Violinist VERA MARTÍNEZ MEHNER for "Barcelona retrats de proximitat".

Vera has just come from a rehearsal. Today she has a concert with the Cuarteto Casals, one of the most prestigious string quartets in the world, which celebrates its 25th birthday this year.
She tells me that, for her, chamber music is the best music. Playing as a soloist in an orchestra does not fulfill her as much as being part of a quartet. We talk about the importance of the communion between the performer and the audience in concerts, "it's like you doing portraits, you always need someone on the other side", and about the little consideration that classical music has in Spain, if we compare it with other countries like, for example, Germany.
Today they will play Brahms and Haydn, "the father of chamber music". Good concert!

—

Born in Madrid, Vera Martínez Mehner studied at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía and at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. She completed her studies in Germany with a postgraduate degree in chamber music as a member of the Casals Quartet under the tutelage of the Alban Berg Quartet.
She won important prizes such as the First Prize and Special Prize for the best classical interpretation at the Kloster Schöntal International Competition (1995) and the Second Prize at the Henry Wieniawsky International Violin Competition in Poland (1997). As a member of the Casals Quartet she has won First Prizes at the International Competitions in London (2000) and Hamburg (2002) and the National Music Prize in 2006, and as a soloist she has performed with orchestras such as the Santo Domingo Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of the Reina Sofia School of Music, the Palma Symphony Orchestra, the Andrés Segovia Chamber Orchestra and the Reina Sofia Chamber Orchestra. She has collaborated with the Deutsche Kammerphilarmonie Bremen and performed in chamber music concerts with musicians such as Gérard Caussé, Harald Schoneweg, Marta Gulyàs and Claudio Martínez Mehner. He regularly plays piano-violin recitals together with his brother Claudio and is a member of the group Funktion, with which he dedicates himself to the world of contemporary music.
Since the age of 18 she has been a founding member of the Casals Quartet, with which she has played concerts in the most prestigious concert halls in Europe, the United States, Latin America and Japan. She currently teaches violin and chamber music at the Escuela Superior de Música de Catalunya and is invited to give masterclasses in Europe and the United States.

XIMENA PÉREZ GROBET, book artist, for "Barcelona retrats de proximitat".

When she was little, Ximena used to say that when she grew up she wanted to be a "gift wrapper". And in the end what she does is very similar to this idea, because she designs artist's books, which are art objects that contain surprises, like wrapped gifts. 
She has just returned from Mexico where she presented the exhibition Adsum at the Seminario de Cultura Mexicana. While we have a coffee she shows me some of her works, where she turns the traditional concept of book upside down, breaking away from the established, playing with the random. These are ingenious and unusual books, which often incorporate a ludic component, "because -she tells me- it is there where we all recognize ourselves." 

—

Ximena Pérez Grobet is a Mexican graphic artist and designer based in Barcelona. She has developed a professional work around the book as an artistic discipline and format of expression. Her experience in editorial design and production of art books has helped her to create a personal work through artist's books that she signs with her own publishing label Nowhereman Press. 
Since 1994 she has exhibited in Mexico, Europe and the United States. 
She also collaborates with artists who are interested in capturing their projects in artist's books, where the book as an object collects and interprets the artist's work in close dialogue with the author and gives it a unique value in limited editions.

SUSANA BOIX, executive producer, for "BARCELONA RETRATS DE PROXIMITAT"

SUSANA BOIX, executive producer.

"What I do is a kind of personal alchemy" Susana says to me, when I ask her about what her work is about. And she specifies: "It's about discovering other people' s talents and knowing how to combine these talents to make the final product work. "It would be like combining the ingredients of a recipe to cook a delicious dish". And here is where her creativity comes in, her criteria, her instinct to know how to choose a good team with such and such director because she knows that together they can give the best of each one. At the same time, she has to make sure that everything fits together financially. 

—

At the end of the 90s, Susana Boix learns the profession from international production companies such as RSA, ACNÉ or Wanda, and works for the world' s best advertising agencies, such as Wieden+Kennedy, Forsman&Bodenfors or Crispen Porter and Bogusky. At the beginning of 2017, understanding the change in the bases of communication, and after working for 25 years for the best Spanish advertising production companies, he founded Blank, a production company that recovers and defends audiovisual quality and that defines itself as "a blank space, a container of talent and resources to develop content, without distinction of format, or measure".His productions have received awards in practically all the world's advertising festivals, among which eight Cannes Lions, seven CLIO, and awards at OneShow or NY Art Directors Club stand out.
In Spain she has produced global campaigns for EAGames, Nike, Coca Cola or Adidas among others.

