Civ 21

Catalan International View

Issue 21 • Autumn 2015 • € 5

A European Review of the World

Catalonia and multilateralism: a historic commitment

by Artur Mas

The Ukrainian chaos

by Natàlia Boronat

Mexico and the 2018 presidential elections

by Francesc Parés

Pope Francis

by Ramon M. Nogués

Josep Maria Sert Cover Artist: Bigas Luna Universal Catalans:

sections: Europe · The Americas · Africa · Barcelona Echoes · Opinion · Green Debate · A Short Story from History · Business, Law & Economics · The Artist · Arts · Poem

Editor

Víctor Terradellas

vterradellas@catmon.cat Director

Positive & Negative

director@international-view.cat Art Director

To Our Readers

Francesc de Dalmases Quim Milla

Editorial Board

Martí Anglada Jordi Basté Enric Canela Salvador Cardús August Gil-Matamala Montserrat Guibernau Guillem López-Casasnovas Manuel Manonelles Fèlix Martí Eva Piquer Ricard Planas Clara Ponsatí Arnau Queralt Vicent Sanchis Mònica Terribas Montserrat Vendrell Carles Vilarrubí Vicenç Villatoro Chief Editor

Judit Aixalà

Language Advisory Service

Contents

4......... 27S: Plebiscitary elections in Catalonia 6......... Catalonia after 27S: a bright future

by Víctor Terradellas Opinion

8......... Catalonia and multilateralism: a historic commitment .............. by Artur Mas

14........ Pope Francis

.............. by Ramon M. Nogués Europe

20. ...... Scotland votes SNP after rejecting independence: mixed messages? .............. by Clara Ponsatí

24........ The Ukrainian chaos .............. by Natàlia Boronat

28........ The paradox of the caryatids .............. by Helena Vicente

32........ Catalonia, on European time .............. by Salvador Cardús The Americas

36........ Mexico and the 2018 presidential elections .............. by Francesc Parés

Nigel Balfour Júlia López

Africa

Coordinator

.............. by Patricia Rodriguez

Ariadna Canela

administracio@catmon.cat Webmaster

Gemma Lapedriza Cover Art

40. ...... The Sustainable Development Goals: what future awaits Africa?

Green Debate

46........ A global 2030 agenda. Implementation at the national level.

.............. by Arnau Queralt

Bigas Luna

Barcelona Echoes

The reproduction of the artwork on the front cover is thanks to an agreement between Fundació Vila Casas and Fundació CATmón

Opinion

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Printed in Catalonia

52........ Barcelona: ready to welcome refugees 54........ A new education system for a new country .............. by Eduard Vallory

A Short Story from History

60.........The Indians, heroes from overseas

by Francesc de Dalmases

Business, Law & Economics

64........The Legal Advisory Board: Catalonia’s State Council

by Albert Lamarca

74........Catalonia: 7 strategic industrial areas

by Elisabeth McWilliams

Universal Catalans

78........ Josep Maria Sert The Artist

82........ Bigas Luna Arts

96. ...... The impossibility of the gaze. A conversation with Jordi Fulla.

Published quarterly

.............. by Natàlia Chocarro

With the support of

A Poem

Departament de Presidència

103....... Testament

by Rosa Leveroni

Catalan International View

Positive & Negative

by Francesc de Dalmases

27S: Plebiscitary elections in Catalonia

The elections which took place on 27S [27th September] resulted in a majority for the two political parties that were unambiguously pro-independence: Junts pel Sí (which won 62 seats) and the CUP (with 10). This fact was acknowledged by the international press, who had been closely following recent developments. The most prominent examples were: The New York Times (Pro-Secession Parties in Catalonia Win Landmark Vote, the BBC (Catalonia Vote: Pro-independence Parties Win Elections), The Guardian (Catalan Separatists Win Election and Claim It as Yes Vote for Breakaway), Al Jazeera (Catalonia Separatists Claim Victory in Regional Polls), The Financial Times (Independence Parties Win in Catalonia But Fall Short of Overall Victory), Le Monde (Catalonia: Pro-independence Victory in Regional Elections), Libération (Catalans Move on Path Towards Independence), Le Figaro (Catalans Distance Themselves from Madrid), Il Giornale (‘Absolute Majority’, Claim Separatists in Catalonia), La Presse (Victory for Pro-independence in Catalan Elections), Le Point (Catalonia: Separatists Obtain an Absolute Majority in Parliament), ITV (Catalan Separatists Win Control of Regional Government), France TV Info (Catalonia: Separatists Obtain an Absolute Majority in Parliament), Focus (Absolute Majority for Supporters of Secession), Observer (‘We won!’ Separatists Win Elections in Catalonia), Tagespiegel (Absolute Majority for Separatists, ‘Goodbye, Spain’), Der Spiegel (Regional Elections in Catalonia: Separatists Win a Majority in Parliament), Frankfurter Rundschau (Separatists Win Elections in Catalonia), Euronews (Catalonia: Clear Majority for Supporters of Separation from Spain), Newsweek (Election Results May Move Catalonia Toward Secession From Spain), Corriere della Sera (Catalonia: Mas: Road to Independence. Separatist Vote Below 50%, But 72 seats), La Repubblica (Elections in Catalonia, Partial Victory for Nationalists. Mas Goes Ahead: Independence), The Washington Post (Pro-secession Parties in Catalonia Win Landmark Vote), La Libre Belgique (The Mandate Will be to Build an Independent Catalonia), Der Spiegel (Catalans at the Polls: ‘We are not Spanish’) 4

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Positive & Negative

Unfortunately, in stark contrast, the majority of Spanish newspapers fell down on their duty to provide objective, truthful information by printing articles which, aside from showing a poor grasp of maths, served to demonstrate Spain’s politico-institutional infrastructure’s insistence on denying a political reality. The most prominent examples were El Mundo (Majority of Catalans Say No to Independence), El País (Nationalists Win the Elections but Lose their Plebiscite), La Razón (Mas Fails to Achieve his Objectives) or the ABC (Catalonia Doesn’t Want to Go).

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To Our Readers

Catalonia after 27S: a bright future

by Víctor Terradellas

On September 27 [27S], Catalonia held one of the most significant elections in its history.

Rather than making observations from one point of view or another, I feel it would be more beneficial to make an objective analysis of the outcome of these elections.

The only two clearly separatist groups to stand for election ( Junts pel Sí and the CUP) obtained 72 seats, gaining an absolute majority out of a total of 135 seats. Just three years ago, there were 24 MPs with an explicitly nationalist mandate, represented by ERC and CUP. Today there are 72.

Junts pel Sí’s nationalist list won in 907 out of a total of 942 municipalities in Catalonia, while the unionists won in 35. As for the outcome by county, Junts pel Sí won in every region in Catalonia. Every single one. These results put paid to the myth of a divided Catalonia or those who speak of a metropolitan unionist vote pitted against a largely nationalist rural vote. From north to south and from east to west, the independence option won in Catalonia.

The Junts pel Sí and the CUP lists won 47.85% of the votes cast. Well 6

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above the total of all the unionist parties combined, which barely account for 37.08%. In addition, 14.07% of the votes were for political parties which back a referendum agreed with the Spanish government (in spite of their continued intransigence on this issue).

We ought to remember that these elections had the largest turnout in the history of a democratic Catalonia.

Overall, 77.45% of those eligible to vote went to the polls and 1,952,482 chose a pro-independence party (in the referendum held on 9 November 2014, there were 1,861,753 ‘Yes’ votes, which means that the pro-independence vote continues to grow).

The composition of the Catalan political landscape as a distinct reality is reflected in the fact that Spain’s ruling party, as the most-voted political force (Mariano Rajoy’s PP), is the fifth party in Catalonia, with only 11 seats. Mean-

To Our Readers

while, the Socialists, the second political force at the state level, are third in Catalonia with a meagre 16 seats.

To complete this snapshot of the results it is worth highlighting the democratic scandal which occurred in relation to votes by Catalans living abroad. Official figures show that of the 14,919 applications, only 6,990 individuals were able to exercise their right to vote. In other words, only one in three of those who wished to do so were actually able to. Those who live abroad are predominantly in favour of independence, as evidenced by the fact that almost 65% of such voters cast their vote in favour of independence lists. In this instance, Spanish diplomatic representations have been an obstacle to democracy and have violated a crucial principle: a state’s diplomatic corps is not there to carry out party politics, but rather to administratively serve the needs of its citizens.

Aside from the obvious need for understanding and cooperation between all the pro-independence forces and among all political parties and movements which rally behind it, 27S marks a point of no return regarding the evolution of the independence process.

It is the duty of Catalan society and its political institutions to bring an end to this process in a civic, peaceful and democratic manner. After 9N and 27S the great shortcomings of Spanish democracy were made apparent. This makes the scrutiny of the international community, with the EU at the forefront, all the more desirable, to ensure these three aspects are retained: a civic, peaceful and democratic process, making the process of independence for Catalonia a unique, exemplary occurrence.

It is the duty of Catalan society and its political institutions to bring an end to this process in a civic, peaceful and democratic manner As the veteran singer Lluís Llach (who headed Junts pel Sí’s list in the province of Girona) stated, in turn paraphrasing the renowned poet Miquel Martí i Pol, in Catalonia, ‘the only path to a bright future is independence’. An independence which should also be seen as an opportunity to build the Europe we want and to which historically Catalonia has always been committed.

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Catalonia and multilateralism: a historic commitment

by Artur Mas, President of Catalonia*

In the context of the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, the President of the Government of Catalonia, Artur Mas, issued an official statement that expresses Catalonia’s profound commitment to multilateralism.

It is no coincidence that we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the United Nations and the anniversary of the end of the Second World War on the same year. Multilateralism was indeed built on the ruins of a global conflict, as a bid for a system of values and a code of conduct based on cooperation as an antidote for confrontation.

The United Nations, the highest symbol of multilateralism, embodies the key elements of the very concept, namely the combined action of several states to deal with matters of shared interest. In the course of these seventy years, the United Nations has proven, in spite of the difficulties, its capacity to manage global challenges and situations that classic bilateral diplomacy would not have been able to address.

However, we are all aware that in this assessment there are also mistakes and deficiencies. Nevertheless, it is fair to acknowledge that, without the existence of this institutional framework, the advances made in fields as sig8

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nificant as Human Rights, sustainable development, the fight against climate change, the empowerment of women and disarmament would not have been possible.

Catalonia and multilateralism: a historic commitment

For Catalonia, this bid for multilateralism and the principles on which it is based -respect for others, dialogue, negotiation and agreement- is something natural, connected to our history and in accord with the values that define us.

Catalonia has been a country traditionally committed to building a fairer and more peaceful world order.

This has much to do with our country’s centuries-old constitutional and parliamentary tradition, one of the oldest in Europe.

Therefore, it is worth emphasizing that the endeavour of Catalonia and its society for multilateralism is not something new but stems from deep-rooted aspirations and practices.

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In this regard, we can mention the notable implication of relevant representatives of Catalan society in the tasks of the League of Nations, predecessor of the United Nations, throughout the 20s and the 30s of the previous century. The participation of distinguished jurists in commissions of the League of Nations, the hosting of important meetings of the organisation in Barcelona, or the creation of the Catalan League of Nations Union, are examples that illustrate Catalonia’s commitment and contribution to the project embodied by this organisation.

Later, in the context of the United Nations, various Catalans have held -from the beginning just as they do today- high positions of responsibility, even leading organisations such as UNESCO and UN Habitat.

Likewise, it is worth noting that, during the dictatorship, Catalan civil society organised itself -in close interaction with pro-European movementsaround the founding principles of the

United Nations, as another element in the fight for freedom.

The recovery and deployment of the Catalan Government’s own institutions and the growing recognition of the role for non-state actors at the international level favoured the spur of Catalan society’s multilateral action from the 1990s onwards, which benefitted from the support and participation of Catalonia’s public administrations.

An example of these activities is the large Catalan participation -from the Government, academia and civil societyin the thematic conferences and summits of the nineties. For example, the 1992 conference of Rio de Janeiro, the 1995 Beijing Conference on Women, and more recently, the Rio+20 conference and the summits on climate change.

Beyond the responsibility of looking after Catalonia’s interests and increasing its visibility as a global actor, Catalonia’s bid for multilateralism is another feature of our identity, which the Government works to further develop.

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To this identity, responsibility and commitment we add the acknowledgment of the impact that policies and decisions made in international forums have in our country, as well as the recognition of the impossibility of progress in the resolution of the major global challenges without a firm pledge to a more effective and inclusive multilateral system which guarantees the participation of all actors.

Catalonia and multilateralism: a regional and global commitment

In this regard, events such as the current migration tragedy in Europe and the Mediterranean illustrate with cruel precision the inadequacies of partial approaches as well as the urgency of joint, integrated and multi-level responses to advance in the resolution of shared challenges.

For Catalonia, this bid for multilateralism and the principles on which it is based is something natural, connected to our history and in accord with the values that define us This example shows too the diversity of scenarios in which Catalonia’s multilateral vocation is felt. Indeed, beyond the will of influencing global governance, our history and location as well as our determination as a nation, make Europe and the Mediterranean natural scenarios for Catalonia’s external action.

There is no doubt that the referential framework for our foreign action is that of the European Union. Catalonia has been a part of it since 1986, when Spain became a member, and must continue to be part of it regardless of the future that the Catalan people will choose for our country on the 27th of 10

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September. I am convinced that this is the inclination of the overwhelming majority of Catalan society.

In this regard, I want to stress, once again, the will of Catalonia to contribute to the construction of a stronger -both politically and economically-, more democratic and transparent Europe, with greater political and economic leadership around the world, and a higher degree of social cohesion.

This pro-European calling is inextricably complemented by the framework -both institutional and of values- embodied in the Council of Europe -the first organisation of European integration- which looks after human rights, democracy and the rule of law, through well-known instruments such as the European Court of Human Rights, the guardian of the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950.

Regarding the Mediterranean scenario, Catalonia’s strategic and priority bid for the European project comes together with the continued work in favour of the progressive articulation of the Euro-Mediterranean space. A key element of this effort to bring closer together the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean is the Union for the Mediterranean, an organisation headquartered in Barcelona which has benefitted, from the very beginning, from the unequivocal and enthusiastic support of the Government -the Generalitat of Catalonia-, and which stems from the Barcelona Process of which this year we also celebrate, in this case, its 20th anniversary.

Barcelona’s Euro-Mediterranean capital status, together with the geographic, historic, social and cultural bonds, explain Catalonia’s commitment to act as an anchor of stability in the Mediterranean and its call for a reinforcement of the European Union’s Mediterranean dimension.

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Catalonia and multilateralism: a renewed commitment

The context of the current international society -defined by its complexity and cross-sectional interdependence-, added to Catalonia’s aforementioned commitment as an actor aspiring to have a global impact, justify on their own our Government’s willingness to reinforce its external action policies.

However, in the current process of national transition towards the establishment of a Catalan State, destined to be part of the community of nations, this feature will hold an even more significant relevance in empowering and reinforcing the external action policies of Catalan institutions.

In this respect, the passing, in less than six months, of both a Law for External Action and EU Relations -the first approved in Catalonia since the recovery of democracy and the Catalan Government-, and the 2015-2018 Strategic Plan, demonstrates the vitality and dynamism of Catalonia’s external action. While the Law provides Catalonia with a reinforced legal base for a more ambitious external action, the 2015-2018 Strategic Plan is proof of the political commitment to put this mandate into practice.

The definition and deployment of a comprehensive foreign policy in the current context require, more than ever, the inclusion of a multilateral dimension. This is why the Government created, a little over a year ago, a Directorate General for Multilateral and European Affairs, the first organic unit of the Catalan Government with a specific mandate on multilateral affairs.

The Catalan Government promotes a key multilateral action within the country’s external outreach which, as we have seen, is strongly anchored in the tradition, in the legitimate aspirations and the intense relations between

Catalonia and international organisations, as well as in the perspectives offered by the current political process in Catalonia.

Proof of the commitment with what I have explained so far is, for instance, the Government’s determination to reinforce the collaboration with the United Nations system, especially with key organisations with mandates of a special interest for Catalonia. In this respect, one of the multilateral organisations with closer relations with our country is UNESCO -which also celebrates its 70th anniversary this year-, given its mandate on education, science and culture, matters of high interest for Catalonia. The Government of Catalonia has maintained a continuous institutional relation with UNESCO for over thirty years and renewed it in June 2013 with a new Memorandum of Understanding which substantially deepens this collaboration. As a result of this agreement, we will now support a UNESCO project in the field of intangible heritage in the Mediterranean, and will launch a programme of secondments of Catalan experts to UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris.

The definition and deployment of a comprehensive foreign policy in the current context require, more than ever, the inclusion of a multilateral dimension Similarly, we have resumed our collaboration with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which we now support in the implementation of its particular mechanisms and procedures, paying a special attention to migrants’ human Catalan International View

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rights, sadly, a very urgent topic in current affairs.

A key feature in this strategy of reinforcement and development of the multilateral dimension of our foreign action is the strategy to position Catalonia as a benchmark for the establishment of international organisations’ headquarters, programmes and meetings. We keep working to support the St. Pau Art Nouveau Complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so that it becomes, with the participation of several institutions and administrations, a centre for innovation, knowledge and multilateral action.

As you know, the precinct currently hosts headquarters of the WHO, UNHabitat, the United Nations University, the European Forest Institute, the Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance, and the Global University Network for Innovation. All of which are directly tied to the priorities of Catalonia’s institutional, political and social agenda.

From climate change challenges to sustainable development including the promotion and protection of human rights, Catalonia is ready and capable to contribute to the resolution of the main challenges of the community of nations However, the presence of international organisations does not end here.

Barcelona hosts delegations of the European Commission and the European Parliament, it is the capital of multilevel governance with the Secretariat of the United Cities and Local Governments and ORU-FOGAR, and hosts organisations and programmes linked to UNEP, UNIDO and UNECE. 12

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Another key feature of the Government’s multilateral action is the promotion of Catalonia’s participation in and contribution to relevant international summits and conferences with a direct impact on the country and in the defining of our public policies.

Thus, Catalonia is currently participating in two processes that will mark the global agenda for the coming years in regard to sustainable development and the fight against climate change.

I am referring, first of all, to the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, which will take over the Millennium Development Goals. Our Government is already working to study and adapt it, in order to implement it in the country but also to support its deployment abroad.

The second major project we are working on is the fight against climate change with the COP21 summit that will take place in Paris in late 2015. In this regard, the Government’s project ‘Catalan Agenda towards COP21’ has received the recognition of the French Government in its capacity as Secretariat of the COP21. This is a proof of our innovation and discursive capacity in fields such as sustainability and the fight against climate change.

It’s precisely because of our willingness to transfer the knowledge that Catalonia has accumulated in the last forty years -in fields such as the promotion of the economic fabric, the social consultation model, healthcare, smart urban development and sustainability- that another priority of the Government’s multilateral action is to encourage the presence of Catalans in international organisations.

