Àlex Susanna, writer, teacher, poet and cultural promoter. New portrait for Barcelona V. A.

Àlex and I used to go to school together and afterwards we lost track until many years later, when he was director of the Ramon Llull Institute and we met in a reunion. Now he welcomes me at the Espais Volart of the Vila Casas Foundation, of which he is the art director.
While I prepare the camera we talk about art and artists, photography, painting, the poor acceptance of figurative painting today, how the auction houses have caused the crisis of the galleries, a little bit of everything, in the short time I can steal from his tight schedule.
Àlex speaks slowly, with measured words, with an erudite touch and with the confidence that his impressive trajectory gives him.

Àlex Susanna is a writer, teacher, poet and cultural promoter.
He has been professor of Catalan literature at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, founder and director of Editorial Columna, Columna Música, and the International Poetry Festival of Barcelona. He has co-directed the collection of novels El Cercle de Viena, in Viena Ediciones. Subsequently he has been director of the Caixa Catalunya Foundation, director of Culture of the Obra Social de CatalunyaCaixa in La Pedrera, director of the Ramon Llull Institute and of the Catalan Agency of Cultural Heritage. In 2020 he joined the Vila Casas Foundation as art director.
He holds a degree in Catalan Philology from the University of Barcelona. He has published a number of poetry books, including Memòria del cos (1980, Miquel de Palol Prize 1979). As a prose writer, he has published Quadern venecià (1989, Premi Josep Pla 1988), Quadern de Fornells, Quadern d’ombres and Quadern dels marges.
As an art critic he has published numerous texts for catalogs and articles on exhibitions. Among his translations stand out those of Monsieur Teste by Paul Valéry (1980, Serra d’Or Critics' Prize 1981), Quatre Quartets by T.S. Eliot (1984 and 2011) and Cal·ligrames by Apollinaire, and he has also collaborated as an article writer in various media.
His work has been translated into eleven languages.
He is a member of the European Academy of Poetry.

A new portrait for "Barcelona, valors afegits: Clara S. Prous, illustrator

As she still doesn't have a studio, Clara prefers to meet me at the bar around the corner for the photo shoot. I confess that it's hard for me to get into her universe, probably because of generational issues, but I'm very attracted to her work, which I discovered by chance on Instagram. We talk about techniques, materials and art props. She tells me that lately he is exhibiting quite a lot in small galleries and concept stores in the city. She sells originals and prints, and is increasingly in demand. She explains that people say she paints distorted characters, as if they were from Chernobyl. We agree that it is precisely in these distortions that the power of her work is based, which can indeed have Soviet but also American connotations.

"I was born in Barcelona in 1991, and I have only changed city once, and I came back.
I am an illustrator and post producer. I usually spend my days painting in my studio, although if I'm asked I edit a video or collaborate in fanzines and comics. If I'm asked to do some 3D modeling, then I charge for it. As I have a huge complication to express myself in some way, and my virtues do not include singing, I have dedicated my whole life to explore new artistic methods. That's why I studied illustration in 2014 at the Industrial School of Barcelona, and then I did a specialization course in post-production at the Espai School, also in Barcelona.
In 2018 I went to live in Liège, near Brussels, to work in a 3D studio, where I did architectural renderings. The job was good, but it was hard for me to live in -6 °C, to be honest.
When I came back home I decided what I wanted to do always was to paint, and this is what I actually do daily."

Film director Félix Fernández de Castro, new portrait for "Barcelona valors afegits"

I met Félix when he came home to shoot a scene of the film María y yo, and later, in a long ellipsis, we met again at Gallardo's house, a few days before his death. Our relationship therefore turns around our friendship with Miguel Gallardo and we talked about him for a long time, with deep longing and feeling, and about María y yo, of course. As a good filmmaker, Felix likes to explain things in detail, and when he talks about his film, he also adds a lot of passion. You can tell he loves his work.

At the end of the session we discovered that when we were kids we went to the same school, a few years apart, sharing teachers and similar experiences. And in case there were any doubts, seeing the photograph of Martin Parr that he has hanging in the studio, and afterwards when he tells me that yes, the beautiful Triumph on the street is indeed his, we have just connected completely.

Born in 1963, Félix Fernández de Castro has spent most of his life working in advertising.

First, as a creative in different agencies in Barcelona, where he has held all positions, from junior copywriter in the first one to creative director and founding partner in the last one, SCPF...

And then, more than two decades ago, as a filmmaker. Since 2017, at his own production company, Blank films. On both sides of the camera, his work has been recognized with almost all the advertising awards that exist.

In 2010 he shot the film María y yo, a film adaptation of Miguel Gallardo's graphic novel of the same title.

He has two and a half children, two dogs and two cats, with whom he lives intermittently in a house in the mountains of Collserola, north of Barcelona. He likes cooking, baking bread, and if he had not been a director, he would have loved to be a musician or a carpenter.

One more portrait: great great artist, Marcos Palazzi.

