Monte with wide spaces through which the characters of Elite would move, there is a Barcelona Netflix, which has been forged base of several fictions of the platform. In Barcelona, Netflix spends a disproportionate amount of time on the beach – like Quim Gutiérrez in Te quiero, imbecil, who of course trains on the free gym machines in Barceloneta and Somorrostro – and all the bars look like La Federica or La boatiné robe in the Raval –see Smiley, the rom com by Carles Cuevas and Miki Esparbé–. In the Barcelona of Netflix, almost everyone is an architect or has an architect best friend, the Poblenou lofts have not been taken by all the digital nomads, the hydraulic mosaic always shines like new in the interiors and in the alleys of the Born there are no tourists buying slices of pizza, only locals with good hair further entangling their love lives.
THIS IS ALSO A CULTURAL CIRCUIT
There is a type of semi-new cultural event that mobilizes people almost every week in Barcelona: live podcast recordings. In one of those events that took place a couple of weeks ago –an Afternoon that took place in the Cabaret room of the Edition hotel, which left 200 people on the waiting list–, the host of that Radio Primavera Sound space, Andrea Gumes recounted the other similar events that are bringing together an audience avid for cultural experiences without the mediation of screens: the meetings of Les Punkis Decimonòniques (the publisher Blanca Pujals and the bookstore Carlota Freixenet) in the active JOK room, the live podcasts of the Gent de Merda and Oye Polo, the vibrant reading clubs and meetings with authors organized by the La Tribu bookstore in Sant Andreu, the sapphic parties of Bunyol TV, the events at the La Fera factory or Candy Darling on Mondays. The same is that there is a desire to get together and share culture (and partying).