In this regard, this year the Government has launched a new programme of expert secondment to international organisations. I mentioned UNESCO earlier, but there is also the creation of a

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new grant for the OECD in collaboration with the Jaume Bofill Foundation.

At the same time, this year we also celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Canigó scholarships, with the commitment to reinforce this tool that has helped 163 young Catalans to accede internship programmes in over twenty different international organisations in the last ten years.

Catalonia and multilateralism: a forward-looking commitment

This year of commemorations -United Nations, UNESCO, the Barcelona Process- provides us with the ideal opportunity to reflect on the current international system and to assess everything that has been done as well as everything we want to achieve in the future, with the contributions of all the society’s actors, from the academic world to the business sector, including trade unions, the rich associative network we have in Catalonia and our country’s rich cultural and social network.

I would not want to conclude without mentioning the close relation between what we are celebrating here today and the perspectives offered by the current political process in Catalonia. Because, if the Catalan people so decides -and this decision is in their hands- this year we may witness the establishment of a new State in Europe.

This new State, if it is indeed created, will be a reliable partner in the world, willing to take on its international responsibilities -completely and immediately from day one. In this regard, what Catalonia is seeking, as I said a few months ago at Columbia University in New York, is nothing

more than to combine our efforts with the other free nations of the world to tackle today’s challenges and to shape, together, our common future.

Our commitment to a fair and peaceful world, as I said, stems from our history, our principles and our ambitions. Catalonia wishes to contribute and to work so that this vision becomes a reality.

Catalonia is called upon to be an anchor of stability, not only of financial stability and economic growth across the Iberian Peninsula and Southern Europe, but also an anchor of stability in terms of security, as well as of social and intercultural harmony in the west of the Mediterranean.

On this 70th anniversary of the United Nations, Catalonia wants to reaffirm its bid for multilateralism, its conviction towards the principles it represents, and its determination to contribute to its proper functioning.

From climate change challenges to sustainable development including the promotion and protection of human rights, Catalonia is ready and capable to contribute to the resolution of the main challenges of the community of nations.

I would like to finish by referring to the words of a predecessor of mine, President Francesc Macià, who, in 1932 -in different historical circumstancessaid: ‘We also tell all the peoples of the world that we are eager to be by their side in the pursuit of all these ideals of freedom and justice and, above all, of peace’.

This is what Catalonia wants and is prepared to do.

*Artur Mas The 129th President of the Government of Catalonia

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Pope Francis

by Ramon M. Nogués*

For some two years, the Catholic Church has been headed by a pope who has initiated interesting changes in the way in which the office of pope has traditionally been seen for many centuries. I would argue that this change can be evaluated in relation to two important factors: an image makeover and an opening up of the structure of the doctrinal system.

Image and message

The first surprise provided by the current Pope consists of a series of snapshots which when combined represent a new image of the papacy: ‘Asking’ for the blessing of the faithful at the start of the pontificate, refusing to live in what is supposedly the pontificate’s residence, queuing for lunch with tray in hand with other Vatican employees, making and receiving telephone calls in person, accepting ‘infidels’ (sic) in even the most sacred liturgical celebrations and so on. These are all gestures that those who are unhappy with this new style see as responsible for demolishing the image of an absolute monarch.

An image which a tradition lacking in Christian values had thrust upon the position of pope.

In the case of Pope Francis, such gestures are especially significant, giv14

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en that religious structures primarily employ symbolic references, and the figure of the pope urgently needed actions which reversed the negative effects which the princely inertia of the Renaissance papacy had exercised over the position which represents the unity of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, who is in clear opposition to everything that might represent power, brilliance, vainglory and courtly structures.

The use of direct, colloquial language also forms part of the new gestures, in the proclamation of major principles to the journalists accompanying the Pope’s plane (examples being the primacy of conscience or the Pope’s view on the ecclesiastical obsession with sexuality) and previously unheard of proposals, such as conducting a survey to find out what the Church (i.e. the faithful) believes on certain topics.

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Behind Pope Francis’ attitude there is a certain desire to demolish the selfserving, servile fantasy of infallibility which is projected onto any papal gesture. The Pope has been successful with his gestures and behind them he has carried out a deep doctrinal renovation which may have a very positive effect on the Catholic Church as a whole.

Spiritually sensitive Catholics have been challenged by this new style that simply appeals to the vital doctrine of Jesus. Unfortunately many senior clerics, many of them ‘high achievers’, for whom the Pope jokingly recommends a mountaineering club rather than the ecclesiastical system, oppose these gestures, which will undoubtedly lead to interesting counter arguments, in which we must wait and see if the Christian spirit eventually wins through.

Structures and doctrines

Nonetheless, the Catholic Church needs significant doctrinal and structural reforms if it really wishes to exhibit a truly Christian image in both word and deed. This cannot be done with mere gestures alone. According to Hans Kung, it remains to be seen whether the ecclesiastical system has the possibility of achieving Christian redemption.

With regard to the Church’s institutions, Pope Francis has initiated some significant structural reforms. One such has affected its economic structure. In an institution as large as the Catholic Church, the economic factor is of fundamental importance. While there are no easy solutions, opaque or immoral procedures are out of the question. In regard to this overhaul of the system, the Pope has rectified a situation that Catalan International View

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is ultimately indefensible in many respects. He subsequently addressed the issue of communication. In a world of instantaneous, freely flowing information it is unviable to continue with systems which are controlled by information policies mediated by all manner of provisions which denote concealment or misrepresentation, instead of evoking the clarity of the Gospels which proclaim, “let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’, ‘No’ ”(Matthew 5:37).

Pope Francis has a certain desire to demolish the self-serving, servile fantasy of infallibility which is projected onto any papal gesture. This may have a very positive effect on the Catholic Church as a whole.

A more weighty issue is related to the ‘doctrines’. In recent decades the Catholic Church has undertaken certain doctrinal changes of great significance. The first is the recognition of religious values of non-Catholic and, more notably, non-Christian religious traditions. Catholicism has taken this huge step, one that is unprecedented in its history. It would be hard to imagine a change with a greater impact.

Another change of great significance is concerned with social criticism: God ‘is no longer on the side of the powerful’.

The Pope’s speeches on his recent visit to Latin America are unequivocal in this respect: the Church must be subversive. Marx would be astounded by the Pope’s reaction to the crucifix presented to him by Evo Morales in which the cross consisted of the hammer and sickle. It is an example of a mixture of 16

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gestures and doctrines. Another doctrinal adaptation is that of total coexistence with openly secular societies: Catholic theocracy is a thing of the past. The Catholic Church thrives in openly secular societies and does not call for a privileged social position, except in the case of certain nostalgic bishops. It seeks to serve society as it is, rather than trying to create society as the Church would like it to be.

Nevertheless, there remain certain key issues (partially doctrinal, partially structural) in which no progress has been made, due to supposed theological

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or doctrinal reasons which are in fact false. One of these concerns sexual anthropology and the position of women.

The ecclesiastical doctrine on sexuality is tied to a vision held by certain elderly clerics who view sexuality as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s Original Sin. From this prejudice it is difficult to generate a ‘normal’ sexual anthropology. The Catholic Church, for example, still considers as amoral the use of contraceptives which most people use as a matter of course. The weakness in the ecclesiastical establishment’s argument is likely why, when Pope Francis

issued such a brave encyclical on ecological consciousness (‘Laudato si’) a topic of such importance as population control (the one logical answer to which is birth control) appears in only a very marginal way. As for the status of women, the Church, in keeping with the appalling doctrinal tradition of all manner of venerable authorities in all manner of cultures, continues to view women as ‘second-class citizens’.

While contemporary society has finally become egalitarian in this respect, the Catholic Church continues to marginalize women both in theory and in Catalan International View

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practice, and what is more it does so in the name of God or Christ. On a number of occasions Pope Francis has made statements in support of re-examining women’s position within the Church, but for now these are mere words, and no decision has yet been made in respect to the admission of women into the hierarchy and the ministry. This question also has implications on issues such as whether divorced and remarried Catholics can receive Holy Communion (a prominent issue in the synod with respect to the family). A problem for which certain ‘eminent’ bishops and moral theologians suggest a quaint ‘solution’: the cessation of sexual relations.

One day the Catholic Church will have to issue a far reaching ‘mea culpa’ for having held onto doctrines and practice which lack any serious theological or anthropological foundation and which affect the day-to-day lives of millions of people. While he was in Latin America the Pope apologized for the excesses that accompanied what at the time seemed a ‘duty’ to bring the Gospels to the peoples of the Americas and which today appear nothing more than a cruel and merciless invasion. A similar apology will need to be made to women.

The Catholic Church needs significant doctrinal and structural reforms if it really wishes to exhibit a truly Christian image in both word and deed Another outstanding issue is democratization and participation in the Church. During its two-thousand-year history the Church generated democracy from within and in society at large.

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and texts from the New Testament, the Church has exercised the participatory election of its authorities (its bishops) for at least a thousand years.

Religious orders have always chosen their superiors. The democratizing effect of the Gospel values has resonated throughout society as a whole. To this very today, the societies with the most consolidated democratic tradition also have a Christian tradition. Once civil authorities became absolutist, ecclesiastical power also became absolutist, making the election of bishops a matter of elites, controlled by centralist, secretive structures. However, this is not in keeping with the Gospels. The Pope will have to face this challenge by opening up the ecclesiastical structure in participative procedures inspired by the evangelical fraternity, which at the same time adhere to the explicit teachings of the New Testament in which the ministry is considered a gift from God, while the manner in which it is enacted is agreed in a participatory manner. Clearly, this reappraisal will need to include the entire structure of the Vatican, which is conceived as a state, with the pope as its sovereign.

This is an issue which Pope Francis feels is important and which will involve an overhaul of the organization of the Catholic leadership.

The Pope and the Church

The challenges facing the Catholic Church cannot be solved by simply changing pope. A pope can do many things and Pope Francis has done a great deal, but defective doctrinal and structural changes require comprehensive change. Absolutist regimes and dictatorships cannot be fixed by a change of leader: they need to change their structure. Good popes are extremely welcome, but the process can

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work in reverse, as happened with Pope John XXIII. Pope Francis is a great man and it is vital that he makes changes that are not neutralized by the majority of bishops loyal to John Paul II, many of whom do not take kindly to Pope Francis’ initiatives. And the inertia of the Vatican has hidden resources which carry great influence and effectiveness in the control of the Catholic Church as an institution which constitutionally continues to be a structure of absolutist governance. The only effective change will be that which takes place in the

minds of all Christians in the sense of being thoroughly convinced that the Head of the Church is not the pope, but Jesus; that papal proclamations are not important for the mere fact that they come from the pope, but because they are Christian; and that papal leadership is not primarily defined by sociological criteria but by the criteria of the Gospels. This will ‘diminish’ the mundane image of the pope, but it will strengthen their evangelical and spiritual leadership.

*Ramon M. Nogués (Barcelona, 1937). Holds a PhD in Biology from the Universitat de Barcelona and is a professor emeritus of Biological Anthropology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He has conducted research on pedagogy, philosophy and theology as well as topics relating to evolutionary neurobiology and collaborated on interdisciplinary studies on neuropsychiatry with the Fundació Vidal i Barraquer. In regard to the latter he has analysed questions regarding the neurobiology of religiosity.

He has conducted research on bioethics and worked on official commissions on this discipline.

He has been an Escolapio since 1955 and a priest since 1961. His published works include Déus, creences i neurones. Un acostament científic a la religió [Gods, Beliefes and Neurons. A Scientific Approach to Religion] (2007) and Cervell i transcendència [Mind and Transcendence] (2011).

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Scotland votes SNP after rejecting independence: mixed messages?

by Clara Ponsatí*

Scotland’s electorate have been to the polls twice in one year, and their votes have delivered mandates that appear contradictory, at first sight at least.

A referendum on Scotland’s independence was held on September 18, 2014.

Voters were asked: ‘Should Scotland be an independent country?’ An unprecedented 84% of the electorate took part.

The campaign in favour of Scotland remaining in the UK, Better Together, had support from all three of Britain’s major political parties, the Conservative Party, Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats. The Scottish National Party (SNP) supported Yes Scotland, campaigning in favour of Scottish independence. Better Together won by a robust margin; 2,001,926 (55.3%) voted No, and 1,617,989 (44.7%) voted Yes. Former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown played a major role in the Better Together campaign, and was subsequently hailed as ‘the man who saved the Union’.

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Voters returned to the ballot box for the British general election on May 7, 2015. This time, 50% of the votes were for the SNP. Only eight months after being defeated in the independence referendum, the SNP took 56 out of the 59 Scottish seats to become the third force in Westminster. The Labour Party got 24.3%, well behind their 31.6% result in England. The Conservatives, in spite of having obtained 41% in England, achieved only 14.9% of the vote in Scotland. It was a landslide victory of historic proportions on two counts. First, 50% of the vote is an impressive result that no party in Scotland had achieved since 1955 when the Conservatives won by 50.1%. Second, the SNP victory put an end to Labour’s winning streak of 14 successive victories in Scotland since 1959.

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Although the opinion polls had proved to be fairly accurate in predicting a big lead for the SNP in the general election in Scotland, most analysts had still expected Labour to do much better, and they were perplexed by the results. A sample of comments from well-respected media commentators and politicians show a remarkable inability to come to terms with the facts: ‘Voters in Scotland have stopped listening… to even rational argument’ (David Blunkett on the BBC), ‘Scotland is in the grip of religious fervour’ (Michael White in The Guardian), ‘Anger, fear, and division takes over’ (Ivette Cooper, candidate for the Labour Party leadership).

The independence referendum and the SNP’s victory at the general election have been momentous events, and

it is indeed somewhat puzzling that in such a short interval, just a few months, the losers of the independence referendum have won the general election, while the winners have lost badly. Nevertheless, the SNP’s success after losing the referendum is rooted in deep social undercurrents that are by no means a novelty in Scottish politics. It is neither religious fervour, nor irrationality: the parts of the puzzle fit together rather naturally, provided that we view the recent political developments within the wider context of Scottish historical, social and political trends, and we do the arithmetic carefully.

In order to do the sums, it is important that we keep in mind the major differences between a referendum and a general election. Whereas the referendum offered the voters a binary choice, Catalan International View

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Yes or No to independence, in the general election Scottish voters were deciding between four main alternatives: the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the SNP. Members of Parliament at Westminster are elected under the majoritarian electoral system by which one seat is allocated in each district to the candidate with the most votes. Under this system, the leading candidate in each district is elected, even without carrying a majority, provided that support for their adversaries is split. For this reason, in majoritarian electoral systems, voters that support a candidate that is not one of two frontrunners have a tendency to abstain, or to vote strategically, thus giving their vote to their second choice rather than their favourite candidate. Consequently, if a party is the first or second choice for a large proportion of the population then this party will become a dominant party and their candidates easily win. In British general elections between 1959 and 2015, the Labour party was the dominant party in Scotland. The novelty of the 2015 election is that the SNP has replaced Labour as the dominant party.

More than 80% of voters that had supported Yes Scotland participated in the British general election, and gave their vote to the SNP

How did the SNP manage to replace Labour as the dominant party?

Here is where the independence referendum fits in. Prior to the referendum, the Scottish electorate had followed a pattern of differential voting, by which stronger support for the SNP was limited to Scottish elections, and Labour was the dominant party in general elec22

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tions. However, thanks to the referendum and the great mobilisation behind the Yes Scotland campaign, voting the SNP into Westminster appeared as the natural alternative for most of the Yes voters. Indeed, more than 80% of voters that had supported Yes Scotland participated in the British general election, and gave their vote to the SNP. On the other side, the Better Together voters were more numerous, but they were also more diverse, and they were not nearly as mobilised. They were more likely to abstain (turnout descended from 84.5% in the referendum to 71.1% in the election), and their ballots were dispersed among the three parties that had campaigned for Better Together… and perhaps even the SNP! The social trends driving the current success of the SNP are deeply rooted.

Ever since the Union in 1707 Scotland has maintained differentiated political and social trends, and popular demands for Scottish home-rule have been recurrent. From the 1950s Scottish political distinctness has been strongly associated with majoritarian support for the social-democratic model of the welfare state. This difference assured the Scottish Labour Party the status of ‘the Party of Scotland’ over many decades, and so Labour played the central role in the re-establishment of a Scottish Parliament in 1999. With Devolution, the differentiated Scottish institutions and elections opened the window of opportunity where the SNP could take off. The SNP has been in charge of the Scottish government since 2007, first as a minority government and then consolidating with an absolute majority in 2011. Being in government, the SNP has successfully developed into the ‘New Party of Scotland’. In a recent poll 60% of Tories, 67% of Labour and 77% of Liberals (and 88% of SNP supporters) chose the SNP as the party

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they most trusted to work for Scotland’s long-term interests.

The independence referendum was British Prime Minister David Cameron’s brave gamble in response to Scottish Prime Minister Alex Salmond’s bid to increase Scotland’s selfgovernment. Salmond’s initial proposal was a referendum where voters were to choose between three alternatives: the status quo, independence, and devolution max –i.e. furthering the powers of the Scottish Parliament. At that point, support for independence was low, but there was overwhelming support for devolution-max. In the short run, Cameron’s boldness has paid-off. He won the bet with a negative outcome in the referendum, and Labour’s defeat in Scotland has granted him a majority in Westminster. However, the debate about Scotland’s social model and selfgovernment did not end with the Better Together victory. The referendum was a major boost to the SNP’s views in the discussion as to Scotland’s social model: a majority of the Scots feel that Scotland as a community is under threat from the individualistic policies of Conservative English governments, and from Labour’s inability to offer alternatives. In this context, the SNP has managed to raise independence as a serious proposal in the debate.

Two days before the independence referendum, as the polls were predicting a very close result, the leaders of the three main UK political parties publicly pledged to devolve ‘extensive new pow-

ers’ to the Scottish Parliament. Gordon Brown vigorously campaigned for Better Together on this promise. Right after the referendum results where public, Cameron announced that Lord Smith of Kelvin was going to chair an allparty commission, to draft and oversee the implementation of the new powers.

The Smith Commission published its recommendations on November 27, 2014. At that time, the polls indicated that the majority of Scots wanted the greater devolution recommended by the Smith Commission. The negotiations made little progress prior to the election in May, and indeed they are still far from settled. The dubious credibility of promises made in the heat of the referendum campaign was instrumental in the election. The Labour Party were unable to persuade their former voters that they could champion the cause of devolution as effectively as the SNP. It is estimated that one third of traditional Labour supporters voted Yes in the referendum. Winning these voters back after leading the No campaign was beyond what Labour candidates were able to achieve.

Thereby, the referendum naturalised the debate over independence as the debate as to Scotland’s social model, meaning it served as the lever for the SNP’s victory in the general election.

The SNP has now replaced Labour as the dominant political force in Scotland and has become the third party in British politics. The debate as to Scottish independence is far from over. *Clara Ponsatí

Professor of Economics at the University of Saint Andrews. Holds a degree in Economics from the Universitat de Barcelona, a Masters in Economics from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and a PhD from the University of Minnesota. She is a research professor and director at Institut d’Anàlisi Econòmica-C.S.I.C., affiliated faculty and research fellow at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. She has been senior researcher at C.S.I.C., associate professor and assistant professor at UAB and Postdoctoral research associate at Bell Communications Research, Morristown, NJ. She is a member of the editorial boards of The International Journal of Game Theory and The Review of Economic Design.