Photographer and essayist Joan Fontcuberta for "Barcelona retrats de proximitat"

I have admired Joan Fontcuberta's work since I discovered his Sputnik project and, since then, the rest of his production, which always revolves around the idea that "all photography is a fiction that is presented as true". When we finish the portrait session he gives me a copy of Prosopagnosia, his latest book, which he has developed with Pilar Rosado, and explains to me, enthusiastic, what the project has consisted of: starting from an archive of photographs from a newspaper of the 30s, and through an artificial intelligence algorithm, they generated a collection of 853 human faces of people who have never existed. But what has most interested the authors are the errors that have occurred throughout the process. The faces that the system was creating, while learning to build them, from the pure noise of the pixels to the final forms, have given surprising results that recall the different artistic currents. It is what Fontcuberta calls "the very memory of art", from expressionism to minimalism, from surrealism to Bacon.

—

Joan Fontcuberta (Barcelona, 1955) has developed a plural activity in the world of photography as a creator, teacher, essayist, exhibition curator and historian. 
Author of a dozen history books and essays on photography such as El beso de Judas. Photography and Truth (1997), Ciencia y Fricción (1998), La cámara de Pandora (2010), La furia de las imágenes (2016) or Revelaciones (2019). Some thirty monographs have been published on his creative work. 
His work has been exhibited in museums around the world such as MoMA in New York, Art Institute of Chicago, IVAM in València, FOAM in Amsterdam, MEP in Paris, Science Museum in London and has been acquired by numerous public collections. 
Among others, in 2013 he received the Hasselblad International Award and in 2022 he has been distinguished with the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Université Paris VIII.

Illustrator Isa Feu, new portrait for "Barcelona retrats de proximitat"

Isa is a survivor of the Barcelona underground, co-founder of the mythical Tebeos del Rrollo, and regular author of el Víbora.
We've known each other for years now, and she still has the same determined, optimistic and moderately transgressive personality she had when she was young.
We talk about the old days and the work we are doing now, I don't know about you, but I can't stop. I'm doing one project and I'm already thinking about the next one. 
She shows me notebooks full of notes, sketches, and the project she is working on now: a drawn history of the people of Sant Climent de Llobregat.

—

Isa Feu begins her artistic career as a cartoonist. In 1974 she publishes, together with Pàmies and Roger, De Quomic, el tebeo aristócrata. She is part of the group of Los tebeos del Rrollo (Picadura Selecta, Propaganda Moderna, El Sidecar, A la Calle...) and el Víbora. She has also published in the magazine Cavall Fort.
She has also collaborated as an illustrator in periodical publications (Diario de Barcelona, La Vanguardia Mujer, El Periódico, ROCK IN', Marie-Claire, Vitalidad, Barcelona Metropoli...) and has participated in exhibitions such as Perpetuum Mobile (1984) and Makoki 1977-1987 (Sala Metrònom and itinerant). In 1989, she exhibits her pictorial works at Piscolabis (Barcelona) and participates in two group exhibitions, Papel de Mujeres, at Sala Transformadors (Barcelona) and Sala Amadís (Madrid), and Zum-Zum at Galería Dubé (Barcelona). She also exhibits, in collaboration with Pep Casares, original mats at the DBarcelona Gallery, and participates in the fourth edition of Supermerc'art in Madrid. In 1990 she participates in Hipermerc'art at Sala Vinçon (Barcelona). From 1991 to 1996 she exhibits in Banyoles, Girona, Vilassar de Mar and Sant Joan Despí. 
Since 1991 she works as an assistant decorator in the audiovisual world, especially in the cinematographic field.
In 2019 she collaborates in the magazine Lardín.

