Barcelona City Council, which acquired El Molino in 2021 for 6.2 million euros, wants to convert the space into a house that will host flamenco, rumba, signature songs or jazz, according to what the Ara newspaper reported yesterday and has confirmed La Vanguardia. “It will be a space at the opposite end of the commercial industry,” says the Councilor for Culture and Indústries Creatives, Xavier Marcé, who announces that the rules of the competition to find a company to manage the space will be made public in the coming weeks, once have passed the review phase by municipal legal services.
In any case, Marcé clarifies, "what we do at the City Council is prioritize a series of proposals that may not be developed in the most appropriate areas or have difficulties in gaining notoriety, but in no case do we want to be decisive." The councilor specifies that El Molino, "due to the characteristics of the room, can hardly have a commercial logic, unless it is dedicated to a bar, which is not the case", and therefore, although its management will be private, “the canon will be limited to the maximum possible.” Priority will also be given, he adds, to those companies that reach agreements with associative and union structures.
The previous council, then led by the commons, planned to add it to its network of Houses of Culture and use it to welcome and promote community and neighborhood culture. Marcé remembers that “you can't play with words. The MNAC, the Mercat de les Flors, the Macba and the TNC are also houses of culture.” "Another thing is - he adds - that they would like to turn it into a self-managed center, but the City Council has the obligation to support and provide shelter to those sectors of culture that are in need." The councilor remembers the closure of the Milano jazz club and gives as examples the Barnasants song festival or the flamenco programming developed by the El Dorado Society, which may not have the most suitable spaces.