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The Ukrainian chaos

by Natàlia Boronat*

Ukraine is working on constitutional reform aimed at becoming a decentralized state by the end of 2015.

A state in which its regions will have more influence than before, which ought to provide greater stability in the country as a whole. Some two years after the start of the Euromaidan [literally ‘Euro square’], the peaceful revolt in Kiev in late 2013 against the then President Viktor Yanukovych’s last-minute refusal to sign the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, it is hard to comprehend the amount of turbulence Ukraine has experienced. On occasions it has threatened to bring the country to the brink of total chaos.

The decentralization of Ukraine is one of the measures adopted in the framework of the February 2015 Minsk agreements, which served to bring an official end to the war in the east of the country between the government in Kiev and pro-Russian rebels who (with the support of Moscow) refused to accept the new balance of power which emerged following the overthrow of Yanukovych. He had been elected president in 2010 in elections that were described by international observers as ‘transparent’ and ‘free’.

The stability and the European dream that the Ukrainians took to the streets to defend at the end of 2013 continue to lie beyond reach The conflict has so far been responsible for over 6,000 deaths and the displacement of tens of thousands, many of whom have fled to Russia. Of24

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ficially a truce is in place and important progress has been made. Nevertheless, throughout these months of relative calm the two opposing sides have continually accused the other of provocations and violations of the ceasefire and there have been scores of deaths.

Furthermore, Kiev accuses Moscow of continuing to increase the number of troops deployed in Ukraine, a charge which the Kremlin strongly denies.

These events serve to complicate the reconstruction of the war-torn area and the distribution of humanitarian aid to victims of the conflict. In many instances, civilians are caught in the crossfire produced by the various geopolitical projects. The self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk enjoy de facto independence from Ukraine, together with a great economic dependence on Russia, with whom they share a border controlled by rebel militias.

We must wait and see how the leaders of the rebel territories accept the new regime of self-government. This spring,

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while traveling in areas in the east that had been attacked by the Ukrainian army, the feeling among those who had not fled was that it was impossible to return to Ukraine after it had bombed them, they claimed, for speaking Russian. Later, however, the leaders of the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk began to show themselves willing to remain part of Ukraine while retaining extensive freedom for self-rule. Experts on the region claim that behind this change lies a change in Moscow’s strategy.

Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, insists that by following these reforms, Ukraine will remain a unitary state and that opinion polls indicate that most Ukrainians do not want a federal state. It is expected that the tools for self-government will be provided at the local level where decisions will be made on issues of economic, social and cultural matters, while defence, security, public order and external relations will be managed at the state level.

The president will be able to dissolve

regional bodies which take any decisions which threaten Ukraine’s territorial integrity or sovereignty.

Once again the Ukrainian government faces the challenge of building a country where none of its citizens feel discriminated against as a people.

Ukraine has stark differences between its eastern and western regions. Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union no leader has been able to unite the country. The pro-West Viktor Yushenko, president from 2005 to 2009, has been accused of investing a great deal of effort in creating a Ukrainian national idea full of historical symbols which offended a section of the population, the Russian-speaking east. Yanukovych had his electoral stronghold in the east, which went into revolt when the president was overthrown and when the new authorities in Kiev began to employ anti-Russian nationalist slogans. One of the gravest errors of the new government in Kiev was the decision to repeal the linguistic law passed in 2012 which, in pracCatalan International View

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tice, gave Russian and Ukrainian coofficial status in the eastern regions of Ukraine. The law was never actually repealed, but the announcement served to feed the propaganda among the pro-Russian faction that came to present itself as the new defence against Ukrainian fascism. On the other hand, the propaganda served to make people believe that they were fighting against Russian imperialism.

The constitutional reform, in order for it to be accepted by every region, is not the only challenge facing Kiev in the near future as Russia is bound to pressure them militarily, economically and energetically. Throughout the conflict Moscow, which has given visible support to the rebels while officially denying it, has insisted on the need for Ukraine to be a federal state since it is the only way it can ensure self-rule by the rebel regions.

Moscow, which has given visible support to the rebels while officially denying it, has insisted on the need for Ukraine to be a federal state since it is the only way it can ensure the independence of the rebel regions Following the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula by the Russian Federation, there has been much speculation in the West as to the possibility that Russia would control the entire of south-eastern Ukraine in order to reach Crimea by land and even go as far as Trandniéster, the pro-Russian breakaway republic of Moldova. In Russia, certain commentators argued that it was not a case of Moscow acquiring more land but rather that instability in eastern Ukraine was an effective 26

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means to apply pressure against Kiev, in order that it would not definitively turn towards Europe and the United States.

In Moscow there is still hope that in the future the Ukrainian leaders won’t be as anti-Russian as those currently in power.

Moscow continues to deny that it is aiding the rebels in eastern Ukraine in spite of the fact that the majority of Russians admit it and indeed consider it indispensable. Nevertheless, without openly admitting its involvement in the conflict, Moscow suggests that it has a moral obligation to help its Russian brothers in a neighbouring country and that it is defending its geopolitical sphere of influence. The message that reaches the Russian people is that the Kremlin is unable to stand idly by as they are constantly humiliated, which is how they see the deployment of NATO troops close to the Russian border, the support it provides Ukraine and, in general US influence in post-Soviet space. These factors subsequently serve to justify the annexation of the Crimea, historically the home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

Vladimir Chernega, Russian advisor to the Council of Europe, admitted in an article for Russian Global Affairs that Moscow has lost its geopolitical advantage in Ukraine, after having invested far more money in its economy than the United States. Chernega, both a diplomat and an expert on the region, admits that in the years following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia has been unable to create a model capable of attracting the Ukrainians. Instead it has focused too much on the economic elites and oligarchs, at the expense of Ukrainian society as a whole, which for historical reasons is distinct from Russian society. Moreover, Chernega argues, certain Ukrainian politicians have been very keen to con-

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struct a Ukrainian national identity in which Russia is seen as the enemy.

In addition to constitutional reform and Russia’s manoeuvres in defence of its area of influence, often using gas supplies and the pipelines through Ukrainian territory as both a weapon and a threat, the current Ukrainian government has other fronts inside Ukraine.

Poroshenko is in power partly thanks to the ultranationalist Right Sector which has also played an important role in the ‘anti-terrorist operation’ as Kiev officially refers to the conflict that has been carried out in the east of the country.

In July, however, Right Sector’s volunteer self-defence groups staged acts of insubordination aimed at the authorities in Kiev to the west of the country, outside the area of conflict. In addition, its leader Dmytro Yarosh has made a public call for a second revolution and the holding of a referendum on a possible vote of no confidence in the current government.

Another problem is the conflict between the Ukrainian oligarchs. The Euromaidan in late 2013 in defence of the European dream quickly turned into a protest against nepotism and corruption surrounding the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych. An oligarch was the ultimate winner of what became a virtual revolution, which Russia saw as a coup backed by Europe and the United States, arguing that the country ought to have waited for the presidential elections of 2105. Petro Poroshenko is the owner of the largest brand of chocolate in Ukraine, Channel Five TV and has investments in numerous other busi-

nesses. He worked for the government of ousted President Yanukovych, yet he went on to finance the Euromaidan protest.

In a country devastated by war and an economic crisis which is dependent on International Monetary Fund loans, Ukraine’s major oligarchs continue their struggle for economic power. War has recently been declared on Ihor Kolomoisky, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, for example. Thanks to his militia the rebellion in Donetsk and Lugansk regions failed to spread further afield.

The new governor of the Odessa region, the former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, a sworn enemy of Vladimir Putin and a close friend of Washington, is at odds with Kolomoisky since both have a vested interest in controlling the port of Odessa, thanks to its strategic importance for exports. The oligarch Rinat Akhmetov remains loyal to Kiev, yet continues to exploit the mines and industries in the east of the country, sell coal to Russia and Ukraine and distribute a large quantity of humanitarian aid to victims of the conflict.

With large tracts of land devastated by the war, deprived of its strategic Crimean peninsula, submerged in an economic crisis that threatens to turn the country into a failed state, deep internal divisions, a bitter struggle for economic power and Russia’s robust influence in the East and Europe and America’s in the rest, the stability and the European dream that the Ukrainians took to the streets to defend at the end of 2013 remain beyond reach.

*Natàlia Boronat She holds a degree in Information Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and in Slavic Philology from the Universitat de Barcelona. Since 2001 she has spent most of her time in Russia.

She worked in St. Petersburg as a Catalan lecturer at the State University and in the tourism industry. She now lives in Moscow, where she works as a freelance journalist for different Catalan media organisations and reports on the current situation in the post-Soviet arena.

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The paradox of the caryatids

by Helena Vicente*

A stroll among the pines leads to a marble staircase. After passing through a porch supported by immense columns, one arrives at the esplanade of the Acropolis. On one side stands the Parthenon, the Temple of Athena, the protector of the City of Athens, while on the other stands the Erechtheion temple, raised on columns in the form of caryatids. Getting there is an absolute pleasure for the senses and also for the intellect. To be able to enjoy the absolute magnificence of a treasure created thousands of years ago which fortunately still exists, for the sake of our collective conscience. Much of our thinking and our culture has its origins in Athens.

The Acropolis is flanked by a dense wood of vibrant green pine trees, which in turn are surrounded by the low roofs of the houses that make up the Plaka neighbourhood, with the Aegean Sea in the distance. In between lies the neighbourhood of Victoria where there are no pine trees or any trace of the magnificence of the Greek empire. The low-rise buildings are connected by the cables of the trams which coexist with the almost unbearably congested traffic consisting of cars, buses, motorcycles, cyclists and pedestrians.

Amid the traffic and the choking heat of a Greek summer lies a park which is home to thirsty bougainvillea. In the scant shade offered by the small park lie the makeshift tents erected by the Syrian refugees who have managed to escape the continual

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attacks that have been carried out on the civilian population for over three years, the people-traffickers, and an uncertain voyage in a precarious boat.

A short distance to the south of Athens, on the Aegean islands, surrounded by crystalline waters, other refugees, also from Syria and Libya surprise the tourists who have chosen to spend the summer in a miniature paradise to beat the heat.

Greece has a population of around 10 million, half of whom live in Athens. It is a city built around what was the Temple of the Gods, where it seems the gods, together with reason and rational thinking have long gone.

Indeed, Greek reason and thought, the desire for peace, democracy and coexistence which arose from the agora, the foundations upon which our societies are built, and which also

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inspired the creation of the European Union, not only seem to have abandoned Greece but also seem to have abandoned Europe as a whole.

The European Union was created following the Second World War with the aim of avoiding another war, and above all to lay the foundations of a new system of multilevel governance

to promote peace, trade and shared economy between member states.

The treaties signed with this supranational political structure include the Schengen Agreement of 1985, which was subsequently ratified in 1995.

With this agreement, the member states established common rules for the free flow of goods and people, they

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began to bring visa rules into alignment and to adopt shared responsibilities for policing their external borders.

Undoubtedly, when the agreement was signed, no one gave a thought to the fact that the freedom of movement was not an exclusively European right.

Following the signing of the Schengen Agreement, the member States and the European institutions, began to introduce regulations to reduce illegal immigration and human trafficking. Since the late 90s, more agreements have been reached: increasing border duties, increasing responsibilities for immigration and establishment of a common asylum system.

Nevertheless, responsibility for the management for immigration lies with the respective ministry of inte30

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rior, while the management of borders lies with the foreign ministries of the individual member states. Moreover, states argue that the European Commission is in charge of the management of the arrival of refugees and human trafficking. Nonetheless, the European Commission is made up of member states, and one can observe, in spite of the relaxing summer break, continued reluctance when it comes to raising refugee quotas. Thus, it is a kind of vicious circle that violates the European Commission’s Founding Charter on Human Rights which proclaims that all rights and freedoms should be extended to those who live on Europe’s doorstep.

Thus the Old Continent, which strives to present itself to the world as a defender and guarantor of peace and

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human rights, is once again put to the test. And Greece is the acid test. The Acropolis has become a reflection of who we really are: the desire for splendour, reasoning, art and culture that were the driving force behind its construction centuries ago, have become what it is today a static, open-air museum.

Once again, Greece is where the legitimacy of Ancient Greece’s legacy to societies of the future is brought into question. A legacy which the international community have taken up as their rallying cry: democracy. With a proliferation of taxes, runaway unemployment and following a referendum with an unequivocal outcome rejecting the European rescue package, the Greek president Alexis Tsipras, struck a blow to the right to decide by accepting the European bureaucrats’ prescription for its ills and by breaking the parliamentary agreement that supported his government.

Syrian refugees will continue to arrive in Greece fleeing the war and will continue to show us truly inhumane images of people trying to cross its borders into central and northern Europe.

Meanwhile, in Brussels, London and New York, in the name of peace and the defence of Western civilization, the international community can

either continue to allow unrelenting attacks on the Syrian population or, instead, it could face up to the challenge and its mandate to work to build multilevel governance, one that is conscious of institutional asymmetries, that considers the needs of its people and that goes far beyond the economic arena and the economic interests of a minority. It could, and it should, offer genuine protection and asylum to every refugee that arrives in Europe.

Syrian refugees will continue to arrive in Greece fleeing the war and will continue to show us truly inhumane images All the while, the caryatids, those marble columns in female form, erected in honour of the women massacred during the battle of the city of Karyai during the Persian invasion, contemplate the view from their vantage point on a hill surrounded by pine trees overlooking the sea. They must conclude that we have learnt nothing.

Peace, culture and democracy are our real reason for existing and are the real Greek treasure that we must be able to preserve, in order to finally emerge from the cave.

*Helena Vicente is a sociologist, head of Development Education and Social Awareness for the Agència Catalana de Cooperació al Desenvolupament [Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation]. She holds an MA in Diplomacy and Foreign Policy from Diplocat (the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia).

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Catalonia, on European time

by Salvador Cardús*

Until the middle of the last century, Catalonia ran on a very similar timetable to the rest of European. The agricultural world was governed by the seasons and the industrial world followed the structure of rationality adapted to the type of work of the time, with long days stopping at noon. However, since then, several factors have disrupted this order.

First, and foremost, the emergence of ‘developmentalism’, a process of economic growth that encouraged overtime and shift work. That is, instead of improving productivity, it fomented a working culture based more on the quantity of hours than the results. A characteristic which is still in force in numerous sectors.

Another factor is the imposition of the timetable for public sector employees on society as a whole, with a working day limited to the morning and ending around 14:00 or 15:00.

And, of course, TV schedules (on the only channel to exist during Franco’s regime) tailored to the civil servants’ timetable. For example, the Spanish television news began at 15:00, when civil servants arrived home and factory 32

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workers were still at work. The Spanish timetable therefore established a format that is not found in the rest of Europe and the majority of the world.

Contrary to what many Spaniards believe, the peculiarities in the timetable are not the result of Spain’s geographical location, the Mediterranean climate, or even to meet the needs of a supposed ‘southern character’. Instead, it is a symptom of the isolation under which the Spanish production system existed for most of the second half of the twentieth century in relation to developments in European customs. This resulted in a ‘unique’ timetable which Spain has been unable to rectify and which keeps the country in a state of isolation, in this respect, with dire consequences.

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Essentially, the characteristics of the Spanish timetable, which were inevitably also imposed on Catalonia, are the following: a) a slow start to the working day in the morning, which doesn’t reach its peak until 11:00; b) eating habits that have lunch starting at 14:00, and even as late as 16:00, with a total cessation of activity of between two to three

hours; c) as a result, a long working day which, at best, ends between 19:00 and 20:00; d) in keeping with such late office hours, shops are forced to keep establishments open, in many cases, until 21:00 or later; e) a very late dinner, which begins between 21:00 and 22:00, which implies a loss of between one and two hours of sleep with respect Catalan International View

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to the rest of Europe; f ) nightlife that starts between 21:00 and 22:00; and g) TV prime time from 21:00 (when the news starts on the major channels) to 24:00, when a significant second shift of viewing begins. In short, by noon Spain is already one hour behind the rest of Europe, a gap that by the evening widens to two hours.

The consequences of incongruences in the current timetable are serious in terms of health, education, labour productivity, family life, and all manner of social and personal aspects Logically, this ‘disorganized’ timetable has significant knock-on effects.

For example, the long morning means a mid-morning break for a second (sometimes a first) breakfast. A very common practice among public-sector employees. It also involves lengthening the school day, typically until 16:30 or 17:30 for primary schools, and a substantial increase in the cost of school meals due to the two and a half hour break, which obliges schools to hire workers specifically to staff their dining rooms. In spite of such working hours, or perhaps precisely because of such long working hours (an average of 300 hours per annum more than in Germany), labour productivity is much lower. Needless to say, such a working day has an impact on family time, with absent parents, who need to be substituted by extracurricular activities that lengthen the day for children to ridiculous extremes, according to every study on the issue, with a significantly negative impact on school performance. The consequences of incongruences in the current timetable, therefore, are serious in terms of health, education, labour productivity, family life, the consump-

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tion of leisure activities, and all manner of social and personal aspects.

For these very reasons, a committee of experts on timetabling was recently created in order to prepare a global reform of working hours to bring Catalonia into line with the most advanced European models. The committee, created in January 2014, is composed of fifteen experts in work organization and commerce, experts in cultural and leisure associations, doctors, educators, sociologists, among others. It has prepared a three-year plan to accomplish its goals. The first year was dedicated to laying the groundwork for the project, with the preparation of various reports (see below) and the involvement of various public institutions, specifically the Generalitat (the Catalan Government) and Parliament. The response was extremely positive and even led to the creation of a Parliamentary Committee, which ended its work in July 2015. That same month, the Generalitat formally renamed the working group the Consell Assessor per a la Reforma HorĂ ria [the Advisory Council for Timetable Reform].

The bulk of this year, 2015, has been dedicated to raising awareness among the various stakeholders as to the changes and the implementation of pilot programmes to ensure the mechanisms of change are more favourable.

Finally, 2016 will see the harmonization of interests and the realization of legislative reform, with the approval of the agreements so far reached in negotiations in relevant sectors, and the possibility of a Timetable Act. Timetable changes will be made on a date yet to be determined in the last quarter of 2016 in all areas where such changes have previously been agreed.

From the outset, it has been clear that these reforms will only be successful if they are carried out across every industry, rather than being limited to only one, since changes in one

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area require corresponding changes in other sectors. Therefore, the strategy which has been chosen is to select ‘accelerators’ in five specific sectors: public administration, schools, the workplace, commerce and leisure. Changes must be precise and of the right scale in each sector, in order to act as leverage for broader and deeper changes.