Isa Feu website

Visualist AURORA GASULL, new portrait for "Barcelona retrats de proximitat"

I photograph Aurora at her apartment in Plaça del Pi, a cozy space with walls full of paintings and drawings that are little jewels. Among others there are works by her mother Aurora Altisent, and Carme Balmas, her grandmother. A whole family of artists.
Aurora is kind and delicate. She does not like to define herself as an artist, she prefers the term visualist, but I think that the compositions and animations she makes with the computer are true works of art.
She explains to me that she had to give up music because of a hearing problem, and that she couldn't find anything that could replace such a powerful and complete art. With the forms and movements she creates on the screen, she has managed to invent a world that, although not as universal as music, has enough entity to attract and move.

—

Born in Barcelona in 1962, cellist and member of several chamber ensembles until 1990, Aurora Gasull started in the visual field with photography, drawing and painting. Attracted by the development of the digital environment, she studied a Master's degree in musical creation and sound technology (UPF) and finally specialized with a Master's degree in computer animation and image synthesis (UIB).
After a few years of active profession, he begins the exploration of the abstract image.
In 2018 she participates in the experimental film program developed by the Fundación Juan March (L’abstracció en moviment, 1921-2012 ), which accompanies the exhibition of Hans Hinterreiter at the headquarters in Palma and at the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español in Cuenca.
In 2019, she is be the protagonist of the 2nd edition of Pantalla Interior at the Hall of the CCCB (Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona).
Cartes des del bosc is presented at the Festival de video d'auteur FLUJO at the Centro Artes Santa Mònica.
In 2021 monographic screening of films at the Convent of San Agustín and shared screening with Joma presented by the Flujo Club at the Antic Teatre.
"I believe that the visual that progresses is an extension of painting and that music can act as a teacher on the path of abstraction in time. Digital tools allow for the exploration of visual language as never before, despite the extreme frustration they represent today when compared to the experience of playing an instrument. Animation is an experience in a very slow tempo: days and weeks of dedication pass from start to finish.
In recent years I have begun to work with live tools that offer a new spontaneity, and to replace the screen as a support for projection on white ceramic, paper and stone, materials that reveal the display of the colors of light in a sensitive experience. Perhaps I will be able to hesitate and be wrong again live."

Aurora Gasull website

New portrait for "Barcelona retrats de proximitat": Eva Serrats , architect.

This is probably the most proximity portrait of the whole book, because Eva is my neighbor. While she is heating water to make some tea, she explains to me that she is very happy because she has just been informed that Seguint el peix, the project presented by Leve, her production company, together with Top manta (Sindicato Popular de Vendedores Ambulantes), has been selected to represent Catalonia and the Balearic Islands at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023. It is a project that touches on common themes that Leve Productora often works on: migratory traffic, the privatization of public space, feminism, the anti-racist struggle or food sustainability.
Afterwards we have a nice cup of tea and she tells me how the spaces have been organized at her house, a peculiar three-level dwelling that she designed together with her husband, Francesc Pla. 

—

Eva Serrats is an architect. She has worked in the fields of photography, film and architecture and cultural management among others. In 2007 she created Leve Productora located in La Floresta, from where projects are formulated and developed in a transdisciplinary way and in close collaboration with other people and technical and creative teams. This means that each project is developed as a unitary management and networking experience, dealing with the what and the how in an integrated way and exploring the borderline territories -the stitches- of what is considered architecture. 
She is director of strategies at La Capell Cooperative, where she has been president (2019 and 2021). She currently teaches projects at the ETSAB (UPC).

New portrait for "Barcelona retrats de proximitat": HELENA OLMEDO, dancer

Helena has a light and happy air that makes her float, as if her feet never touch the ground. But also, at the same time, a determined, solid personality, which reinforces her professionalism and her charm. She asked me to do the portrait outside the Institut del Teatre, because it remembers her times when she was a dance student. Now she is settled in Paris, but she is sure that one day she will return to Barcelona, We talk about dance and she explains to me that, although it seems improvised, in modern dance all the movements are meticulously planned. She comments, enthusiastic, her new stage where besides dancing she is involved in the creation of choreographies.