I meet Marcos Palazzi in his studio, an old factory in the Rivera neighborhood. He is a fascinating personage, like his paintings that cover the walls of the studio. As we talk, he writes down on a piece of paper names and information that come up during the conversation. Palazzi's work is so powerful that it is hard to understand why he does not have greater recognition. He himself speaks of his work with excessive modesty. A great lover of comics, he tells me that our well-remembered mutual friend Gallardo asked him why he did not draw comics, and he tells me "but I have nothing to explain!". I point out to him, incredulous, his magnificent paintings. "Okay, yes, all right," he replies, "but this is something else..."

Marcos Palazzi is a figurative painter of portraits and scenes of the unusual and the ordinary. His characters live absurd situations in environments where details, apparently irrelevant, become fascinating and even humorous.
As he himself explains: "I was always drawing with a pencil and I started painting at the age of eighteen when I entered at EINA school thanks to one of my teachers, Serra de Rivera. I entered EINA with the idea of doing design but I soon switched to art. Afterwards I enrolled at La Massana and later at La Llotja. In all the schools I went through I had very good teachers. I also liked comics and I loved going to exhibitions and museums like the old MNAC, which was in La Ciutadella. There I got immersed in painting. I was alone and I would spend hours in front of a painting.
I don't know how to define my art. It's quite similar to the music I listen to and the books I read. I can say it's a bit eclectic. I like to vary the classical look on what surrounds me. Light is key. I like artificial light and I put the focus on what I want to show."

Since 1992 he has exhibited in Barcelona, Bologna, Berlin, Centelles, Geneva, Girona, London, Madrid, Milan, Monaco, New York, Reus, Sant Cugat, Santiago de Chile, Zaragoza, Tarragona.

Toni Casares, for "Barcelona valors afegits"

I haven't seen Toni for a long time, I think since he came on vacation when I was living in Montreal, in 1997. I find him unchanged and very enthusiastic, as always, about theater. He welcomes me at the flamboyant Sala Beckett, in Poble Nou, an unquestionable reference point for theater in Barcelona. As he shows me around the facilities I realize how passionate he is about it and how lucky he feels to be doing his job. I tell him, apologizing, that I rarely go to the theater, almost never, in line with the reasons given by Quim Monzó in his famous talk Why I don't go to the theater, and he answers that he likes the theater precisely for the same reasons that Monzó doesn't like it.

Toni Casares is the director of the Sala Beckett/Obrador Internacional de Dramaturgia. With a degree in Catalan Philology from the UAB and a postgraduate degree in Theory and Criticism of Theatre Performance, he was a founding member of the UAB's Theatre Classroom, of which he was artistic director from 1992 to 2004, as well as head of the university's Live Culture Program.

Between 1989 and 1992 he was General Coordinator of the Centre Dramàtic de la Generalitat de Catalunya. In 1997 he took over the direction of the Sala Beckett in Barcelona, to which he had been linked since its foundation.

He has directed shows of international contemporary authorship, with special attention to Catalan authorship, with texts by Sergi Belbel, J.M. Benet y Jornet, Martin Crimp, Pau Miró, Mercè Rodoreda, Mercè Sarrias, Roland Schimmelpfennig, or Fréderic Sonntag, among others. He is the author of Aquí s’aprèn poca cosa, the theatrical adaptation of the novel Jakob Von Guntten, by Robert Walser.

(Between 2005 and 2012 he was a member of the Advisory Council of the National Theater of Catalonia, and between 2011 and 2016, a member of the executive committee of the Barcelona Culture Council. He is currently a member of the Advisory Council for the Performing Arts of the Ministry of Culture).

Lucia Fumero, a great artist portrait for "Barcelona valors afegits"

Lucia's flat, in the Sants neighbourhood, is a small oasis where the sunshine breaks through and seems to come from somewhere else. In the midst of an almost harmonious disorder, she composes and performs her pieces, surrounded by plants and her cats Tofu and Mora. On a music stand I see the score of Radio Rewrite by Steve Reich. She tells me that she is studying this piece to conduct it soon at the Barcelona Auditorium.

With an enviable vitality and a contagious smile, she explains to me how she went to Holland, where she studied world music, perhaps in an unconscious reflex to seek something beyond jazz, which is already part of her DNA. And how she later came back to Barcelona, where she continued studying at the ESMUC, mostly - she explains - to get to know other musicians. And since then she hasn't stopped, playing with the best musicians and composing wonders like her latest album, Universo normal. In her own words, "Universo normal is a door to my imagination. That's why it's normal. And that's why it's a universe. It's a concept that inspires magic, something huge like the universe, but at the same time concentrates on something very basic, rootsy, like folk music. "

Lucia Fumero is a pianist and singer born in Barcelona, with Argentinian and Swiss roots. She began studying classical music at the Municipal Conservatory of Barcelona, where she graduated with the Grado Profesional de Música in 2010. She then travelled to Holland to continue studying and working. There, at the Rotterdam University of Music, she studied a higher degree in modern music specialising in Latin music. She is now in her final year at the ESMUC specialising in jazz piano. She has participated as a musician in many different ensembles of different styles and has released her first album with original music. She often collaborates with the new generation of Barcelona musicians such as Rita Payés, Nico Roig, Pol Batller and Martín Meléndez, among others.