Finally, it is worth pointing out that the timetable for reform that will take place in Catalonia is based on clear principles underlying all the work which has been carried out. Firstly, it is understood that the main objective is to achieve better individual and collective wellbeing. Therefore, and most significantly, it involves obtaining better organization of eating times, ensuring people have the required hours of sleep needed to rest and encouraging favourable conditions for an improved school system leading to better educational success. Obviously the aim is also to promote better working conditions, and simultaneously increase productivity, promote health, reduce accidents and improve the working environment.

Secondly, increasing the amount of leisure time available to an individual is considered of key importance, in keeping with what Robert E. Goodin et al. in Discretionary Time (Cambridge University Press, 2008) defined as ‘a new measure of freedom’. That is, a time for personal fulfilment, freedom to join clubs and voluntary organizations and cultural practices in general.

In other words, the advisory committee is convinced that when the reorganization of working hours is being explained -and put into practice- in the clearest manner possible, it is when the implementation of the organization of schedules can be effectively acted upon to reduce the numerous forms of social inequality (whether gender, economic, cultural and so on) which have been identified.

The complexity arising from the current multiple arrangements and styles of everyday life demands greater flexibility in order that as people move through the various stages and spheres of their life they find a more satisfying inclusion and participation in the social world. An open society such as is found in Catalonia, with its extensive, increasing international relations, is suffering thanks to the current Spanish working timetable and it needs to change. Nevertheless, flexibility could also end up in even greater disruption and could create new unfair living conditions, if the new principles do not adhere to the general model of welfare to which society aspires. That is, to overcome the current framework of coercive -if not downright irrational- timetables we must not impose (in a similarly coercive manner) an alternative means of organization or create a purely rational one which only responds to the needs of industry. Instead, we need ‘organized flexibility’ at the service of a general process of the humanization of daily timetables.

References Advisory Council for Sustainable Development.

Report on the foundation of the process of timetable reform in Catalonia. Report 5/2014 CADS http://cads.gencat.cat/ web/.content/Documents/Informes/cads_informe_5_2014_reforma_ horaria_def.pdf Employment, Economic and Social Council of Catalonia. Time management and paid work in the context of the timetable reform. CTESC, July 2015. http://media.wix.com/ugd/ 801581_5a708c5a2e27427 69e47a1e170eecfaa.pdf Committee for the Study of timetable reform.

Parliament of Catalonia.

Analysis, conclusions and proposals. April 2015. http://media.wix.com/ugd/ 801581e927f48378a14e328 ed118503e48d6ac.pdf

*Salvador Cardús (Terrassa, 1954). PhD in Economics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). Visiting researcher at the Fitzwilliam College of Cambridge, Cornell University (USA) and Queen Mary College of the University of London. Currently he is professor of Sociology at the UAB and the former Dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology. He has conducted research into the sociology of time, religion and culture, media, nationalism and identity. His published works include, Plegar de viure [Giving Up on Life] with Joan Estruch, Saber el temps [Understanding the Time], El desconcert de l’educació [The Education Puzzle], Ben educats [Well Educated] and El camí de la independència [The Road To Independence]. In the field of journalism he was the editor of the Crònica d’Ensenyament magazine (1987-1988) and was deputy editor of the Avui newspaper (1989-1991).

He contributes to ARA, La Vanguardia and Diari de Terrassa newspapers. He is member of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. www.salvadorcardus.cat

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The Americas

Mexico and the 2018 presidential elections

by Francesc Parés*

In June of this year, Mexico expressed its opinion via the ballot boxes. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) held onto its slight majority that enables it to control the Chamber of Deputies together with its allies and newly-made pacts. The outcome can be seen as giving President Enrique Peña Nieto some breathing space, but it doesn’t mean he has a free ride. Nieto’s cross-party alliance has been hit hard at the polls, as have the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the National Action Party (PAN). This follows the emergence of a new disruptive element: Jaime Rodríguez Calderón, ‘El Bronco’. The former PRI member, standing on an independent ticket, has managed to divide support for the traditional parties by becoming Governor of Nuevo León, the second richest state in Mexico. His victory is a warning that the disenchanted have started to vote.

Nothing has changed and nothing remains the same

At first glance, the political landscape retains its traditional balance of power: the PRI, in the lead with a relative majority, with the PAN in second place (on the right) and in third place the PRD (on the left). Nevertheless this stability is purely superficial. None of the three parties emerged unscathed.

The final results show they have all been hit hard, demonstrating the fact that the citizens are weary, which may well be the underlying message of these elections.

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One of the great unknowns was the PRI’s performance in elections in which they were standing in almost every area (deputies, governors, state legislatures and city councils). The Night of Iguala, referring to the event in which 43 students were kidnapped and murdered in the town of the same name, and the anger unleashed over real estate scandals linked to the presidential foreshadowed a beating at the polls that the PRI’s legendary electoral machinery could do little to alleviate. The outcome has left Peña Nieto’s presidency hanging from a thin thread. It hasn’t yet broken, but it is stretching.

The Americas

The PRI, with about 30% of the vote and 203 deputies, has lost around ten seats, while its ally, the Green Party of Mexico, has achieved sufficiently vigorous growth to save the parliamentary stability enjoyed by Peña Nieto, thanks to an aggressive campaign.

The ruling party’s fragility, together with its failure in Nuevo León at the hands of an independent, is bound to unleash a period of introspection.

Given recent events the possibility of the government changing course or even the beginning of a political crisis are looking increasingly likely. Such a

shift would establish the final path of Peña Nieto’s presidency, once structural reforms have been approved. It would also possibly serve to revive a political era characterized by the exhaustion of old formulas coupled with economic lethargy.

A divided left

Less obvious are the options open to the left. The election has revealed the serious rifts between the various groups. The PRD, the dominant force on the left has almost ceased to exist. Its third place may well be its fiCatalan International View

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nal swan song. With only 11% of the vote (60 seats), it has lost nearly 40 seats at a stroke. A small parliamentary army that has fallen into the hands of Morena, the party recently created by the charismatic Andres Manuel López Obrador, who twice stood as presidential candidate for the PRD. The fact that López Obrador came in fourth place, together with the PRDs loss of votes, both mark the starting point of a protracted debate.

For now neither of the two formations has enough power to run for the presidency alone. Nevertheless, the possibility of an alliance is in conflict with deep mutual resentment. Overcoming this tension will have a lasting effect on the future of the Mexican left.

A similar problem, albeit to a lesser degree, is dogging the PAN. The elections established them as the second party at a national level with regards to the number of seats (108). However, having won a lower percentage of votes (around 22%), less than in the 2012 presidential elections, they are unable to claim victory. This difficult situation may well have a serious impact on the party’s president, Gustavo Madero, who once more has to face the

dying embers of calderonismo. Margarita Zavala, the wife of President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) has already announced her intention to contest the party leadership. The constellation of internal alliances which is to decide the presidential candidate will emerge from what will undoubtedly prove to be a bitter struggle.

The midterm elections, together with the rejection of the traditional parties, also signify a new era. Peña Nieto is beginning the final phase of his term. Under the Mexican system, in which re-election is not possible, the leaders are on their way to the exit.

From now on, with every passing day their authority will lose its shine, while round about them, both inside and outside the party, a fierce battle rages for the leadership. The president who came to power promising the future will be slowly devoured by the past, until their total eclipse in 2018 with the presidential elections. This struggle will absorb most of the party’s energies. So far, aside from Morena, none of them have a clear candidate. Neither are they in a clearly winning position. The elections have left them ready to do battle.

*Francesc Parés (Valls, 1965). Has been involved for many years in development cooperation and education for development in Guatemala and Mexico: in Mexico he has closely followed political developments in Chiapas since the Zapatista uprising of 1994 and has actively participated in the promotion of the autonomy of the autonomous municipalities in Chiapas. In Guatemala his work has been mainly focused on investigating and recognizing indigenous women’s role as agents of memory, change, social change and the preservation of peace.

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Tel. +34 977 757 473 · +34 977 756 265 • Fax +34 977 771 129 Camí Pedra Estela, 34 • 43205 Reus (Baix Camp) www.demuller.es

Africa

From the Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals: what future awaits Africa?

by Patricia Rodriguez*

15 years after the Millennium Declaration, which committed the signatory countries to achieving the eradication of poverty by achieving eight goals (MDGs), the UN plenary sessions held in New York from 25th to 27th September 2015 established new goals in the context of sustainable development (SDGs). These goals, to be achieved by 2030, are another step towards addressing world inequality and poverty.

This new framework warrants an evaluation of its scope and the possible impact it will have on the future of the African continent. An evaluation which takes the view that African countries need to become major players in the success of the SDGs. Without wishing to undertake an exhaustive analysis, a general overview will enable us to appreciate the importance of the recent summit in New York.

The Millennium Declaration was signed in the year 2000, thus committing the signatory countries to eradicating poverty by 2015. Eight goals were established in order to achieve this end: the so-called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs established the priorities for the international com40

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munity in their fight to significantly reduce poverty. Developing and developed countries have used these targets as a starting point from which to establish policies and priorities over this 15-year period. It can be seen that the MDGs form part of the underlying conceptual framework behind every strategic plan aimed at reducing poverty in African countries and that the countries themselves have used them as the starting point for developing their own strategies. Hence the importance and influence of the policies in the countries concerned: they are not external or neutral, rather they determine and condition the situation.

A process of reflection and analysis has taken place over the past two

Africa

years, resulting in the definition of a new framework, establishing 17 new objectives, the so-called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These are in turn made up of 169 milestones to be achieved by 2030. The SDGs build upon the 8 MDGs, which they replace.

2015 has been an unprecedented historical opportunity for countries and people from around the world to come together to improve people’s welfare.

These goals will determine the success of measures to eradicate poverty, protect the environment and tackle climate change on a global scale.

The World Bank’s Global Development Report estimates that 41% of global poverty is concentrated in subSaharan Africa, and could well reach

81% by 2030 if the current situation persists. Strong measures are therefore needed to reverse this situation. Indeed the situation in Africa in 2030 will mark the fine line between the success and failure of the measures as a whole.

How have the MDGs evolved over this period in Africa?

When the process of defining the objectives began, the continent was in a disadvantaged position. Africa was, and continues to be, one of the regions most affected by poverty. On a country by country basis the results have been rather uneven over this 15 year period, since we are facing heterogeneous realities. Therefore, in terms of certain objectives such as education, Catalan International View

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Africa

major milestones have been reached, with some countries far exceeding the initial objective of greater than 20% of the total budget, as in the case of Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon and Tanzania.

Another positive outcome is the fight against HIV-AIDS, which has evolved favourably.

On the other hand, infant mortality rates, poverty levels and access to safe drinking water are at levels which mean the balance sheet is not entirely satisfactory. Meanwhile, other health indicators have produced uneven results: although measles vaccinations have helped prevent 14 million deaths.

In 2013 almost 300,000 women died from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. A dichotomy that starkly exemplifies the African reality.

The World Bank’s Global Development Report estimates that 41% of global poverty is concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, and could well reach 81% by 2030 Faced with this collection of figures and indicators, reports prior to this year’s UN summit from institutions such as the Economic Commission for Africa, the African Union and the African Development Bank, indicated and warned that we still have a long way to go in terms of optimizing the achievement of objectives. While it is true that some international organizations take a positive view of these gradual improvements, based on indicators of sustained growth, it is worth appreciating that economic growth and human development are not the same thing. Therefore, various mechanisms of intervention such as development aid have been challenged for masking the reality of a region that is 42

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unfortunately characterized by a lack of legal and political security, together with serious territorial conflict, which leads to serious shortcomings in its development.

From a global perspective, then, without looking at a more localized level, focusing on specific regions, the analysis is frankly disappointing across most of the continent. In absolute terms, the number of people living in extreme poverty has increased from 290 million in 1990 to over 400 million today; disparities remain between rural and urban areas and between the average income and GDP. In countries such as Gabon, Angola and Nigeria, a new dysfunctional factor has appeared, with serious effects on national economies, such as the uncontrolled activities of third parties who ruthlessly exploit natural resources in areas with large mineral, oil or gas reserves. Countries such as the United States, France, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and China in recent years, have a negative impact on the prospects for development of the local population, who see an inverse relationship between their country’s resources and the extent to which they benefit from them.

A new Africa with respect to 2030: the path of the SDGs

The African continent has embarked on a new path with a single starting point, beginning with the fact that the MDGs have not been fully achieved.

This is the reality presented by the African countries in New York, offering a common stance, the Common African Position, with a clear attempt to join forces and show strength before an international community which in turn demands more peace and security. In other words, stability is a prerequisite to all future action.

Africa

What are the 17 SDG based on?

What is their scope? What is the timetable with respect to 2030? The SDG’s goals are based on two considerations: first, the completion of previous MDGs which were not achieved, and second, to move forward by establishing a new framework for development, addressing the root causes of inequality and poverty.

In short, the Sustainable Development Goals improve on and build on the MDGs, by having a wider scope while being more ambitious. They combine goals relating to development and objectives regarding the environment and the sustainability of the planet, with an implicit recognition of the connection between the two. With this starting point, the SDGs are the following: • SDG 1: No poverty • SDG 2: Zero hunger

• SDG 3: Good health and well-being • SDG 4: Quality education • SDG 5: Gender equality • SDG 6: Water and sanitation • SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy • SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth • SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure • SDG 10: Reduced inequalities • SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities • SDG 12: Responsible production and consumption • SDG 13: Climate action • SDG 14: Life below water • SDG 15: Life on land • SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions • SDG 17: Partnerships for achieving the goals

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Africa

The objectives are defined and specified in 169 goals, which are more ambitious than the MDGs, both quantitatively and qualitatively, since some have a priori a greater potential for transformation than what was specified in the MDGs. Nevertheless, there are many obstacles to overcome in order to make them a reality.

Africa needs to implement coherent policies; achieving the SDGs would represent a significant step forward in the global fight against poverty and inequality Agenda 2030 is a global agenda; the SDGs apply to all countries, removing north-south borders, and political commitment and coherence is essential to their achievement. The recognition of internal inequalities in every country in the world and the definition of policies to rectify the situation are key. Nevertheless, having only just begun, the policies have been called into question as the result of economic austerity policies. Both developed and developing countries are applying these policies to their economies at the bidding of organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and even the European Union.

One key aspect is the commitment to coherence and funding of policies.

Achieving the goals by 2030 depends heavily on the resources that are allocated to them. The SDGs establish that the ‘how’ will depend on the funds that are earmarked for international cooperation. The Conference on Financing for Development, held in Addis Ababa last July, did not paint a particularly optimistic picture for the future in either the short or medium term, since it 44

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failed to achieve either a binding commitment of 0.7% of GDP dedicated to ODA or put an end to tax havens, two key areas in the talks.

Carrying out such an ambitious agenda as is suggested by the SDGs necessarily entails resources, without which success will be very complicated.

At the same time, there are other factors at play, such as the review of commercial regulations and the international financial system, the writing off of foreign debt and the aforementioned eradication of tax havens. The potential effects of the setting up of a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) at some stage in the future calls for a deeper analysis, since it may be at odds with the SDGs and their aims.

It is also worth mentioning the willingness of each country to apply the SDGs, something which may conflict with their universality. It is left to the individual country to decide whether or not to actually take measures at the various levels. In 2030, when the period ends, a range of indicators will reveal any disparities with respect to the implementation of the SDGs. Aside from these considerations, following a development model based on economic growth as a way to improve welfare will mean that the SDGs may become mere declarations of intent. It has been demonstrated that the model does not function effectively when there are many countries, especially in Africa, where there are growth rates that have not been translated into significant improvements in people’s welfare. Instead, the opposite has occurred, thereby increasing inequality.

Africa needs to implement coherent policies; achieve the SDGs and be able to count on the willingness of the countries at the New York summit, in order to make a significant step forward in the global fight against poverty

Africa

and inequality. Nevertheless, while the United Nations debates these objectives, foreign nations and investment funds in particular, continue to ‘plunder’ Africa’s land and resources, since the last thing that is good for business is human development.

It is time, therefore, to firmly place this consistency on the international political agenda; regulate these practices of rampant expropriation of land which is fertile or rich in natural resources, implement effective migration policies, and back measures to support the eradication of poverty and hun-

ger, help in peacekeeping and security measures and so on. We also need to be actively involved in the mechanisms needed to achieve the SDGs. Africa not only deserves it, we owe it to them.

We also need to recognize and admire a people who, in spite of everything, have shown great resilience and adaptability, who seek their own development model against a background of human suffering on a daily basis which would be unimaginable in Europe and the other more economically developed areas of the world.

*Patricia Rodriguez A Development Aid Consultant. She holds an Economics degree (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), an MA in Strategies, Agents and Policies for Development Aid (Universidad del País Vasco) and a Postgraduate Diploma in African Societies (Universitat Pompeu Fabra). She was the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation’s head of Sub-Saharan Africa for 10 years.

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45

Green Debate

A global 2030 agenda towards sustainability. Challenging implementation at the national level.

by Arnau Queralt*

The United Nations Sustainable Development Summit (New York, 25-27th September 2015) formally adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 specific targets.

The agenda, which is formalized in the document Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 1, is the result of an intergovernmental process which has lasted for over two years, beginning with the Rio+20 outcome document The Future we want 2. As stated in the first document, the new 2030 Agenda ‘builds on the Millennium Development Goals 3 and seeks to complete what these did not achieve, particularly in reaching the most vulnerable’.

Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development contains certain core ideas which are highlighted and reflected in the various sections of the document: 1) The sense of urgency in reaching the goals and targets -that is, in facing sustainable development challenges (or, rather, threats and problems) and need for transformation of the current unsustainable patterns (‘a 46

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supremely ambitious and transformational vision’).

2) The global and universal nature, due to the fact that both SDGs and their accompanying targets need to be applicable to all countries, although the existing different territorial realities, capacities and levels of development have to be taken into account in the implementation of SDGs. 3) The indivisible nature of SDGs and targets, which need to be reached with an integrated approach.

4) The balance between economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development (no single one prevails over the others).

The Sustainable Development Goals: an overview

Although the complete list of goals and targets is too long to be reproduced in this article (for further information see

Green Debate

the document Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, referenced above), it is worthwhile briefly introducing at least the 17 SDGs to readers who are unfamiliar with this subject in order to provide them with the basic background.

The SDGs are: 1) End poverty in all its forms everywhere.

2) End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.

3) Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

4) Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

5) Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

6) Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

7) Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

8) Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

9) Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

10) Reduce inequality within and among countries.

11) Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

12) Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

13) Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

14) Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

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Green Debate

15) Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

16) Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

17) Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

Thus, the 17 SDGs and 169 associated targets cover areas such as poverty, inequality, food security, health, sustainable consumption and production, growth, employment, infrastructure, sustainable management of natural resources, oceans, climate change, and also gender equality, peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice and accountable institutions. In short, crucial areas internationally, which are also essential at the national, sub-national and local levels.

The approval of 17 global goals is undoubtedly good news. The ambition that it inspires together with its transformational capacity should contribute to the much-needed transition to a more sustainable planet.

As has already been said, the SDGs and targets are: (i) Integrated and indivisible; (ii) Global in nature and universally applicable; (iii) Taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of development; and 48

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(iv) Respecting national policies and priorities. These four principles or criteria will be of crucial importance when transposing them to and implementing them into these specific and diverse realities.

