Lucia Calvo

Treballo a l'equip web del Centre de Cultura Contemporània. Sóc periodista, escric notícies, faig vídeos i diàriament sóc darrere d'algunes de les identitats virtuals del CCCB a Internet. També treballo amb projectes web participatius del Centre, com aquest blog! Em trobareu al mig de moltes converses, una de les meves preferides, la de Twitter (@losilux)

Who Votes for Donald Trump?

October 28th, 2016 No Comments

New Yorker journalist William Finnegan offered some keys for understanding the Republican candidate’s success.

How can it be that one of the least prepared, most sexist, racist and xenophobic men on the planet is candidate to occupy the post with most responsibility and power in global politics? That’s the question many of us are asking ourselves after seeing or reading the umpteenth news report on the latest gaffes of Republican politician Donald Trump. It’s also the question that New Yorker journalist William Finnegan attempted to answer at the lecture he gave at the CCCB “Journalism and the Future of Democracy”.

Donald Trump is viewed by many analysts as a freak; a strange phenomenon in the politics of the United States. Instead of placing the focus on his grotesque and rude character, William Finnegan talked about the media and the political context that has helped Trump reach the gates of the White House. Whether he wins the elections or loses, this journalist considers that there are two main phenomena that have turned American politics upside down and that are keys to understanding Trump’s electoral rise:

- The power exercised by the entire network of right-wing media (radio, TV, websites) from the orbit of the Fox television network. Media that have broken away from the model where news must be based on facts and truths, substituting these with opinion and entertainment. At the heart of this tangled web is Donald Trump, television reality king and expert. Finnegan explained how many Americans are living in a news bubble and only listen, read, or see on their Facebook walls “news” items that coincide with their way of seeing and understanding the world.

- The loss of support and electoral bases that has been suffered by the Democratic Party both in the south and the north of the country. De-industrialisation has left many white American low and middle class workers unemployed, and the discourse of fear and anger against immigrants promoted by Trump fits in well with their mood. “They are looking for someone who will speak for them, a saviour,” says Finnegan. And Donald Trump is their man.

Summary

In this video (9 minutes) we have summarised the main interventions by William Finnegan from the lecture that he offered at the CCCB.

YouTube Preview Image

The video of the entire lecture (1 h 30 min) is also available in the original version (English) or with simultaneous translation into Catalan. In this video, as well as the complete intervention by the American author, you can also hear the questions from the audience plus writer Albert Forns’ introduction of William Finnegan. In addition to being a journalist and a writer, Finnegan is a surfer, and he won the Pulitzer 2016 Prize for Best Biography or Autobiography for a book about surfing.

METAMORPHOSIS: Welcome to the world of dreams and imagination

March 21st, 2014 1 Comment

Quay Brothers. Still of Street of Crocodiles, 1986. ©Atelier Konick QbfZ

On Tuesday 25 March the CCCB inaugurates its first exhibition of 2014 and the first in the world dedicated to four fundamental authors in animated film: the pioneer Ladislas Starewitch (Moscow 1882-Paris 1965), the Czech master Jan Švankmajer (1934) and the Quay Brothers(1947) – identical twins who work in unison. Despite being creators that, as explained by the exhibition’s curator Carolina López, have remained on the fringes of fashions, the industry and tendencies, meaning that they are relatively little known to mass audiences, their work appeals to emotions that we have all surely felt at some time in our lives, as children, or when afraid or dreaming. The universe of the filmmakers of Metamorphosis is a vast collection – a fascinating cabinet of curiosities – that mixes insects, anthropomorphic beings, monsters, dreamscapes, stuffed animals, and darkness at the end of the corridor.

The exhibition recovers and screens films by Švankmajer, Starewitch and the Quay Brothers while presenting two installations that the Quays and Švankmajer have prepared exclusively for the event, and documenting the style and influences of the filmmakers with over 550 pieces of art, including puppets, drawings, prints, sculptures and paintings (we will see works by Francisco de Goya, James Ensor, Alfred Kubin and Giuseppe Arcimboldo, to name just a few examples).

In this interview, the curator Carolina López offers a preview of what we will find at Metamorphosis. Fantasy visions of Starewitch, Švankmajer and the Quay Brothers.

Meet the Quay Brothers, Švankmajer and Starewitch’s granddaughter

For the week of the inauguration of Metamorphosis, the CCCB has programmed a series of activities for delving further into the work and creative process of the filmmakers in the exhibition. The day after the inauguration, Wednesday 26 March, you will have the opportunity to talk with the Quay Brothers, Jan Švankmajer and Léona-Béatrice Martin-Starewitch, granddaughter of Ladislas Starewitch, in a debate that will kick off at 7.30 p.m. With the entry ticket to this cinephile debate, you can visit the exhibition afterwards free of charge. And if you can’t travel to the CCCB, but you really want to ask the participants a question, you can leave your questions in a comment below this article or send them via Twitter with the hashtag #ExpoMetamorfosis.

The CCCB’s regular scheduled film programme XCèntric has also prepared a special tribute season to the authors, which will begin on Thursday with the première of the film by the Quay Brothers “The Secret Order of Things”. Another unique opportunity to talk once more with the American twins, who will be attending the première of their latest work at the CCCB.

Metamorfosis can be visited until 7 September at the CCCB and, in October, it will travel to La Casa Encendida Fundación Caja Madrid, which is co-producing the exhibition.

From now on and for the next few months, you will be hearing a lot about the artists featured in the exhibition. The “Metamorphosis” experience goes beyond the exhibition hall and, based around the exhibition, an extensive programme of activities has been organised that will take place both at the CCCB and at different venues around the city.

You can consult all the information about the exhibition here.

(Català) Visions de la cultura

October 11th, 2013 No Comments

(Català) Antonio Monegal: «En els últims anys el debat sobre la cultura s’ha basat en criteris economicistes»

September 13th, 2013 No Comments

«Pasolini has always been the bête noire of the Italian bourgeoisie» Gianni Borgna

June 19th, 2013 No Comments

Scholar and lover of music and popular culture, university professor Gianni Borgna first came into contact with Pasolini’s work via his poems. “Despite being known in Italy for his films or for the fact that he is a controversial character, Pasolini is, above all, a great poet”, he explains. In 1963, Gianni Borgna got his first opportunity to see the man that Italians with power loved to hate because he was “homosexual, a communist and a poet”. In that spring of 1963, Pier Paolo Pasolini spoke before a group of young anti-fascists about the problems he had experienced with the premiere of the film La Ricotta, for which he had stood trial. “I was young and struck by him, I thought he was a very controversial figure and yes, the things he said were tough, but in fact, he was a gentle and sweet man who spoke to the young people on equal terms”, Borgna recalls.

Gianni Borgna ended up forming part of Pasolini’s circle of friends, and he has written several works on the Italian intellectual, the most recent two being the script of the film Profezia. L’Africa di Pasolini (2013) and the play for theatre with Irma Palazzo Pier Paolo, poeta delle ceneri (2012). This year he has been involved in what for him has been one of the most captivating Pasolini projects: working as curator, together with Jordi Balló and Alain Bergala, of the exhibition “Pasolini Roma” which you can now visit at the CCCB and which in the future will travel to Paris, Rome and Berlin. In this interview, Borgna describes the character of his friend.

Interview in Italian. Edited by: Edgar Riu

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