Portraying Cristina Blanch for "Barcelona valors afegits".

Cristina welcomes me at her studio, which is also her art school. An apartment in the Gracia district, full of hidden and charming spaces. We talk about Barcelona, about artists and galleries, and about her work. I observe the elegance of her movements and the attractive mix of irony and self-assurance she has when she talks. She tells me that she likes to paint watercolors more than oil paintings and shows me some magnificent portraits in small format. I admire her oil paintings, which are also very good, often resolved with unexpected resources. She tells me how, for her latest project, she gets her inspiration from listening to crime podcasts in order to imagine and recreate the scenarios: mysterious houses lost in the middle of nowhere.

Cristina Blanch studied art at the ESAG Penninghen in Paris. Creator and director of the Blanch Art School, founded in 1990 in Barcelona, she has developed in parallel her activity as a painter with exhibitions in Barcelona, Madrid, Italy, Hong Kong and Singapore.

David Ruiz, new portrait for "Barcelona valoRs afegits"

In addition to being an excellent creative, David Ruiz is an expert sailor, who has crossed the Atlantic five times and who one day closed his agency and decided to sail around the world solo, aboard his sailboat Thor, for four years.
I devoured his book "irse," (Going away) in which he narrates his adventure, and I immediately contacted him for a portrait. I think this is the first time I have portrayed someone who, for me, is a hero, in the most literary sense of the word. And it turns out that this hero is a very interesting, kind and funny guy. I photograph him at his studio in Poble Nou and we talk, of course, about sailboats, the sea and his journey. And about how he now has little wish to sail, to go out for a few hours for a ride like he did before, because everything has a different dimension, a different meaning.
Behind his gaze one can guess an envyable, almost ancestral wisdom, like that of those who have seen many things and have lived very intensely, but who, above all, have learned to be humble in front of nature's immensity.

After nine years working as an art director and creative director in various multinational advertising agencies, in 1993 he founded his own studio: ruizcompany. With no boundaries between advertising and graphic design, projects are developed under the common denominator of creativity.
He has been awarded 119 international prizes to date in all disciplines, including: Grand Prix festival Clio in San Francisco, gold medal of the Art Directors Club of New York, 2 lions at the Cannes International Festival, 6 Red Dot Awards, as well as 5 Laus gold trophies and 14 silver in Spain.
A member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) since 1997, he has been a juror in various international competitions and has given lectures all over the world.

Portrait in Helsinki

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Just before leaving to attend a memorable EUYO concert at the Musiikkitalo in Helsinki, my dear Hélène lay down on the sofa for a while. Don't move! click.

Rautavaara and Bartók, in addition, sounded close to excellence.

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One more portrait for "Barcelona Valors Afegits": Javier Pérez Andújar

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I meet Javier at the station of Sant Adrià del Besòs, his hometown, and he guides me through the beach and the streets near the train tracks, landscapes of his childhood and youth. It's a rainy day, almost in black and white, very appropriate for the portrait session. Today the sea is angry, and we stand for a while to admire it, always under the exaggerated presence of the old thermal power plant chimneys.
Javier has a shy, modest appearance, like someone who does not want to bother. But behind this discreet aspect, there is a character with a very rich world, with an original and surprising discourse where humor, the fiercest criticism, erudition and surrealism are mixed. I tell him how much I liked his latest book El año del Búfalo, which he is promoting these days all over Spain, and I ask him what other book of his he recommends. Paseos con mi madre, he tells me smiling, is the one that people like the most.

Javier Pérez Andújar has a degree in Hispanic Philology from the University of Barcelona.
Author of the books Los príncipes valientes (finalist for the Premio de Novela Fundación Lara 2007, and Premio Qwerty de BTV 2008 to the revelation author in Spanish), Salvador Dalí: A la conquista de lo irracional, Todo lo que se llevó el diablo, Paseos con mi madre, Milagro en Barcelona (with photographs by Joan Guerrero), Catalanes todos, Diccionario enciclopédico de la vieja escuela (Estado Crítico essay award 2016), La noche fenomenal and El año del Búfalo (Herralde novel award 2021).
He currently collaborates in the radio program A Vivir Que Son Dos Días (cadena SER) and in the supplement Llegim of the newspaper Ara. He has also collaborated in the television programs Saló de Lectura (BTV) and L'Hora del Lector (Canal 33); in the magazines Taifa, of which he was editor-in-chief, El Ciervo, Tapas Magazine, Ajoblanco, Rockdelux, Globe, and in the newspapers El Periódico de Catalunya and El País. In 2014 he received the City of Barcelona Media Award for his chronicles published in the catalan edition of El País. He has also collaborated in the fanzine Mondo Brutto and was co-founder of the fanzines Flandis Mandis and Lardín. He has translated into Spanish the Asterix album: El cielo se nos cae encima! (Salvat, 2005).

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