The challenge of SDGs and implementation of targets

The approval of the 17 global goals and their 169 associated targets is undoubtedly good news. The ambition it inspires together with its transformational capacity should contribute to the much needed transition to a more sustainable planet (bearing in mind the long road that lies ahead -and so urgently to resolve some of the major problems that affect and threaten its future, at least as we know it). Once approved, however, the challenge is its effective implementation.

All of the parties involved are aware of the difficulties, but this should not diminish efforts to bring about the desired transformation. In this sense, in

Green Debate

the coming months it will be extremely interesting to analyze how bringing about this implementation, which must integrate and realize important current issues -which are not always resolvedsuch as intergenerational solidarity (which is reflected in the long-term dimension), intra or vertical coordination (between levels of government) and horizontal (between ministries and other units within the same level of government).

In the declaration approved in New York in September 2015, the International Community encourages ‘all member states [of the UN] to develop as soon as practicable ambitious national responses to the overall implementation of this Agenda’. It specifically refers to existing planning instruments, such as national development and sustainable development strategies, as the foundation upon which to build the process of implementing these global goals and targets.

Thus, governments (together with stakeholders) need to design implementation processes which take into account their specific and diverse national realities, capacities and levels of development. Processes which -according to the declaration- ‘respect national policy space (…) while remaining consistent with relevant international rules and commitments’.

The implementation of global SDGs and targets in Catalonia

As part of its global responsibility, Catalonia has participated through the mechanisms at its disposal in the development of SDGs. This is the case of the Department of Territory and Sustainability which, through the Network of Regions for Sustainable Development (nrg4SD) and in the capacity of this network as member of the Local Authorities Major Groups, implemented a follow up of the Open Working Group (OWG) discussions Catalan International View

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to carry on the definition of the SDG’s proposal.

Additionally, and as the network explains on its website, it has also directly contributed to the process through two important international initiatives that develop the positions on the role of subnational (and local) governments in the implementation of SDGs: Communitas Coalition for Sustainable Cities and Regions in the New UN Development Agenda and the Global Task Force of Local & Regional Governments for Post-2015 Development Agenda Towards Habitat III. The biggest challenge, however, to which great efforts must be made, is the integration of the SDGs in the context of the Government of Catalonia’s public policy and planning. It must be understood that it essentially consists on an internal analysis, despite having an international reference framework.

Indeed, it consists of a thorough review of the actions currently being under50

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taken (at the legislation and planning level, but also at the project level) and how their implementation allows us to achieve (or not as the case may be) the goals and targets adopted at global level.

In this analysis, it is important to bear in mind that most of these targets have a qualitative nature and, therefore, it is necessary to fix quantitative references.

In line with what has been stated above, the Catalan Strategy for Sustainable Development, adopted in August 2010, should be updated to become the instrument through which to perform this action (like in other European countries). This means that, consistently with the process of approval of the international 2030 Agenda and its implementation at the national level, this strategy should become the central pillar of all public policies of the Government of Catalonia, having therefore an absolutely transversal nature.

In any case, at the time of writing the process adopted in Catalonia is still

Green Debate

being defined, but it seems to be the result of interdepartmental collaboration, with the significant participation of the Presidential Department (through the Secretariat for Foreign and European Union Affairs, the Advisory Council for Sustainable Development of Catalonia (CADS), and the Department of Territory and Sustainability).

besides a reasonable criticism of the overall success of the implementation of this instrument (and its coordination with the policies and instruments of local planning), the impulse given to the Local Agenda 21 by the Catalan municipalities is an exemplary case of reference in the European Union.

The role of Catalan municipalities in the implementation of the SDGs and associated targets The local level requires special mention. On one hand, due to its proximity to the public and the relevance of the impact of local planning policies on the sustainable development of municipalities. On the other -with particular significance to Catalonia- through the great involvement of our cities, towns and villages in the implementation of Agenda 21 at the local level.

We must remember in this regard that in 1993, exactly one year after the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro ( June 1992), the Provincial Government of Barcelona launched its Local Agenda 21 program. In 2010, 67% of municipalities in the province of Barcelona had a Local Agenda 21. This means that 95% of the population of the province lived in a city, town or village which had approved and was running its own Agenda 21.

Although the situation is not the same in the other three provinces and

The local level requires special mention, partly due to its proximity to the public and the relevance of the impact of local planning policies on the sustainable development of municipalities This experience will, without doubt, be inspiring for the implementation of SDGs and their associated targets locally, thereby contributing to the much-needed vertical integration of sustainability policies. Considering its dynamism, then, would rely on a quick response from Catalan cities to promote, from the base up, the transformation agenda required by the United Nations document Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Tools such as the Network of Cities and Towns towards Sustainability, with more than 280 associated municipalities, are bound to be of great help in making this possible.

*Arnau Queralt Holds a degree in Environmental Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and a Masters in Public Management from ESADE, the UAB and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Since October 2011, he has been the director of the Advisory Council for the Sustainable Development of Catalonia (CADS), an advisory body of the Government of Catalonia attached to its Presidential Department. Since October 2012, he has been a member of the Steering Committee of the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils (EEAC). From May 2010 to October 2011 he was secretary general of the Cercle Tecnològic de Catalunya foundation. He has been on the board of the Catalan Association of Environmental Professionals since 2004 and was its president from 2010 to 2012.

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Barcelona Echoes

Barcelona:

ready to welcome refugees The plan entitled ‘Barcelona, Refugee City’ is expected to implement a series of measures to accommodate and meet the needs of the various contingents of refugees, some 1,200 people in total, who will arrive in the city from November onwards. The plan’s main objectives are compliance with international law concerning refugees, meeting every individual’s basic needs during their stay (with respect to education, health and housing), and taking care of them in an efficient manner. It also seeks to coordinate its actions with other government bodies, associations and voluntary groups.

Through coordination between the city’s various emergency services, a plan has been drawn up to welcome, assist and provide the necessary services to the refugees who arrive in Barcelona in the first allocation of refugees assigned to the Spanish state by the European Union.

In the words of Mayor Ada Colau, ‘Although no official date has been given, we expect that the first allocation of refugees, consisting of 1,200 Afghans, Syrians and Eritreans, will be arriving in Barcelona in November. It is estimated that half of the group will remain in the city and the remaining 600 will be distributed throughout Catalonia’. Barcelona intends to further improve its expertise in hosting refugees through collaboration with cities such as Vienna, Munich and Leipzig.

A technical coordination structure will be created to carry out the plan, under the direct control of the City Council. It will be led by a technical director, who will liaise with a head of 52

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operations and the head of volunteers.

The plan will adapt to the circumstances, depending on the way in which the refugees arrive, the timing of the arrivals and the legal status of the refugees.

Phases of the plan

The action plan includes four phases: phase zero, during which a multidisciplinary team will transport the refugees and determine their status as soon as possible in order to prepare suitable resources to accommodate them. It will be necessary to assess their social, physical and mental wellbeing.

During the second, reception, phase, Barcelona will be the meeting point for people destined for the Catalan region, to ensure consistent care for all of the refugees, who will initially be taken care of by the city’s emergency services. The Forum building will be used to carry out the function of receiving the refugees and to provide the most urgent care.

Barcelona Echoes

The third, welcoming phase, will provide the refugees with a space equipped with basic services, appropriate to their needs and customs, which will allow them a degree of confidentiality and privacy. The initial welcoming stage will last from between 7 and 10 days. The refugees will then be divided into different groups in order that they can be integrated into other municipalities in Catalonia or remain in Barcelona itself.

The fourth phase involves monitoring in the community. Following the initial investigation and diagnosis undertaken by the various social workers and psychologists, those who stay in Barcelona will be directed towards the relevant social services for monitoring.

It is expected that this phase will last for between 6 and 12 months, during which time the individuals who voluntarily accept work assigned to them will have their basic needs met. The final phase is closure.

Through coordination between the city’s various emergency services, a plan has been drawn up to welcome, assist and provide the necessary services to the refugees who arrive in Barcelona Resources available to the refugees

10.5 million euros of council funds have been set aside for the implementation of the plan. Additional money will be sought from European funds in order to supplement the initial budget.

Barcelona is a world leader in emergency care, which will be a great asset in meeting the needs of the various groups of refugees. A total of between 75 and 250 highly-qualified professionals will participate in the process.

Information page on Barcelona with the collaboration of the City Council Catalan International View

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Opinion

A new education system for a new country

by Eduard Vallory*

This year, UNESCO published a report entitled Rethinking Education, which provides a thorough analysis of the future of education, thereby superseding the Delors Report of 1996, which established the four pillars of learning. The Centre for the UNESCO of Catalonia published the report in Catalan in July, making it the first time it has been presented to the world. The document states that, ‘Rethinking the purpose of education and the organization of learning has never been more urgent’. Since we are in the process of building a new country, and we ought to consider its foundations before putting our plan into action, it is a good time to accept this opportunity to reflect.

The purpose of education

Let us begin by considering the aim of education by analysing two major changes: first, the transition from academic skills to life skills; and secondly, the historically unprecedented transformation brought about by the internet.

From academicism to life competencies

The UNESCO report states: ‘Education is the deliberate process of acquiring knowledge and developing the competencies to apply that knowledge in relevant situations’. It adds, ‘The right to quality education is the right to meaningful and relevant learning’.

In the nineteenth century, universal education was designed to transmit encyclopaedic knowledge in equal measure 54

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to every child of the same age. It was a model that put ‘learning to know’ above all: above ‘learning to do’, above ‘learning to be’, and above ‘learning to live together’. Ultimately it was ‘knowledge’ based on encyclopaedic knowledge, its transmission and memorization, seeing intellectual effort as the only means to success.

In the nineteenth century, public schools were seen as an administrative extension of the state, which decided what was taught. The curriculum was contained in textbooks, and all the teachers taught in an identical manner and, therefore, they were interchangeable; which is why they were appointed through civil-service examinations and transfers between posts were organized according to seniority.

Opinion

The Escola Nova [New School], which was promoted by both public and private institutions (the School Board of Barcelona, the Mancomunitat of Catalonia and the Government of Catalonia during the Republic) was born with a radically different approach: it recognized that children are different; it recognized that a school needs to empower them in order that they can autonomously choose their path in life; and it recognized that learning needs to see reality itself as an object of study.

This meant a different type of school: a tailor-made educational project of our own; a holistic effort that tailors learning to the individual and guarantees success for all; with Principal’s teams with a clear ability to select

teachers based on the needs of this new educational model. In other words, like present-day Finland. This was the education system which our country wished to provide, yet it was denied us thanks to forty years of dictatorship.

Over the last three decades, however, the global focus on education has changed: from content with purely academic ends, to ‘competencies for life’ as found in the New School. This change is apparent from the Delors Report, the LOGSE and our own Catalan Education Act. Nevertheless, the inertia of the transmission model generates a disconnect between discourse and reality. People often speak of ‘competencies’, when they mean classic ‘subjects’; or speak of the curriculum when they mean textbooks.

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The emergence of the internet

This urgency to overcome this divergence between discourse and reality is the result of the historically unprecedented transformation which is being generated by the emergence of the internet.

The internet affects education in two ways. It makes an impact, to quote the UNESCO document, because ‘it has transformed how people access to information and knowledge’; and it makes an impact because it has also transformed ‘how they interact and the direction of public administration and business’.

Let us examine the first impact: the internet has produced a transformation in education akin to the appearance of the printing press. Before printing, reading was an irrelevant skill and the access to information was primarily oral.

Nowadays, books and teachers are no longer the major conduit for information and the creation of knowledge. For this reason the top American universities upload their lectures to the internet: since their added value is no longer to be found in the classroom.

Over the last three decades, however, the global focus on education has changed: from content with purely academic ends, to ‘competencies for life’ as found in the New School The second impact, however, is even greater: the internet is transforming our personal and professional lives. Think about it. The first website published in Catalan appeared just twenty years ago.

In fact email has only become commonplace in the last fifteen years. Napster appeared less than fifteen years ago, leading to the collapse of CD sales; then there was Skype, which hit the telecoms industry; YouTube, which has redefined 56

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television; WhatsApp and Facebook, which have changed personal interaction; Spotify, which replaced music downloads; Twitter, which has changed communication; and LinkedIn, which has redrawn the labour market and may eventually transform the way knowledge is accredited.

Now ask yourself: if we have experienced these transformations in just fifteen years, what competencies will a 5-year-old girl need in another fifteen years?

With this in mind, the report states: ‘The volume of information now available on the internet is staggering. The challenge becomes how to teach learners to make sense of the vast amount of information they encounter every day, identify credible sources, assess the reliability and validity of what they read, question the authenticity and accuracy of the information, connect this new knowledge with prior learning and discern its importance in relation to the information they already understand’.

A holistic approach

But the document goes further, arguing that, ‘we need a holistic approach to education and learning that overcomes the traditional dichotomies between cognitive, emotional and ethical aspects’. Such a holistic approach ought to allow us to redefine the idea of success. In terms of the cognitive aspects, the easiest to measure, we must not forget that such learning needs to be applied: what good is it to be able to define ‘Cataphora’ if one does not know to use it in one’s life? The emotional aspects are of equal or greater importance: managing self-esteem and self-control, empathy and friendship, the meaning of life, coping with a sudden death, to love and feel loved. And also, the ethical aspects, which should support our new society, where success is not defined by obtaining fame and wealth at any price, but by leading a full life, based on inclusive val-

Opinion

ues of coexistence and commitment to others and with the environment.

The organization of learning

If these thoughts allow us to reconsider the purpose of education, then we can also rethink the organization of learning.

Unlike a hundred years ago, nowadays we have scientific information on how people learn. In fact just five years ago, the OECD published an overview of current theories of cognitive research in a document entitled The Nature of Learning. These can be summarized in the following seven principles of learning: (1) The students are the centre of learning, not the teaching; (2) learning is social by nature, and essentially cooperative; (3) emotions and motivations are essential to learning; (4) learning must take into account individual differences among each child; (5) student effort is key to learning, although overworking, monotony, and fear are to be avoided; (6) continuous assessment promotes learning and serves for students to regulate their own learning; and (7) learning helps to build horizontal connections, overcoming the division between disciplines through global actions focused on competencies.

I would argue this resonates with the final quote from our document: ‘The educational landscape of today’s world is undergoing radical transformation with regard to methods, content, and spaces of learning. This is true both for schooling and higher education. The increased availability of and access to diverse sources of knowledge are expanding opportunities for learning, which may be less structured and more innovative, affecting the classroom, pedagogy, teacher authority and learning processes’.

We are aware, therefore, that our children need to develop skills for life.

We know that, as digital natives, they need radically different competencies, far more adaptive than we have needed up until now. We know that quality education means significant education, and that education for all means personalised and inclusive. We know that education should be holistic, integrating its cognitive, emotional, and ethical aspects from a humanistic and humanizing perspective.

If we were able to adopt these principles, we could develop elements which are key to the organization of learning, which on a global scale is what the more advanced educational initiatives already show: • One must learn through interdisciplinary strategies based on wellfounded globalized work, in order to generate meaningful learning with the involvement of learners.

• We ought to evaluate developing indicators for non-cognitive skills and by giving importance to processes, empowering students to self-regulate their learning process.

• Teachers ought to serve as guides who work in a team to enable all their students, ‘from early childhood throughout their learning trajectories, to develop and advance through the constantly expanding maze of knowledge’. They therefore need to be provided with adequate training that allows them to keep abreast of developments in their role.

• Students should never stop asking questions and seeking answers with passion and creativity. Like Antoni Gaudí, who in spite of being a poor student of the old school, thanks to his endless curiosity and his love of the natural world, excelled in cognitive, emotional and ethical aspects.

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• The school should become the core of a community that learns and enables linear learning for everyone in all areas of education; which sees in learning the development of numerous potentials in every individual, not a zero-sum game where some win and others lose; one which experiences innovation in its methods, according to the abovementioned principles of learning, as an everyday occurrence.

Between us, let us dare to reconsider the purpose of education and the organization of learning, and provide the children of today with the tools to build the society of tomorrow which we truly want Education in the new country we are building must overcome the structure that was Franco’s legacy. We are a country that is admired for its art, scientific research, its cooking and sports. It is down to us all to also become a country which is admired for having one of the

most advanced education systems in the world, enabling the knowledge revolution to combat poverty, which endows every one of our children with the tools they need for life, and which serves to construct a democratic society of free and fully-formed individuals, for the inclusive country we yearn for.

A major advantage we can count on is that in our country we already have many schools equipped for twenty-first century learning, of which so much has been said over the last year. We have the desires and the efforts of so many across the country, families, professionals, educators. Together they are the seed of the new educational system to which we aspire. For this reason we need to stop looking towards Finland to see what they did three decades ago: and go ahead and build an ambitious new educational system. Between us, let us dare to reconsider the purpose of education and the organization of learning, and provide the children of today with the tools to build the society of tomorrow which we truly want.

*Eduard Vallory Chairman of the Centre for the UNESCO of Catalonia

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Good for you.

Good for nature.

The water of your life

Aig端es de Barcelona manages the complete water cycle.

It ensures rigorous compliance with all the steps necessary to guarantee water with the highest health standards. It manages each step: from when it is collected, treated, transported, stored and distributed, until it comes out of the tap at home. Finally, it is returned to the natural environment under the best conditions. For example, we help to maintain the lagoons of the Llobregat Delta with reclaimed water.

We preserve a water cycle which has become a worldwide benchmark thanks to its efficiency and health safety.

A Short Story from History

Curated by Francesc de Dalmases

The Indians, heroes from overseas In Catalonia the term Indians specifically refers to those who emigrated to the Americas, between the late eighteenth century and the early twentieth. They ventured overseas in order to make their fortune as quickly as possible, and on their return they invested their new-found wealth in the country.

Every individual is unique. However, the Indians often shared the characteristics which were reflected in literature and cinema: they were of good economic and social standing, possessed substantial urban and rural wealth; an entrepreneurial spirit, even in old age; a sense of nostalgia for a lost paradise mixed with a certain thirst for the exotic; a sense of superiority typical of one who is worldly-wise; the adoption of South American Spanish or an insistence on using a Catalan full of Americanisms, and the formation of a large family in Catalonia or in the Americas. While these are the six most common traits they share, there are also six in which they differ: the timing of their journeys, the name they were given, their social origins and reasons for their journey, the frequency of their trips, their ideology and the effect they had on society.

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In terms of chronology, there are three types of Indians in Catalonia: the original pioneers who set sail in the late eighteenth century and returned in the first half of the nineteenth century; the early group, the most numerous and well-known, who established the Indian myth (undertaking the adventure in the Americas between 1860 and 1890), and the late group, fewer in number, who left in the late nineteenth and returned in the early twentieth century.

The Indians’ social origins played a large part in their future endeavours.

On the one hand we find the offspring of ‘good families’, who were usually the cabalers [offspring who did not stand to inherit] who went in search of a living, since the elder brother would inherit the entire family fortune, or else young men of means in search of adventure.

