Gianni Vattimo on universal culture

May 24th, 2011 No Comments

With just a few hours to go before the start of the talks on ‘Democratic Imaginary and Globalization’, the VEUS CCCB blog wanted to recall the words of Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo.

As in the case of Nilüfer Göle, featured in the previous video, Gianni Vattimo is a past visitor to the CCCB, and we wanted to accompany his participation in the debate “The democratic forces emerging under globalization”, this Saturday 28 May, with the reflections he made back in 2007 on the concept of “universal culture”.

Nilüfer Göle on globalization

May 23rd, 2011 No Comments

Coinciding with the arrival in Barcelona of intellectuals to take part in the talks on “Democratic Imaginary and Globalization”, from 26 to 28 May at the CCCB, we wanted to put forward the testimony of some of the speakers who’ll be taking part in this 23rd meeting of the Academia de la Latinidad, which will be reflecting on the future of democracy and political representation in the present-day context of globalization.

One of the international experts visiting the CCCB this week is sociologist Nilüfer Göle, Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Göle came to the Centre in the framework of the exhibition “West seen by East” in 2005, which is when we recorded this interview, in which Göle reflects on the inexorable process of globalization and the relations and conflicts between East and West that it generates. In the video, the sociologist comments that any idea of progress must necessarily be linked to the “freedom to choose”.

Nilüfer Göle will be at the CCCB on Thursday 26 May, taking part in the debate “Democracy and Awakening Identities in the Mediterranean” and talking about the challenges presented by Turkey and the democratic rebirth taking place in the area following this spring’s revolutions.

Trieste, Magris and Alzheimer’s: a possible combination

May 17th, 2011 No Comments

The exhibition “The Trieste of Magris” has to be visited in company.

The exhibition “The Trieste of Magris” has to be visited with at least three of the five senses: sight, hearing and touch.

If this is the case, even though the exhibition deals with an Italian city little known on the tourist circuit and a writer, Claudio Magris, who is not very widely read, everyone leaves the gallery having had a unique experience. “Everyone” means everyone—Alzheimer’s sufferers, too.

Last October, the CCCB started a programme of visits to our exhibitions for Alzheimer’s sufferers, and their families and carers. The experience began with “Through Labyrinths”, which we talked about in this blog.

In the case of “The Trieste of Magris”, the three of us responsible for this initiative thought twice. The combination of Trieste, Magris and Alzheimer’s seemed to be impossible.

It was actually quite the opposite. The fantastic montage of the exhibition by Italian architect Paola Navone, perfectly interpreting the guidelines of the curator, Giorgio Pressburger, played a big part.

The exhibition layout is a journey around the principal places in the city of Trieste, past and present. It is an invitation to get to know the intellectuals who lived, worked and created there. It is a walk around the places in the city that Magris describes in his books.

The Alzheimer’s sufferers who accompanied us on this journey were open to feeling, listening, debating, questioning, laughing and getting excited. And excitement is infectious.

Yes, the exhibition “The Trieste of Magris” has to be visited in company—especially if the company is that good!

Photographs of the visit: Irene Ruiz Auret

How not to eat animals

May 16th, 2011 2 Comments

When Jonathan Safran Foer found out he was going to be a father, he started to worry about the gastronomic education of his future child. He thought about what he would give him to eat, how he would cook it, which ingredients would form part of his diet and which should be avoided. He also started to think about whether he would give him animals to eat. To base himself firmly on facts, this writer—one of US literature’s best young talents today—decided to research the meat industry. Three years later, with little Sasha running around his Park Slope apartment in New York, Safran Foer published his latest book, Eating animals (Comer animales, the Spanish language version published by Seix Barral, 2011), a critical text that aims not to convince his readers of the advantages of vegetarianism, but to provide them with enough information to draw their own conclusions—to be aware, for example, that the meat industry is one of the main reasons for climate change as a result of the huge quantity of noxious gases it generates.

Jonathan Safran Foer presented Comer animales at the CCCB on 11 May, accompanied by Jesús Mosterín, philosopher and defender of animal rights and the environment. The talk alternated between Mosterín’s pro-environment, pro-animal welfare discourse and Safran Foer’s defence of the need to be aware of what we are eating. According to the New York writer, it is easier to make small decisions about the animal products we consume, such as asking about the source of meat or avoiding fast-food restaurants, than to convert to vegetarianism. And, if we do become vegetarians, it should not be just a question of health but also of ethics.

During his visit, Jonathan Safran Foer answered the CCCB’s questions. This is a summary of the interview.

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Interview by Lucía Calvo

Story of a day: #diaMagris

May 4th, 2011 No Comments

For many, 3 May 2011 was the day that Barça and Real Madrid met in the semi-finals of the Champions League, or the day they found out more details about the death of Osama Bin Laden. It will be remembered by Claudio Magris as the day that Barcelona University conferred an honorary degree on him, and by us as a day of tribute to the Trieste-born writer on Twitter. Yesterday we celebrated #diaMagris, an event dedicated to publicizing documentation, quotations and recommendations related to the work of the author of Danube.

Twitter users who took part in #diaMagris. Source: The Archivist (click to enlarge)

Storify del #diaMagris

Thanks to the involvement of many users—110 people altogether—over 400 tweets related to Claudio Magris were published. Barcelona University @ub_endirecte streamed the investiture ceremony of Claudio Magris and the accounts of @cececebe and @CCCBebeducacio published documents, videos and photographs of Magris and the CCCB’s exhibition, “The Trieste of Magris”. The Wikipedist @kippelboy updated Wikipedia’s entry on Claudio Magris specially for #diaMagris, @bibliotequesbcn provided information about the writer’s books that can be found in Barcelona’s public libraries, and many other Internet users shared quotations from Magris or recommended their favourite books. We posted a summary on Storify in the form of a collection of documentation, videos, photographs, quotes and recommendations that were shared during #diaMagris. On the CCCB’s Delicious, you can consult the tweeted links.

The result of the initiative showed us that, thanks to the collaboration of networks, it is possible to compile lots of interesting and useful information about an author. It is an experience that we recommend and one that can be applied to other cultural or educational activities. Thank you to everyone who contributed to #diaMagris!


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