What was needed for Barcelona's potential to crystallize in the field of art and technology, for the possibility of having an event that manifests the city's innovative habit, beyond overcome corrosive self-criticism and duplication of effort?
While there are fewer and fewer who propose to replicate the Arco fair in Barcelona, initiatives linked to more advanced forms of art have been emerging in Barcelona, under the protection of the renowned Catalan scientific ecosystem. The Catalan capital intensely experiences the successful Madrid contemporary art fair through its gallerists, artists and the public. What is the point of wanting to copy a fair located just two and a half hours away by train and in which Barcelona, even if it is not the direct beneficiary, already participates?
Sónar D and its perimeter have, in this edition of the festival's 30th anniversary, naturally established themselves as this meeting point where initiatives from the fields of art, science and technology converge.
There are several examples. The day before Sónar, a successful associated festival was held at the UPF: the RAIN film Fest, of films generated with artificial intelligence (AI), directed by Jordi Balló. Also the day before, the Mies Sónar started in the neighboring Mies van der Rohe pavilion, with an intervention by the musician Marc and UPC professors Philippe Salembieri Josep Maria Comajuncosas. And, at the same time, a connection was established with the Digital Impact exhibition at the DHUB, a space called to intensify its relationship with Sónar D in the future.
As an inventory of this ability to call, the creator of Puzzle X, Zina Cinker, stopped by Sónar to present some lines of her disruptive platform. The Barcelona art, science and technology hub Hac Te also exhibited its projects and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (Fecyt) presented its white paper on this sector, a work that should be expanded in the future to incorporate initiatives that have been left out. Even a person in charge of the STARTS European innovation program raised, during Sónar, the idea of a future alliance with Ars Electronica in Linz and the Salzburg Festival.
Sónar also provides a differentiating factor compared to other technological events. The music, the beer, the time of year in which it is celebrated, in short, the festival atmosphere influence the way in which the debates are experienced: as the new head of international expansion of Casa Batlló pointed out on Friday , Mateu Hernández, at Sónar the enjoyment of technology as an art emerges, rather than as a threat (there are already other forums to deal with this). A new differentiating factor.
What does it take to see Sónar - endowed with a foundation - as a motor for the Barcelona and Catalan offer of technological art? Perhaps just believe it (also the administrations, with contributions) and make it easier for these days of June to bring together as many initiatives as possible from the same field - aimed at a wide audience -, as is the case with Arco and the multiplication of events art during the Madrid fair. In this context, Hac Te has identified up to 400 art and science initiatives in Catalonia.
Sónar's lack of commercial orientation could be complemented by a project that premieres on the 26th at Macba: Focus Digital, a program of confluence between art and technology promoted by the creator of Talking Galleries, Llucià Homs, awarded this week by this task for the Art Galleries of Catalonia.
Focus Digital will bring together representatives from this field – Sónar D curator Antònia Folguera will also take part – although with a more attentive look at the market. Its promoters do not rule out that, in the future, the dates coincide with those of the MWC or the ISE fair, in a digital February that has its most popular expression at the Llum Barcelona festival.