Meanwhile, on the other hand were the

children of artisans, farmers and fishermen, who often emigrated while very young, fleeing from poverty or military service. Some of the latter group were as young as fifteen years old.

The Indians can be divided into two groups depending on their world view: the first were liberal, progressive individuals, some of whom were Freemasons, who were sympathetic towards and sometimes sided with Cuban Creoles in Cuba’s fight for independence.

The second group were politically more conservative and in business-terms, more protectionist. Fiercely opposed to Cuban independence, on their return

to Barcelona they formed lobbies to defend Spanish interests on the island.

Some of the Indians were noteworthy thanks to the work they undertook in society once they returned to Catalonia. On one hand there were those who focused on their business and their family, with no social conscience, while on the other there were prominent leaders who wanted to modernize society and develop their country. We can further subdivide this latter group into those who sought to improve the spiritual wellbeing of their fellow citizens and the Church –in which Creole ladies played a special part– and those

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A Short Story from History

Curated by Francesc de Dalmases

who undertook all manner of initiatives: business (railways and construction); social (asylums and schools); health (hospitals and spas); sporting (sailing clubs, baseball teams, basketball teams) and so on.

In spite of the stories of debauchery, mulattoes and lovers which always accompany the Indian myth, the majority of Indians were preoccupied with marrying well

The Indians, between myth and reality

Literature and cinema focused on and exaggerated the Indians’ common characteristics, such as their exoticism and cosmopolitanism. Sometimes, however, the clichés and stereotypes which have been created and are repeated in commonplace novels and TV series are lacking in historical accuracy. While there were a certain number of colourful, extravagant individuals, such legendary Indians, straight out of a movie, were the exception rather than the rule. We ought not to give credence to the romantic, fictional stereotype of the Indians. Instead we should focus on the real Indians, thereby partially demystifying the ‘glorious adventure’ in the Americas. The stereotype can be summarized as: starting from scratch, making money fast, returning to their birthplace and marrying a young woman while maintaining lovers and illegitimate children, leaving large estates and a few mulattoes in Havana, profiting from the slave

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trade, obtaining titles and decorations, buying palaces and estates, gaining the favours, influence and power of public office –high society, the monarchy, the Church or the armed forces– and living off one’s earnings for the rest of one’s life as a Bon vivant.

It is also a stereotype that the Indians returned from the Americas in their old age. Many did so while in the prime of life accompanied by their families, in other words with children born in Cuba, genuine Creoles, who were often very young. It is also not the case that everyone returned to their birthplace, since the majority settled in Barcelona, Spain’s financial and business capital in the late nineteenth century.

In spite of the stories of debauchery, mulattoes and lovers which always accompany the Indian myth, the majority of Indians were preoccupied with marrying well, to a rich Catalan heiress or a wealthy Creole of Spanish origin, albeit following a proxy wedding, and even if the girl was much younger, in order to settle down and have a large family.

When they did so, they didn’t risk their reputation, which is to say their wallet.

As for the Indians’ legacy, they bought splendid palaces and estates with magnificent gardens, such as the Palau de les Heures, Palau Moja or Palau March in Barcelona. This is not all, however, they also invested in various industrial sectors, the railways in particular, which replaced the transport of goods by sea, and the world of finance, which they renewed by founding banks that still exist to this day.

Finally, while the character of the archetypal Indian is of a Bon vivant in their private life, in reality the Indians were prudent and hard-working, save

for the occasional picaresque character straight out of a novel.

When the Indian remained in the colonies for an extended period, their children and grandchildren, born overseas, were known as Creoles. When the Creoles remained in the Americas and retained their emotional and economic ties with the land of their forefathers, they were known as criolls-catalans d’Amèrica [Catalan-Creoles of the

Americas]. However, when the Creoles returned to Catalonia, the land of their ancestors, they received the same recognition and status as the Indians and were often mistaken for one. The phenomenon of repatriated Creoles gave rise to the figure of the rich and socially important woman, a phenomenon which didn’t exist in the case of the Indians, who were all men.

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Business, Law & Economics

The Legal Advisory Board: Catalonia’s State Council

by Albert Lamarca*

The Legal Advisory Board is an active body in the current Catalan institutional system that has deep roots in the history of the last century. The Board fulfils many of the functions of a State Council in legal matters that come under its jurisdiction.

It is obliged to report on the government’s draft proposals for regulations and carries out legal opinions of certain explicitly defined legal actions by public authorities.

In 1918 the Mancomunity of Catalonia (1914-1923) created the Office of Legal Studies, designed by President Enric Prat de la Riba. Later, the president of the Catalan Republican Government (1931-1939) Francesc Macià created the Board in 1932, which was subsequently restored in 1978 by President Josep Tarradellas. Since then it has contributed to the consolidation of the Catalan legal system and the formation of a legal standard in the Catalan language while issuing more than 10,000 legal opinions on a wide range of subjects.

Every year the Board presents its Annual Report to the Government of Catalonia in an official ceremony at the Palau de la Generalitat. Due to its relevance to the current political and social context, we reproduce below part of the speech delivered by its president, Dr Albert Lamarca, at the event held on 8 May 2015.

The members of the Legal Advisory Board (Comissió Jurídica Assessora), and I as its president, would like to present to you at this ceremony today at the Palau de la Generalitat our 2014 Annual Report and doctrine analysis.

It represents a review of our advisory role or consultive function: the provision of legal advice to the Generalitat and Catalonia’s other public administrations. We do so in the context of a year in which law has been at the centre of political and social debate, in which the agenda of public law has been determined more by the citizens than by jurists. 2014 was a year in Catalonia in which confidence in the law had an impact on our hopes of a collective future.

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It is unlikely that so many people have had to learn so much about the law as in recent months.

For the Legal Advisory Board, the year began with the reappointment of one third of its members. ‘A sort de rodolins’ [the luck of the draw], as the old Catalan saying goes, four of the members appointed in 2005, and again in 2009, were chosen by lot for the first reappointment which took place in February 2014. Always composed of renowned jurists, the duration of their term and the number of members of the Board has changed since it was re-established in 1978. In order to put an end to the practice of appointing members indefinitely, in 2005 a new act

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established a maximum term of three years, with one third of the board reappointed every two years, and a total of 15 members. This time limit was subsequently extended to six years in 2008.

95 jurists have sat on the board since its establishment in 1932. 27 during the years of the Republican Generalitat and 68 since 1979. The Board has had six presidents.

This recent reduction of the term of office of members of the Board from three to six years, setting a time limit which prevents indefinite appointments, whether permanent or perpetual, takes us back in time to the debate as to the duration of the position of legal advisor to the Generalitat, which put an end

to the chapter of redress in 1599, going from an initial term of three years renewable only once, to a single term of six years, with a partial replacement of the advisors every three years, along with the strict ban on an advisor being appointed in perpetuity. This ensured that the mandate of the advisors exceeded that of the deputies and oĂŻdors [listeners] who they advised and also allowed them to enjoy the benefits of reappointment. An individual elected to the position of advisor to the Generalitat had to be, ‘a solemn doctor or lawyer, in good conscience and reputation, native of said Principality and a resident of such’. Something of this has remained, many centuries later, in our regulations, Catalan International View

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which guarantee the stability and replacement of the members of the Board, two highly-prized values which are fitting for the function we perform.

As I mentioned earlier, the members who were to be replaced on the Board were decided by the drawing of lots, since they were all appointed at the same time. This practice is in keeping with the ancient Catalan tradition of filling public offices through the drawing of lots. The names of eligible citizens were placed in a bag or a sack in order to be drawn. Once the suitability of the individuals had been verified, their names were written on strips of parchment inside balls of wax, which in turn were placed in an urn or silver bowl full of holy water. The drawing of the names was entrusted to a young boy. The process is described in accounts of the procedures of Catalan institutions. In the case of the Generalitat, the Llibre dels Quatre Senyals recorded the rules and the Dietaris recorded the manner in which they were put into practice. Both have been kept up to date uninterruptedly for over three centuries.

The appointment of public posts based on ‘the luck of the draw’ or ‘by chance’ was a common practice all over our nation, having become established and widespread during the reign of Ferran II, with the famous chapters of redress of 1493. From Perpignan to Valencia, from Lleida to Ibiza, and including the election of the chief councillor of the city of Alghero, public officials were chosen by lot from among certain citizens for a fixed period. This contrasted with the previous system of cooption or the selection of a successor by those leaving office, or after 1714, the appointment of an aristocrat by royal decree. Not to mention the venal system, whereby public officials bought or leased their position. However, the position of President of the Generalitat 66

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was never a venal office, it could neither be bought nor sold.

With regard to the Generalitat, the election of three deputies and three oïdors, who constituted the council, was made with reference to the Llibre de l’Ànima [Book of the Soul], which listed every individual from the three branches that were eligible for election.

Nine individuals organized the election, in which they were to put aside, ‘all hatred, love and other issues’, ensure that every person, ‘is capable and sufficient and has the necessary qualities suitable to said position’, and expressly forbade the participation of deputies or oïdors who were close relatives. The election was held every three years, with rodolins being drawn on July 22nd, Santa Magdalena Day, with the officials occupying their posts on August 1st. They were then eligible to wear the traditional red cape and put on a medal bearing the Generalitat’s emblem, the cross of St. George. The majority of the 122 presidents of the Generalitat have been chosen in this way: from Berenguer de Cruïlles in 1359 to Josep de Vilamala in 1713. If events hadn’t gone against us we would have chosen many more, and today we would probably have had over two hundred presidents of the Generalitat.

I mention the historical background, which any nation would be proud of, in order to remind us of the importance of observing the correct protocols when appointing new members to our institutions. At present we can distinguish between political representatives or leaders, public employees or officials, and finally, independent advisors. Distinguishing between the duties and responsibilities of each of them and the respect they deserve is essential to the smooth running of public affairs. These three branches are not interchangeable and careful consideration should be given as to who

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is called upon to deal with them. It seems therefore unreasonable that any one individual would possess qualities suited to all three branches. In some instances a move from one to the other might be possible and even desirable, such as an independent advisor becoming a politician, but it would be rather difficult to justify the reverse.

The Legal Advisory Board of Catalonia is composed of jurists who act independently. It is a public body made up of independent legal experts, who give advice to those in power, but who do not wield political power themselves. The members are politically appointed, but we are not politicians.

Indeed, most of us are university professors, hold PhDs in Law and academic researchers, who have agreed to get closer to power, which used to be referred to as, ‘the throne, the sceptre and the palace’, to paraphrase one of our most distinguished men of letters, who I shall return to later, who along with many others helped to establish the foundations of present day Catalonia. Of what we have in the present, the time for change, to achieve an ideal, which had been dreamt of from afar: to fully govern ourselves. I recall the famous poem of 1839 by Joaquim Rubió i Ors, Lo gayter del Llobregat [The Piper of the Llobregat], in which Rubió recounts how the artist, the poet, what now might be called an academic or an intellectual, would not exchange their work for political power. Rubió asks the piper: Si’t donàs la sua corona Un rey, y el ceptre de plata, Y son mantell d’escarlata, Y son trono enjoyellat, Pera ser rey deixarias Tas baladas amorosas, Ni tas montanyas frondosas, Ni ton joyós Llobregat?

If you were to be given a crown, by a king, and their silver sceptre, And a scarlet cloak, And a jewel-encrusted throne, For that king would you give up, Those loving ballads, Or those leafy mountains, Or the joyous Llobregat?

Some years later, Josep Carner, the prince of poets and Catalonia’s enduring ambassador, appeared to answer the question with his Canticel poem: Per una vela en el mar blau daria un ceptre; per una vela en el mar blau, ceptre i palau.

To sail in the blue sea I’d give a sceptre; To sail in the blue sea, Sceptre and palace.

We jurists who have accepted our appointment as members of the Legal Advisory Board have not exactly been at the centre of this predicament because we contribute to the Generalitat based on our technical knowledge and our independent legal opinion, which is specifically requested of us and for which we are respected.

The current edition of the annual report we are presenting today, makes our advisory activity apparent, as evidenced by the 446 legal opinions issued, in keeping with 421 the previous year. The key areas in which the Board makes mandatory opinions are general provisions, torts, contracts, nullity of proceedings and territorial boundaries.

The most significant function -and that which is most relevant to us at the State Council of Catalonia- is to report on the legality of the general provisions approved by the Generalitat. Worth mentioning for 2014 is that the Board has responded to a request from the Catalan International View

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Generalitat relating to the holding of a referendum on the political future of Catalonia on 9 November 2014, to which I shall return later. All of this information is outlined in the volume that we are presenting today.

I started by saying that 2014 was a year in which the law’s role as a means of expressing popular will has been at the centre of political debate in our country. This was the year in which we celebrated the 300th anniversary of the events of 1714, when Catalan institutions collaborated in order to hold a vote to consult the citizens on our collective future. We Catalans don’t celebrate defeats, as the wicked and cynical may claim. Instead we are commemorating our ability to resist, to reinvent ourselves following adversity, to pick ourselves up when we are down and start again when necessary.

Recalling 1213, 1412, 1659, 1714, 1923 and 1939, along with many other unfortunate moments in our history, helps us to continue as a nation. If we were to recall what happened three hundred years ago, 1715 would be the year in which our state structures were demolished. The year in which the new rulers sent experts to Catalonia in order to conduct studies, hold inquiries and prepare reports prior to the Nueva Planta Decrees [a series of decrees signed by Philip V -the first Bourbon king of Spain- during and shortly after the end of the War of the Spanish Succession], which doubtless mark one of the low-points in our country’s history.

Three hundred years later we can say that we have achieved the opposite and have produced an exceptional and unparalleled White Paper on the National Transition. This White Paper, the result of the work of the Advisory Council for the National Transition, is an extraordinary volume, involving studies of great legal worth, which should give everyone a rightful sense of admiration 68

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for what we can do when we combine determination, effort and talent.

A moment ago I referred to Joaquim Rubió i Ors, one of the most important men during our national Rennaisance, and his modest poem of 175 years ago.

Rubió is an example of a generation that said ‘enough’, that rose up in order to change the situation imposed by the Nueva Planta, and to put an end to what had been, in the words of Manuel de Pedrolo, ‘the chronicle of an occupation’. Hence the preface to his collection of poems, which represents the manifesto of the Renaissance, where Rubió states: ‘A hundred and twenty-five years ago, during the assault of Barcelona (September 1714), in which our grandparents battled for fourteen hours to defend their ancient privileges, and in which their blood flowed in abundance on the walls, in the squares and temples of the city, to be able to pass on to their grandchildren the inheritance and language left to them by their parents in turn; and in spite of such a short time having passed, their descendants, not only having forgotten all this, but even such that some of them, ungrateful towards their grandparents, ungrateful towards their country, are ashamed to be caught speaking in Catalan, like a criminal caught in the act. But this will end, at least the author of these poems promises himself it will end’.

Rubió finished the preface in 1841 with a prophetic phrase: ‘Catalonia can still aspire to independence; not of the political kind, since it has much less influence than other nations, which can put in the balance, aside from the sheer volume of their history, armies of many thousands of men and fleets of hundreds of ships; But instead literary independence’. He was clearly referring to the use of force that at the time

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meant that political independence was impossible. We shall see now, in our own time, how far the use of reason can take us.

While this was the situation in the field of literature, in the field of law another esteemed individual was at work.

Pere Nolasc Vives i Cebrià, who in the same year published a key work in our legal renewal or rebirth, the ‘Translation into Spanish of the Usages and Other Rights of Catalonia which have not been Repealed or which are not Notoriously Useless’. While it might have been regarded as the voice of the acquitted of Catalan law, the book became the foundation of endurance and recovery. Admired by Catalan lawyers of the time, it allowed them to avoid what could have been an inexorable demise. It is no accident that both Rubió and Vives were professors at a university that was central to this process, a university that had just returned to Barcelona at around the same time.

Today is May 8, a key date in Europe, which commemorates the defeat of fascism across most of the continent.

In Catalonia it marks the beginning of a democratic process in the election of people’s representatives. And on May 8 of the year on which we are reporting, the Board passed opinion 166/2014 on the draft decree establishing an electoral role of Catalans abroad. This was one of our interventions in the legal process related to the approval by Parliament of Act 10/2014 of 26 September, of the holding of popular consultations of a non-referenda nature and other forms of participation by the electorate and the subsequent Decree 129/2014 of 27 September with the announcement of the popular consultation of a nonreferenda nature on the political future of Catalonia. Subsequently, on October 2, we had to issue an opinion on the effects of the constitutional process filed by the state, specifically what is known

as the Decree appointing the members of the Monitoring Committee, which was signed ‘for the purposes of appropriate effect’. At the time it wasn’t enough to merely think that reason and justice were on our side, we also needed to know we had lawyers on our side.

In previous years, certain individuals insisted on saying that instead of an autonomy we had a federal state and, ignorant of us, we were insufficiently wary of them; others contradicted this point of view, with the threat of a possible suspension of our autonomy. What perhaps we overlooked or were insufficiently aware is that self-rule had been suspended dozens of times over the last thirty years, on a case by case, decision by decision basis, in accordance with Article 161.2 of the Constitution.

This has been the case every time the state has questioned our policies and our actions, through a procedure that brings the case before a tribunal that is required to give a ruling without having sufficient knowledge of the case or having heard from both parties.

That period, from September to November 2014 was challenging yet full of hope. Time will give us the perspective necessary to judge the events.

I said that the law was at the centre of the debate and also that we Catalans wished to be on the right side of the law at all times. During this period we were forced to defend fundamental rights, human rights, something we had thought was no longer necessary, since they are inherent in a democratic society and not subject to arbitrary constraints: the right of assembly, the right to freedom of expression, freedom of opinion or thought, the right to participation, the right to protest, the right to freedom of information and, above all, the intangible right to human dignity.

A year ago, Mr President, you made a declaration of great significance reCatalan International View

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ferring to the Catalans’ deep respect for law and how the observance of the law is linked to our historical and political tradition, since we have always built our society based on the ideals of justice and the rule of law. Those who know our history know that the principle to which you referred is enshrined in one of our oldest and most important legal texts, the Alium Namque Usatge. It obliged the count-kings to hold tribunals and to judge people according to the prevailing law of the land in a judicial system based on the principle of legality. One of our greatest jurists, Antoni Oliba, a native of Porta, in the Vall de Querol, in the foothills of Pimorent, a lawyer, advisor to the Generalitat and later magistrate of the Court and the Royal Council, wrote a book in 1600 dedicated to the Alium Namque Usatge, which is a veritable treaty on Catalan public law. In the glossary, Oliba explains that in Catalonia judges cannot issue rulings according to their conscience, but in accordance to the law.