—

Helena Olmedo began her dance training at the age of nine, at the IAE Oriol Martorell, practicing classical, contemporary, traditional and Spanish dance. Later she graduated in contemporary dance at Barcelona's Conservatori de l'Institut del Teatre. In 2015 she is selected to continue her studies at the Codarts University of the Arts in Rotterdam. During her training she choreographed the duet Careful Who You Meet and the solo Grifo, performed at Korzo Theater, Den Hague, Schowburg Theater Rotterdam and Solo CerModern festival in Turkey.
In 2018 she travels to Israel and joins Vertigo Dance Company dancing One one & one, Leela and White Noise. Back in Europe in 2020, as a freelancer, she collaborates in the creation of projects and tour with Kor'sea on the piece Igra and participates in a new project with Robinson Cassarino, starting the creation of the solo Thick Skin presented at the Deltebre festival.
At the same time she develops a modeling career. In one of the fashion projects she meets the choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and joins the tour of the piece Nomad, participates in the new creation Vlaemsch and soon in Hanjo a collaboration with the Munich Chamber Orchestra.

Art curator Elvira Diangany Ose, new portrait for "Barcelona retrats de proximitat"

I really wanted to photograph Elvira Dyangani Ose, the first woman to take over the direction of MACBA since it opened almost thirty years ago.
We shot the portraits in the storeroom where part of the museum's impressive collection, an exhaustive sample of the world's contemporary art, is kept.
Elvira, kind and extremely charming, has just arrived from Mexico and has had little sleep, but she still manages to make the session pleasant and fun until the end.

—

Elvira Dyangani Ose is Director of the Museu d'Art Contemporàni de Barcelona (MACBA).
Born in Cordoba, with origins in Equatorial Guinea, she holds a degree in Art History from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She holds a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Architecture, History and Theory of Architecture from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, and a Master of Arts degree from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (currently completing her doctorate).
2004 to 2006, Curator of Contemporary African Art and Culture, Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (CAAM), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.
2006 to 2008, Curator of Contemporary Art and Publications Editor (Spanish), Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC), Seville.
2011 to 2013, Artistic Director, Rencontres Picha. Biennale de Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo.
2011 to 2014, Curator International Art, Supported by Guaranty Trust Bank Plc., Tate Modern, London.
2015, Curator of the 8th edition of Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, GIBCA, Gothenburg.
2017 to 2018, Creative Time Senior Curator, New York.
2021, Director and Head Curator, The Showroom, London.
Lecturer in Visual Cultures. Goldsmiths, University of London.
Member of the Thought Council, Fondazione Prada.

Esmeralda Berbel, writer, for "Barcelona retrats de proximitat".

I confess to Esmeralda that I have not read any of her books. To get to know her a bit more before the session, I have only been able to read and listen to interviews posted on the internet. I ask her which of her books she recommends: Lo prohibido, which I have already started, and Detrás y delante de los puentes.

I ask her, out of simple curiosity, about what she teaches in her writing courses and she answers that she teaches how to read well, to understand the narrations, and then to structure them. And the style?, I ask. Everyone has their own style, I don't get involved here. In any case, I help to develop it.

There is a nice light in her studio. Before leaving, with that special smile of hers -she also smiles with her eyes- she gives me a copy of Lo prohibido and dedicates it to me: "...on this beautiful autumn day, where your gaze and mine overlap in the light and in the words".

> Esmeralda Berbel (Badalona, 1961) studies Hispanic Philology at the University of Barcelona. Her literary work has been awarded several prizes, among them Femenino-Lumen, Montserrat Roig, Ana María Matute, Cuentos del Sur in Buenos Aires, etc. She has published books of short stories: El hombre que pagaba noches enteras, Alismas; of interviews: Trátame bien, A veces la vida, Lo que piensan l@s adolescentes, the epistolary No se lo cuentes a nadie, of poetry Habitarlo todo, Fumar en la bañera; she has been editor of several books of diaries, of the novels Detrás y delante de los puentes, Lo prohibido and of a personal diary Irse. She has written and co-directed the short film El secreto.

She has collaborated in Va de cine, Radio 5 reviewing several filmmakers.

In November she exhibits at the FX Animation film school, the collective work of several artists inspired by the novel Lo prohibido.

She teaches Literary Creation at the Ateneo Barcelonés Writing School, at La buena vida bookstore in Madrid, at Jessica Walker's theater school Laboratorio and at Laura Jou's theater studio. She teaches writing, reading and poetry courses at the FX Animation film school.