Posts Tagged ‘xcèntric’

What the CCCB has in store: a foretaste of the 2017 programme

December 20th, 2016 No Comments

A new year is just around the corner and it’s time to give you a taster of what we’re cooking up at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània, what the various programming teams are working on, and the themes and the protagonists of our debates, films, audiovisual screenings, exhibitions and festivals for 2017.

We can look forward to a new season of activities organized around a central idea running through the entire programme: reflection on change. Get out your diaries and take note!

Debates about change in the present

Judit Butler lecture © CCCB. Miquel Taverna, 2015

We start the year with a major debate about Europe, a continent undergoing one of the most critical moments in its political history, with a humanitarian crisis surrounding refugees and the rise of authoritarianisms and xenophobia. 

Debates and humanistic and philosophical reflection about the present will continue throughout the year with cycles of talks about the idea of revolution and its strength today, about the role of Russia in the world in the centenary of the October Revolution, about suicide (leading cause of non-natural death among young people in Catalonia) and about privacy at a time when technology permeates all spheres of our lives.

Climate change from the viewpoint of culture

The third culture, a line of programming that brings together art, science and design, will be very present in debates like “Technology, sovereignty and globalization”, a series of talks directed by Evgeny Morozov. Composer Brian Eno is one of the first speakers to be confirmed.

Critical reflection on climate change and the destruction of the planet is one of the big themes of the year, which we’ll be addressing in After the End of the World. Curated by José Luis de Vicente, this exhibition will present multidisciplinary projects and viewpoints, allowing us to form a fairly realistic view of what our lives and the world will be like in the not too distant future (the year 2050). This year’s edition of the International Cultural Innovation Award is open to cultural ideas that offer imaginative, effective solutions to climate change. The winning project will form part of the exhibition After the End of the World.

2017, a literary year at the CCCB

The Pati de les Dones during Kosmopolis festival © CCCB. Miquel Taverna, 2013

Amplified literature: Kosmopolis is back for year nine of the amplified literature festival. Under the heading “When Everything Changes”, this literary festival presents a five-day programme bringing together established authors and new talents to address some of the principal challenges facing culture and literature in the broadest sense. John Banville, Kim Stanley Robinson, Jean Echenoz, Sophie Divry, Orna Donath, Pierre Lemaitre, Jo Nesbø, Marta Sanz and Alicia Kopf are some of the names of Kosmopolis 2017.

A few days before Kosmopolis kicks off, we’ll be opening the exhibition Photobook Phenomenon, about the relation between photography and paper publications with a deluxe group of curators: Gerry Badger, Horacio Fernández, Ryuichi Kaneko, Erik Kessels, Irene de Mendoza, Moritz Neumüller, Martin Parr, Markus Schaden and Frederic Lezmi.

The month of May sees the arrival of the sixth edition of Primera Persona, another of the CCCB’s in-house festivals in which literature, music and autobiographical narrative take the stage.

Women have a lot to say

Thewriter Taiye Selasi in Kosmopolis 2015. © CCCB. Carlos Cazurro, 2015

“Good girls go to heaven—bad girls go everywhere.” This phrase, attributed to the actress Mae West, provides the inspiration for Gandules, the al fresco film programme that takes place in August. With the title “Wild and Indomitable Women of the Cinema”, we’ll be showing films that remind us of female characters who have inundated the cinema screen throughout history. María Castejón Leorza, a film critic on the team of Pikara Magazin, will be the curator of the cycle.

The Kosmopolis festival will also be looking at literature written by women as one of the central themes of this year’s edition.

15 years of experimental cinema

In 2018, Xcèntric, the CCCB’s cinema, turns 15. Xcèntric opens an anniversary season with a programme of Val del Omar premieres and a concert by El Niño de Elche. It’ll also have a new website and a book about essential filmmakers in experimental cinema.

The CCCB continues its collaboration with established festivals like L’Alternativa, DOCSBarcelona, Miniput and the International Women’s Film Festival, as well as younger proposals like D’A and the Serielizados Fest.

Soy Cámara’s YouTube channel will continue to experiment with the genre of the video essay centring on current affairs and themes included in the CCCB’s programme. A new feature this year is a programme of live presentations, kicking off with the screening of Hypernormalisation, the latest documentary by Adam Curtis.

(Català) “La imatge salvatge”, nou curs de l’Aula Xcèntric

October 20th, 2014 No Comments

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) Romanticisme Xcèntric per Sant Valentí

February 13th, 2013 No Comments

(Català) XCÈNTRIC 3×1: Aquesta setmana, tres passis de cinema experimental al CCCB

November 12th, 2012 No Comments

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