He goes on to say that the judgments must always be made knowingly, after having heard both parties and in accordance with the law of the land. In other words, causa cognita, partibus auditis [...] et iuribus patriae servatis. The law of the land, according to Oliba, ought to have certain unchangeable features: the law should be fair, honest and useful, i.e. serve the general interest. Without justice, honesty and utility the law is not possible. This June marks the 800th anniversary of England’s Magna Carta, chapter 39 of which reminds the law of the eleventh century Catalonia, establishing that a person may only lose their property or liberty following a judgment according to the law of the land. The Anglo-Saxon rule of law resonates with the Alium Namque’s principle of ‘judge according with the law’. Knowledge of the charges, a fair hearing and enforcement 70

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of the law, which must be fair, honest and useful are the three principles that underlie this legal giant, the Alium Namque, which we should never forget or neglect to defend.

As a result of the process of November 9, you Mr President, together with two ministers of the Generalitat, have had criminal charges brought against you. You have been threatened with imprisonment and the possibility of being barred from office. This is a highly unusual situation that I must apologize for not commenting on today, but which recalls another of our ancients Acts, the so-called Princeps Namque Usatge. This legal rule, closely related to our history, states that if the prince -or what nowadays would be the head of governmentfinds himself besieged by their enemies within Catalonia, everyone must go to their aid, everyone ought to help, without exception, and if someone fails to provide assistance he must ‘lose everything that he owns’.

There are historical documents which record royal advisors and councillors accused and imprisoned for faithfully serving a prince. Such events were recorded for posterity by the courtier and poet Jordi de Sant Jordi in verses of extreme beauty in his wellknown poem “The Prisoner”, dating from 1423, which tells us how he feels: Desert d’amichs, de bens e de senyor, en estrany loch y en stranya contrada, luny de tot be, fart d’enuig e tristor, ma voluntat e pensa caytivada, me trop del tot en mal poder sotsmes.

Bereft of friends, of goods and my Lord, In rare place in a foreign region, Far from all, filled with anger and sadness, My desire and thought captured, I find myself quite subdued by an evil power.

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The poet, nevertheless, took consolation or comfort in his prison since he had been loyal and had served his Lord as best he could. At the present time our Lord would be none other than the people, the will of the people. Towards the end of the poem, the prisoner implores the ruler -King Alfons the Magnanimous- not to fail, just as he himself has not, in support of those who have been at his side: Reys virtuos, mon senyor natural, tots al presen no us fem altra demanda, mas que·us recort que vostra sanch reyal may defalli al qui fos de sa banda.

Virtuous kings, my natural lord, All nowadays make but one demand, To remind you that your royal blood May it never fail to those who were on your side.

There are many such instances, unfortunately, such as the well-known romantic poem that recounts the proceedings of November 1713 in the case against Colonel Francesc Macià i Ambert, Bac de Roda, which ended with another cry that still reverberates and calls on us: No em maten per ser traïdor ni tampoc per ser cap lladre, sinó perquè he volgut dir que visqui sempre la Pàtria!

They do not kill me for being a traitor Nor for being any kind of thief, But because I wanted to say Long live the Motherland!

In my speech I have referred to the post-1714 revival, dealt with in the writings of Rubió i Ors. Upon his death, another of our great men, Jacint Verdaguer wrote an account in 1902, to specifically highlight the drive and determination of a generation that said

‘enough’, who collectively established the goal of reversing the situation related to the occupation of Catalonia following the Nova Planta, also in the field of law. At the turn of the nineteenth century, the purpose of the Renaissance, which, according to Rubió was to achieve Catalan independence (even if only in a cultural or literary sense was possible), was already a reality. In the words of Verdaguer, ‘the miracle had happened’. The poet from Folgueroles, who in 1865 had the audacity to present himself in Barcelona dressed as a peasant, in a velvet waistcoat with beret and sandals, to collect the award for literary art at the Floral Games, was the victim of a disgraceful persecution in an attempt to suspend and discredit him, to take from him everything he possessed. When faced with those who wished to silence him and push him to one side, Verdaguer was forced to act ‘in self-defence’. He returned once more to Barcelona to call for justice before the law, by exercising his right to freedom among the honest people that knew him, to fight against the injustice which had befallen him.

Thanks to these events, Verdaguer taught us two illuminating lessons on strength in the face of adversity and the ability to resist, which has often been our downfall. In an ode to individual and collective strength, Verdaguer contrasts the majesty and grandeur of a mountain with the smallness and insignificance of a grain of sand. Both are very strong, each in their own way, and both can overcome difficulties and escape destruction. Firstly the Pyrenees, Verdaguer states that neither storms, blizzards, hatred or war can bring [Mount] Canigó to the ground. Of the second, as mighty as they may be, ‘all the waves in the sea cannot break a grain of sand’. So goes the poem ‘Will they give up?’. Written in November 1896, at the height of the process against him, he Catalan International View

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referred to his rivals and detractors as the ‘mouths of the cavern’.

Many images and sensations have reached us from those far-off days of November 2014. They are symbolically represented in the title of the book by Salvador Espriu, El caminant i el mur [The Walker and the Wall], where it is not hard to guess who is the Walker and who is the Wall. Miquel Martí Pol stated that we had gone from ‘nothing to something and always against a headwind’, and also that ‘Now is tomorrow’. A year ago we invoked Ramon Llull and Vicent Andrés Estellés’ Book of Wonders, and said that while the law is not the key that opens every lock, neither is it the door that shuts on all hope. You asked yourself then, Mr President, with the image of fire and water, what legal instruments were available to fulfil this desire to manifest a certain collective will, how we could listen to and respond to the voice of the people, which Estellés told us is the key that opens every lock. Perhaps now, in answer to this question, we ought to refer ourselves to Ramon Muntaner, writer of another wonderful book, where we find the well-known example of la mata de jonc [the mat-rush plant].

Ramon Llull, Ramon Muntaner and Ramon de Penyafort, who looks down on us from the lamps of this magnificent salon, are three prodigious Catalan of the thirteenth century, each in their own field. Chapter 292 of his Chroni-

cle contains an allegory of how unity is strength, in which Muntaner composes a well-known chant to unity, the popular unity which nowadays would be the people of our nation, unity which leads to an invincible, unassailable strength.

When advising the successor to James I on to how to govern the fate of his various territories, Muntaner said he should always keep in mind the example of la mata de jonc, which has a unique strength, whereby if the whole plant is bound by a strong piece of twine, even the strength of ten men would be unable to remove a single piece. Cut the rope, however, and not a single piece of rush would remain.

Undoubtedly 2014 was a very intense year in legal terms, in which the jurists’ hearts were touched by the demands that originated in the citizens’ hearts. In today’s act we wish to lay out our work in the consultory function, and I thank you for the trust you place in us. If it would please you, Mr President, as advisors on legal issues, and in accordance with our law, in the words of Jordi de Sant Jordi, I should like to remind you that in seeking our advice, the jurists who are on your side will never let you down. As members of the Legal Advisory Board in loyal, expert, objective and independent legal advice for the government and Catalonia’s public administrations, we will always be by your side.

*Albert Lamarca President of the Legal Advisory Board of Catalonia. Holds a PhD in Law from the Università degli Studi di Bologna and a degree in Law and Modern History from the Universitat de Barcelona. He lectures in Civil Law at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and has conducted research at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg, Cornell University in New York and at Cambridge University.

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Catalonia: 7 strategic industrial areas

by Elisabeth McWilliams

Catalonia’s industrial strategy continues towards achieving its goal of industrial output accounting for 25% of GDP by 2020. In recent months, more than 400 Catalan companies have collaborated in developing an industrial strategy that proposes plans of action in seven specific areas. These include the food and cultural industries, energy generation, design and sustainable mobility. The aim is for industry to regain its place as one of the main drivers of economic growth.

The industrial strategy, in keeping with the European Union’s RIS3 strategy, is a commitment to making Catalonia a European leader, based on a solid industrial foundation and tradition. The initiative aims to boost public and private leadership, centered on small and medium enterprises in Catalonia. In recent months more than 400 Catalan companies have been involved in the preparation of the plans, divided into 33 working groups and seven steering groups. The industrial strategy has been developed by various departments and units of the Catalan Government and agreed with business agents throughout the country. It has also had the backing of Barcelona City Council.

These are the seven industrial areas and the strategies which are planned in each instance:

1. The food industry

The food industry involves the participation of large business groups, local and foreign capital, a long tradition of innovation, of well-known brands and national and international leadership.

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in food and catering; there are participants throughout the value chain; there is a strong tradition and diversity in agricultural and livestock products and it is home to the Barcelona Food Fair, which is one of the most important and prestigious food and beverage fairs, both nationally and internationally. The Catalan food industry consists of 2,500 companies, employs more than 75,000 people and has a turnover in excess of €24,000M. Among the most significant occurrences in this area is the creation of a platform known as the Catalonia Food Network, a comprehensive project of initiatives, together with a meeting place in which the food industry can interact and make itself be known, throughout the value chain. The network prioritises the internationalization of the food industry by promoting activities aimed at achieving this goal for companies working in the gourmet food sector and food service companies who work with Catalans suppliers.

It also encourages efforts to generate food-related tourism: linking various elements, such as a product’s origin and

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attributes, knowledge of the territory, awareness-raising among consumers, the promotion of food-related tourism itself and the promotion of the food industry. There are plans for the creation of an office for the promotion of the shipping of food by rail, to increase the entrepreneurial capabilities of multimodal, multi-client transport.

2. Chemical, energy and raw material industries

This sector groups together four main areas: chemicals, energy, water and materials (whether raw or waste). Although at first glance it may seem a very diverse area, all of these activities share the fact that they provide the resources (often scarce in Catalonia) necessary for industry to operate efficiently and have an important environmental component. This sector has a turnover in excess of â‚Ź27,000M and employs around 50,000 people.

The main activities of the strategy will focus on promoting Catalonia as southern Europe’s chemical hub by highlighting the excellence of the chemical industry based in Catalonia as a means to facilitate exports and attract foreign investment. With regard to internationalization, there is a plan in place to establish an antenna in every sector to detect opportunities, increase participation in specialized international fairs, promote reinvestment and expansion by multinationals already

here and launch an international space in which Catalan companies can display their international technological capabilities. In this area the need to promote a green, circular economy is of particular importance.

The aim is for industry to regain its place as one of the main drivers of economic growth 3. Industrial systems

The program takes into account companies engaged in developing and supplying systems for industries, of whichever sector, in order that they function efficiently. Basically, the core of the value chain includes manufacturers of machinery and equipment, both mechanical and electrical, known as OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers).

The core of the value chain thrives on primary and secondary level (TIER1 and TIER2) providers, of components and systems. This sector is comprised of approximately 5,600 companies, employ some 68,000 people and has a turnover of â‚Ź10,000M. In the field of internationalization we ought to establish concrete initiatives to maximize the potential for the internationalization of businesses, together with stakeholders. It also prioritizes the increased business dimension Catalan International View

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by encouraging concrete initiatives to maximize the potential of companies in the sector to reach the size and capacity necessary to meet the current and future challenges of the market. Such actions require collaboration with the existing scientific and technological agents to have an impact on the technological development of manufacturing companies; to promote a system of advanced manufacturing, including the development of new materials, additive manufacturing and logistical challenges, efficiency and sustainability in manufacturing processes and ICT for industrial environments and advanced materials.

The initiative aims to boost public and private leadership, centred on small and medium enterprises in Catalonia

4. Design industries

This sector of the economy includes all those areas of business, one way or another, which share the fundamental need to manage design efficiently.

It mainly includes two major sectors: fashion and household design. In both cases, design and production are seen as important business activities, since they are increasingly interrelated. There are companies with channel marketing strategies (stores), others with product marketing and others with mixed strategies (product marketing with stores).

It is an area with 6,500 companies accounting for a turnover of â‚Ź17,800M and which employs 70,000 people.

Barcelona Style Network will work to bring together the major Catalan organizations and companies working in the fashion and household design sectors in order to generate collaborative projects between companies in both industries. With respect to international 76

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marketing and attracting investment in the productive capacities of the fashion industry, the goal is to position Catalonia and Barcelona as leaders in productdesign and technology and leaders in international fashion, both for the international promotion of Catalan fashion and to attract investment that strengthens the sector’s productive capacities.

5. Sustainable mobility industries

This sector includes manufacturing materials for the transport of people and goods by land, with an emphasis on those aspects which ensure mobility which is more sustainable and connected. For this reason, the first level includes the transport industry, i.e. manufacturers of cars, trains, motorcycles and light vehicles, together with their suppliers. A second level includes all the companies that provide mobility services, transportation companies, messaging, waste collection and others. A sustainable approach to mobility should also involve a third level of companies engaged in the energy field, whether suppliers of energy, electrical equipment or others.

Finally, the area is defined by a fourth level of infrastructure and communications companies related to mobility, whether in regard to its generation or its management. Some of these companies may also service the aerospace and shipbuilding industries. It is an area with a turnover of â‚Ź42,000M which employs 188,000 people.

A highlight in this sector is the manufacturing consortium of an electric bike which concentrated in Catalonia the production capabilities to manufacture an electric scooter aimed at urban mobility, at an affordable price and able to compete with conventional products currently on the market. It has the backing of the Mobility Industries Tech Hub of Catalonia for the international projection of Catalonia as a technology hub for mobility through

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making the most of the participants and the business networks in this sector. The strategy is aimed at improving the efficiency of technology transfer to local and international industry.

6. Health and life sciences industries

In addition to a significant pharmaceutical industry, Catalonia has a unique model of hospital research which is internationally recognized, with health research institutes based around large hospitals, thus ensuring the transfer of scientific knowledge to clinical practice and giving a key role to the hospital sector as a driving force behind innovation in pharmaceuticals and medical technologies. Catalonia is highly valued as a location in which to conduct clinical trials. In addition, in the field of biotechnology, it is worth noting that Catalonia’s BioRegion is an example of international success; it is a first-class biomedical infrastructure with highly-qualified professionals. It employs 78,000 individuals, with a turnover exceeding ₏20,000M. These figures account for the size and influence of this industrial sector.

The main actions of foreign promotion, international events and internationalization are the creation of Catalonia Life Science, a framework for joint overseas promotion efforts to optimize and increase the impact of the sector on the international scene. Also the participation of stakeholders in trade missions, fairs and collective actions, and the enabling of government offices to open new avenues of business collaboration in science and high tech content, as well as identifying opportunities and trends in foreign markets. It its worth highlighting the creation of the Barcelona Clinical Trials Platform to bring together existing capabilities in clinical trials, create a coordinated platform, attract world-class research projects and

position Catalonia among the top five leading European environments.

7. Cultural industries, based on experience

This area encompasses three major sectors with a strong presence, competitive advantages and leading companies in Catalonia: cultural and communication industries, tourism services and the sports sector, which have the shared characteristic of providing experiences to their customers/users as a key factor. Cultural and communication industries also include services aimed at functional creativity which is aimed more at other businesses (B2B). The sector has 62,000 active companies, accounting for a turnover of â‚Ź24,000M, and employs 300,000 people.

The Experience Network aims to strengthen the role of experience in Catalonia through a public network that serves to foster collaboration between public officials and private companies. It will organize workshops to connect companies with business stakeholders and develop joint transversal projects. It will also develop a range of events built around major international events in Catalonia (such as the car and motorbike Grand Prix, Sonar and Primavera Sound).

This area is expected to generate synergies and efficiencies in the tourism sector in Catalonia through the introduction of cluster networking.

Outlook for 2020

The industrial strategy in Catalonia is progressing towards ensuring that industrial output accounts for 25% of GDP by 2020. The aim is to once again ensure that industry is one of the main engines of economic development in the framework of a political process which places Catalonia as a first-class player on the European and international scene.

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Josep Maria Sert: murals for history

Josep Maria Sert (1874-1945) is one of the most prolific Catalan artists of all time and one can find examples of his works, especially murals, all over the world. Born into a family of textile manufacturers, ennobled creators of tapestry and carpets, Sert took up art from an early age. He studied at the Escola d’Arts i Oficis de la Llotja in Barcelona besides several private art schools.

In 1889 Sert moved to Paris, where he came into contact with the Nabi group and Maurice Denis in particular; Here he gained his first taste of success with a commission from the decorator S. Bing for some decorative panels for the pavilion that his establishment, Art Nouveau, was putting on at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle. That same year he was commissioned to decorate Vic cathedral. Sert undertook a journey to Italy that summer to see great murals at first hand. From then onwards, Sert travelled incessantly between Barcelona and Paris, as well as numerous places around the world where his services were required.

During the First World War, Sert served as an intermediary between the

French state and the Catalan manufacturers that supplied equipment to the allied forces. A service for which he was awarded the Legion of Honor. He later became cultural attachĂŠ to the arts at the Spanish embassy in Paris.

During the Spanish Civil War, Sert was one of those charged with safeguarding the works of art from the Prado, which were subsequently handed over to the League of Nations in Geneva for safekeeping.

His own style, a unique style

Sert developed his own style, far removed from the avant-garde of the time. As a result, his work failed to exert a special influence on the art of the period. He was inspired by Mannerist Catalan International View

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and Baroque paintings, especially Tintoretto, Veronese and Rubens. Sert was also greatly influenced by Goya, from whom he adopted a taste for popular themes and customs.

In the 1920’s Sert aligned himself with the art deco movement, which was fashionable at the time, with its exoticism and its representation of primitive motifs. In the 1930s Sert’s work was inspired by Mediterranean themes, executed in a neo-baroque style. Towards the end of his life, his work focused primarily on the representation of the human figure and was largely devoid of any decorative background.

The monumental style of Sert’s work is further emphasized by its chromatic evolution, which resulted in a tendency for the colour gold to predominate. He 80

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employed a limited chromatic range: golds, ochres, toasted earth with touches of carmine, using a rich preparation of metal, silver and gold-leaf as a background. Sert liked the colours of metallic brightness, as found in daguerreotypes.

He composed architectural elements on a slant, which served to give a sense of depth and breadth. Sert’s creative process began with the making of photographic studies, sometimes with the help of numerous models.

A global work

Sert’s first major work was the neoclassical decoration of Sant Pere de Vic Cathedral (in the province of Barcelona).

It became one of the greatest works of his life and to which he devoted much of his artistic endeavour. In the area

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around Barcelona, different works stand out, such as the decorations for Barcelona’s Palace of Justice or the allegorical panels on the First World War Sert painted for the American millionaire Charles Deering’s Maricel Palace in Sitges. The highlight is the City Council’s Hall of Chronicles. Carried out in 1929, it was named after Ramon Muntaner’s chronicles which recounted the exploits of the Catalans in the East and which inspired the artist.

Outside Catalonia Sert received numerous commissions in his second home, Paris. One of his first decorative works was the music room of the Parisian residence of the princes of Polignac, followed by the dining room of the palace of the Countess of Bearne and Baron Rothschild’s hunting lodge in Chantilly.

However, Sert’s most internationally recognized works were carried out in the United States. Highlights include

his mural at the Rockefeller Center (1931-1941), with a theme exalting progress and American society; and in particular the fifteen panels for a luxurious dining room at the WaldorfAstoria in Manhattan, which thereafter has become known as the Sert Room.

Sert’s most internationally recognized works were carried out in the United States. One highlight being his mural at the Rockefeller Center.

Sert was also in charge of the decoration of the Palace of Nations Council Chamber in Geneva (1935-1936), where he depicted a series of allegories of War and Peace, the Progress of Humanity, Justice, and International Law.

