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Last posts

A new take on Federico Fellini

Mónica Boixeda Barcelonian

If you like Federico Fellini’s movies, takes advantage of this unique exhibition organized by the CaixaForum in Barcelona: “El circo de la ilusión”. Come and discover the complete works of this Italian genius who became famous after receiving the Palme d´Or at Cannes Festival in 1960 with La Dolce Vita. You can enjoy it from mid-February to mid-June. The exhibition offers a journey through the filmmaker´s work divided into four parts: “Fellini and the popular culture”, “Fellini and his work“, “the City of Women” and “Fellini, biographical invention”. The exhibition gives an overview of the topics he was most passionate about as psychoanalysis or the music hall, and reveals the secrets of his creation. So we will see new views on his films. Fellini was a native of Rimini, but he moved to Rome at the age of 19 where he worked in a humour magazine and wrote texts for the radio. There he met his wife, Giulietta Masina, the woman who shared his lifelong and who was his muse for many films. After helping several filmmakers, he became gradually a real artist with his own style. His first work was called Luci del varietà (1951) and his first international success, three years later, will be La Strada. But it was with La Dolce Vita that he fascinated us. Then he became a master and people began to talk about the Fellini’s baroque. He used to create eccentric characters that caricatured the Italian society. He used a narrative without much dramatic tension and a lack of boundaries between the real world and the imaginary. Besides a great filmmaker, Fellini... read more

The sixth edition of the “Ellas Crean Festival” reaches the five continents

Mónica Boixeda Madrilenian

They sing, they compose, they write, they paint, they dance, they act… In short, they create (Ellas Crean). Once again, and for the sixth consecutive year, the most important female festival of Spain celebrates the International Women´s Day. In this way important female figures of music, theatre, poetry, art and dance are going to lead us through different artistic and cultural proposals. The festival will be included in the cultural programming of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union and will reach 20 cities on the five continents through the Instituto Cervantes. It is organized by the Ministry of Culture and Equality, and it will be held in Madrid from February 17th to March 30th. This year the Ellas Crean festival emerges under the ´A commitment to the equality ´ motto, where the government demonstrates its commitment to advance towards a more egalitarian society. It is necessary to emphasize the programming that will be coordinated in collaboration with Paris and which will include debates, cinema, literature and a section entitled “Spanish women in Paris”. It also will arrive to other countries with which Spain shares community presidency such as Belgium and Hungary. It will count with seven relevant names from the popular contemporary music scene proceeding from three different continents: Savina Yannatou, Houria Aichi, Amal Murkus, Márta Sebestyén, Virgínia Rodrigues, Carmen Linares and Juliette Gréco. But the main protagonists of this edition will be Joan Baez, Luz Casal and Najwa Nimri. Furthermore, singers Rocio Marquez, Esperanza Fernández and Marina Heredia, and conductors Nathalie Stutzmann and Christina Pluhar will give the festival a very special touch. “Son de Ellas” is... read more

The Barcelona of Cerdà

Mónica Boixeda Barcelonian

When you look at the map of Barcelona, you see a beehive of blocks formed by long and wide streets that intersect. This is the Eixample District, which extends and branches throughout the city. It has a very appropriate Catalan name, since this area was built to unify the historic center to the nearby towns, which now form a set of ten districts. The engineer Ildefons Cerdà was the man who proposed this development plan in 1859, with a really modern design for the time: Cerdà was already thinking about the cars and the environment. This year, the Plan Cerdà is 150 years old! If you want to discover the Eixample district, you can start by getting lost in its grid, you’ll see many things that look very similar. Tall buildings of modernist style, offices, hotels, restaurants, shops, trees, very wide sidewalks – with the flower symbol, cars… Today this is an upper middle class and mostly residential neighbourhood, but it is also home of the gay district, known as Gayxample which is located on the left side of it. On the right side we fund emblematic places such as the famous Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera and La Casa Batllo, on Paseo de Gracia. But original idea was that each block would be a series of residences with a green space in the middle, like a little island (in Barcelona they are known as patio blocks). Today there are not many, since the space was gradually used up to build more new buildings. Cerdà wanted to make a city of human proportions. He had foreseen the downtown in Gloríes... read more