The Artist

Una Pietra Sopra ‘A creator must be as hard as a stone and as delicate as a flower’ Bigas Luna 1 ‘I think of my studio as a garden, the things in it follow their natural course.

They grow, they ripen… as they ripen in my spirit. Je travaille comme un jardinier’ Joan Miró

Visiting his world without him in it, feeling the earth beneath your feet, imagining his presence and making the link between nature and his places of work, his studio in Salamó as well as the workspaces at El Virgili, his place in Camp de Tarragona, or even imagining the walks along the beach where he picked up objects returned by the sea…

In autumn I like walking along the beach with my dog Pirata… I stroll along and pick up fragments of civilization that have ended up in the sea due to human irresponsibility and which the waves return remodelled, with new shapes, more graceful and poetic.

1 Jordi Mollà, “Preface: Bigas, el rey mago de Occidente”, from Bigas Luna. Sombras de Bigas, luces de Luna

by Isabel Pisano.

Madrid, Fundación Autor (SGAE), 2001.

2 Italo Calvino, Una pietra sopra. (The Uses of Literature) Turin, Giulio Einaudi Editore, 1980.

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I have looked for all these points of shared experience to hold on to. What made the deepest impression on me was finding the tables in the garden with film scripts tied together and held down by stones. ‘The answer to everything is in the garden’ said Bigas Luna, but we also have his house with its palm trees, like Miró who thought of his studio as a garden.

This life, which changes as it advances, stores up words, dialogues and characters all subject to the passing of time after they have served their function, but they are also the

proof that time solidifies like a structure and now gives us a chance to discover new angles from which to view things. We see how words take a back seat to prioritise the image while always being a whole body that synthesises his creative approach and, in the end, what is projected is a potent image of synthesis to express his world, as happens in certain scenes from his films where words are often unnecessary.

Bigas Luna’s cinema prioritises the visual image and we can find in it parallels with his entire creative output which, in a transversal manner, greet us in any mise-en-scène. Any creative situation is of interest when we forget we are making films for film buffs, painting for consumers of art works, or writing literature for readers of novels, when what we do goes beyond the pigeonhole it is put in, perhaps as when Calvino tells us in Una pietra sopra 2 (The Uses of Literature) that the interest in a literary situation starts when we write novels for people who do not read novels.

I have not been able to distance myself from the title Calvino used when he published (from a distance in time and space) a collection of his writings to show what point they were at and to cap them with a stone.

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Also the first cover illustration for Invisible Cities was a reproduction of a painting by Magritte, going back to a stone, which, in this case was floating, suggesting unity between apparently opposite poles; consistency and fragility. Floating stones and bodies, like the canvas covers hanging in the studio, were for Bigas Luna a way of balancing fragility with hardness, while also showing the respect the writer had for fragile material in his own work. There are many ways to survive time and interpretation, but also to be transmuted as happens with the paper of the scripts that continue their process towards volume and the art work, impregnated with the natural elements like the canvas covers used in the garden… I do not know if they knew each other, but they could have shared many a meal with Bigas as host. For us there now appear two major aspects of his work; process as an essential tool, and the necessity of sharing, establishing complicity, not just with humans, as in the actors in his films, but with nature, with the earth and animals.

Nature has become my greatest collaborator.

The excitement of walking, of seeing textures in the earth, of sudden, unthinkable compositions, irregular and perfect that only nature could produce. (...) Changes in the weather, moods, are magic circles which I have become used to working with.

This is why I have decided to begin with this connection between the scripts and the canvas covers. While the volume is formed by a body created by what is closed within it, the material becomes an open creative body that houses the external accident to incorporate the work. And yes, my common theme is stone, the stones that he placed on the scripts tied with string that he left in the garden and the canvas covers he stretched over the fields, free from the passing of time. Jordi Mollà, an actor who worked with him, remembers hearing his description of what a creator should be like, ‘hard as a stone and as delicate as a flower’. As simple as returning to look at those scripts petrifying under a stone. Before 84

they do, however, the paper will have to perform an act of both resistance to and collusion with nature.

Sediments of feelings in transit…

Rain, sun, wind, animals… From the passing of time and accidents that are incorporated into the traces that transform the texture and contain a dialogue in which chance has played a part. For me, the motivation is not only getting to know his work but finding in his approach the lucidity to understand the reach of the work beyond everything that is contained in the history of art as we have been taught it.

Thresholds that allow different languages to be united and the continual championing of the importance of the process.

I prefer projects to finished works, sketches to finished drawings.

Calvino said that we function as a ‘mental cinema’ which never stops projecting images onto our interior vision. The process, images that come from different visual, written, and oral contexts are filtered through creative projects but also the unconscious. The project is all that which filters through different mental processes, but also generates itself in the creative process. In the case of Bigas Luna there is the added interest in the connections produced between the individual and the objects that surround him, as Eduard Olivella remembers when he worked as a photographer on the films from his Iberian Trilogy.

Thinking about the notebooks where he set down feelings -rough and simple notesor the pages of scripts, we also arrive at Anfang, the return to the beginning, where he selects some of the words from the contents as titles for his pieces.

I discovered the word in the book La razón fronteriza by Eugenio Trias, one of my favourite books. I liked the word and I wrote it down in one of my notes. The coincidence of the Catalan word ‘fang’, meaning ‘mud’, as an element of commencement and a symbol of origin, also caught my attention.

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Movement is life itself and he always rebelled against being pinned down. The work, devoid of cause and effect, without lineal direction, becomes a web that links ‘different times and temperatures’ such as materials and the developed images that never stop revealing to us the many others hidden below.

For the presentation in Florence of Il sesso di segni in 1996 Gabriele Perretta sited the artist in a context where everything that moves becomes the sum of written as well as audiovisual culture, demonstrating that the separation between the two universes ‘has never existed’. ... I use scripts as the basis for design, I substitute the blank page for writing and then I draw – symbols, figures; I place it all within old frames that provide contrast and become, from that moment on, part of the work.

The image is a street in movement or a garden for meeting life in silence, because art and painting come from this continual movement that causes the desire to live, the positive force, our drives. Discovering living signs, creating and giving energy.

It is a street rich in sensuality and passion, a way of knowing life. (...) Many registers depend on the state of necessity that is created during research into new forms of communication.

To create is a little like stripping off in order to put new clothes on. All creation is an experience in constant contact with everything around it; it positions man in a positive phase… Llavors (Seeds) (2004), done with earth and ink, are part of my fascination for the life force (…). For some time now they have appeared in my drawings and it is now in the garden where they take on the most meaning.

The support papers are exposed once again to the elements when he leaves them under a fig tree in the courtyard at El Virgili in Tarragona, to be later worked on in his Lactatio series. He did the first ones in Italy with the name allattatrici, characters chosen from his personal mythology, but he soon discovered various medieval icons in his own country 86

and an especial weakness for those Virgins in the cloister of Tarragona cathedral… ... In my opinion it is the most sensual, joyful and Mediterranean Virgin I have ever seen.

The connection between mother’s milk and lactation also appears in his cinema, as we can see in some of the videos from the series Las Comedias Bárbaras (The Brutish Comedies) (2003) – Allattatrices, Allattatore, Mamador Molar and Virgen Lactatio – presented within the context of one of his large multidisciplinary projects, dedicated to the work of Valle-Inclán. We can find in his drawings the recurring image of a woman with milk squirting from her breast into the sea. When he was small he had an illness which meant that milk was the only food he could tolerate.

His aunt Paulina as well as his mother (the nexus appears at random from my memories of Bigas) would open his mouth and make him drink it from a porró, or long-spouted drinking bottle, something he baulked at.

Also as a child he had his first experience of the combination of satisfaction and disappointment when his belief that women’s breasts were full of milk was destroyed. (...) women always appear offering their milk: sometimes they offer it to the Mediterranean Sea; other times they shoot it to the sky, or give it to people in need; we can even find them drinking milk from their own breasts.

The first are from 1995, presented in the Santo Ficara gallery in Florence; the next year at the Sergio Sargentini gallery in Rome, with an act by an allattatore, a man with milk coming out of his penis, or the performance at the Giulia gallery in Rome where, every day at the same time for a week, seven real allattatrice revealed their breasts and squeezed them until streams of milk came out.

Joining together desires: a present with a future

He drew a lot because drawings can be done at home or while travelling by train. The notes, day to day jottings, are a way of bring-

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ing together desires, perhaps because he sees them as ‘the only thing that is present and always has a future’. This is how these notes were conceived which always mix words ‘referencing essential things or things that are wished for or cannot be forgotten’. He began joining them together as a support on which he would later paint and, little by little, without forgetting the need for his art being portable, taped them together with artist’s tape…

The idea arose from the need to have working surfaces larger than those I used for the Cares de l’ànima [Faces of the Spirit] series, but at the same time I had to find a way of travelling and easily transporting these larger format works. Because of my work, all the artworks I produce have to be able to travel and to be folded and unfolded easily at home and in hotel rooms.

Via gesture we arrive at a single space trapped in the multiplicity of its faces, a collage of stories strung between reality and imagination. The confluence of a whole: reason, drive, idea, form, symbol… and the ‘irreplaceable vehicle’ Perejaume saw in 1989 that ‘allowed travel around a contemporary world with so many abrupt frontiers’ 3. Gesture, the fragment that -between a multitude of lost gestures- structures a line, a creative process that will finally find a place in the permanent transit of the extensive secret line of every creator.

Drawing over the pages of scripts or pages with notes is a form of recycling what for him signified desire, continuity transformation…, life does not check the flow of things and provides the possibility of living, of opening up other possibilities when everything seems to have been overcome by its own functions. It is energy that advances and is transformed in every material, the signs

and symbols that can be an eye as well as the female sex, that may refer to a first as well as a last look at the world, simultaneously both its beginning and end.

I am not interested in the mystical truth, but I am interested in the mystery and force of certain figures… I keep a lot of old scripts and pages with notes; I like to use them as the support for my drawings.

The mixing of what I write with what I paint pleases me. The fact that my writings form part of my artworks makes me feel as if I were always painting, which is what I enjoy doing most. In this way I present my life and my work as the background of my drawings.

Does he approach filmmaking in a painterly way?

Filmmaking is my medium and my way of painting.

He liked to call himself a ‘creator of time’ and his interpretations constitute a veritable assemblage inhabited by contradictions, the different narrative rhythms that provide visibility in this extraordinary cross fertilisation of painting, film, photography, writing, science, technology… Bigas Luna was interested in the alchemy of thoughts, things and events, a sense of -according to Rotelli- a determination to search for other languages.

The ‘life’ of things interests me, the energy that interacts between opposites and paradoxical situations. I believe in a certain alchemy that places it above a communicative quality, the work in the world, creating a set of interchanges, of independence between dimensions considered opposed.

The marks of duality

Day does not exist without night.

Nothing exists without its opposite, because everything functions in a binary way. When Calvino writes about the values to be preserved for the next milCatalan International View

3 Perejaume, Ludwig Jujol. Barcelona, Edicions de la Magrana, 1989.

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4 Calvino, Italo.

Lliçons americanes Six Memos for the Next Milenium).

Barcelona, Edicions 62, 2000.

5 Bigas Luna, El Virgili, 9 September 2002.

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lennium, he always starts from oppositions, twin concepts that act as copulas to help us see the world in a different way and not as a society that sets terms against each other without realising that each one progresses from the sum. He is, like Bigas Luna, in a street in movement that makes art an existential function of the search for lightness as a reaction to the weightiness of living, however, ‘we cannot admire the lightness of language if we do not admire language endowed with weightiness’ 4. Speed cannot exist without slowness; lightness needs the gravid hardness of a stone, as in the phrase remembered by Mollà combining hardness (stone) and delicateness (flower), just like the impossibility of comprehending strength without fragility.

How else would the Bigas and the Luna surface in paintings such as those from the series Cares de l’ànima [Faces of the Spirit] (1999-2004), where he manages to synchronise his dark side with his lighter one, or in videos such as Collar de moscas [Fly Necklace] (2002) which, according to him, is the best example of the very different worlds closest to his wish to integrate film, photography and painting?

The act of drawing brings to my mind certain symbols that I repeat compulsively for months until they vanish in the same way they appeared. The faces of the spirit arrive in my life at the moment the symbols for the spirit and reason, which have always been opposing, fuse together repeatedly in my mind, to later disappear.

The first ones I did were small splashes of Chinese ink in which a face would be subtly insinuated. I began to elaborate on them, including them in letters I sent to friends or notes I sent to actors during filming. Later, I stuck on leaves and things I found on my walks in the country or at the beach. Finally, the combination of these faces resulted in a good alchemy. This was how my compulsion for the faces of the spirit started.

The inescapable urge to paint, because painting makes him feel good and is the path that strengthens his interior life. He believed Catalan International View

in the existence of the spirit and with these drawings he wanted to represent graphically his own personal vision of the spiritual world…

Almost all of them were done at night, in an atmosphere of ceremony that I myself bring about when I start the process of creation. Preparing for the Faces of the Spirit is very much a ritual, a form

of meditation that always follows a procedure.

First I carefully prepare all the bits and pieces: leaves from trees, painter’s tape, twigs, inks and water. These pictures are always done in groups of biblical numbers: in threes, sevens, twelves‌ Secondly, I position the bits of vegetation on the paper, then I shape the outline of the face and later I add the eyes and mouth. Finally, I leave the faces in the exact same spot they were done

until the following day. In the morning I examine them; I gather them up and store them carefully in a drawer 5.

Even in his own name, comprising of the two families of the Bigas and the Lunas, are mixed two different, contrasting worlds, which often appear related in his films. If we read his conversations with Lucus Soler,

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The Artist

sharing stories over the dining table, which he so enjoyed, we can go deeper into the experience of freedom that occurs when uniting the countryside with technology, and discover that when he painted he needed solitude and in films he combined, as tragedy and humour are combined in his output, words and images, reason and dreams, reality and fiction, history and current events, arts such as painting and photography, the Italian neorealist look with media kitsch…

He himself tells us how these contrasts fascinated him and he always used them.

I have always been marked by duality (…) They are two different, very contrasting worlds; black and white.

6 Lucas Soler. 3 paellas con Bigas Luna.

Valencia, Fundació Municipal de Cine, Mostra de València, 2002.

7 Ramon Espelt.

Mirada al món de Bigas Luna.

Barcelona, Laertes, S.A., 1980; “Bigas y Luna”, from Bigas y Luna, Gijón, 30 Edición Festival Internacional de Cine.

8 Glòria Bosch.

Citando a Calvino.

Vic, Abril Editorial, 1993.

9 Eugenio Trias.

“Microcosmos”, Barcelona, SGAE and Galeria Metropolitana, 2001.

10 Isabel Pisano, Bigas Luna, sombras de Bigas, luces de Luna. Madrid, Fundación Autor, 2001.

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If we go further back in time, we can find in his early work a need to duplicate almost identical objects (tables, chairs…). At that time Ramon Espelt signalled ‘dualism as a basic constitutive element of his work and personality. Bigas Luna’s cinematic narrations move forward due to the tension arising from two antithetic poles between which his protagonists are obliged to act. Reality and desire (Bilbao, 1978), nature and culture (Caniche, 1979), religion as an experience and religion as speculation (Reborn, 1981), North and South as different cultures (Lola, 1986), fiction and reality (Angustia, 1987), the normal and wild sides of sex (Las edades de Lulú, 1990), or the two sides of the Spanish male alluded to in the title Jamón, jamón (1992)’ 7.

The work within a work

In an art gallery a man is looking at a painting of a cityscape, and the cityscape opens up to embrace the gallery that contains it and the man who is looking at it.

Italo Calvino The picture within a picture by Robert Doisneau that so fascinated Bigas Luna and the dilation of limits, as in Calvino’s invisible city which -joined by Poe’s protagonist - conjures up a container where opposing el-

ements coexist indefinitely, the metaphor of a box where all the future Berenices are present at the same time, entangled, mixed up and hidden 8. He who is just with he who is unjust, the narration within a narration, the city within a city, the work within a work…

While he was location scouting for the film Son de Mar (2000-2001), he wrote a note on a street in Dènia ‘as a reminder of one of Manuel Vicent’s well-known characters’ that was to become the face of the spirit of his Microcosmos project, held by the SGAE and the Fundació Autor a Catalunya in the Metropolitana gallery in Barcelona in 2001. Another journey into his inner self, asking himself the same questions as scientists do about the origin and mystery of the universe.

One day I was experimenting with a scanner and a computer. I divided up a face and enlarged one part to over two metres. I made gigantic murals from a drawing that took up no more than half a centimetre and discovered a microcosm within a microcosm and the inverse…

Each fragment was a discovery of how each part is a reflection of the whole, a process of sounding that unites the inside with the outside and lines emerging from the ambiguity to be interpreted. Each piece of material expresses the universe, as Eugenio Trias explained when reflecting on the points of life that Bigas Luna extracts from a face, ‘masks of the spirit, in the supposition (after Leibniz, who Bigas and I both admire) that everything is chock-full of souls, or potential spirits’, giving ‘expression and voice to these latent micro-worlds’ 9. An exploration that allows us to look into ourselves using minute fragments (a tiny piece of brain or a tear) with a world of suggestions, such as the eye that Isabel Pisano saw as ‘an upsidedown erupting volcano’ or ‘a maternal breast of uncertain shape without the mouth of a new-born baby’ 10.

In 2002 at the Bitforms gallery in New York this project became a new generator of stories that encouraged intervention from

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the public. Anyone could go online and choose one of the drawings from the series, select a fragment of it, enlarge it as much as they liked and then print it out. This open process of creation in producing a work became the most important thing…

It is my life. The best thing in all my work is the energy it generates, the thrill, the desire to create something. The energy the creative act produces and the energy given off by a work when viewed by someone capable of absorbing it. 11

Generator of stories

In fact the covers and the scripts we found in the garden are simply a variant on his approach to life and creation. The creative process is once again central and is identified as a generator of stories, of works that are created with the participation of others.

What does his work consist of ? He himself explained it as knowing how to listen and knowing how to tell stories.

When he was 20 painting began to be important. He visited the studios of Robert Llimós, Arranz Bravo and Bartolozzi, he took drawing classes at the Baixas school… but his artistic training left theory behind at the end of the 1960’s when he explored conceptual art. At first with artist friends from his generation (Angel Jové, Silvia Gubern, Muntadas and Miralda), interested in video art and installations; later on his trips to Italy and London. This early period showed a concern for concepts, small-scale digital formats and a desire to experiment.

For me the discovery of the world of art and creation was a time of joy, pleasure and energy.

The world is heading towards a simulacrum of seriousness that does it no good. We should approach art and knowledge from a playful, less serious perspective, something which was done at the beginning and should be reinstated. As a Chinese philosopher once said, you must rid yourself of seriousness.

In fact, from the broken tables he designed when he shared the Estudi gris [Grey Studio] with Carles Ricart to the nine broken

tables in his first solo exhibition in the Vinçon gallery in 1973, Espelt reflected not only on functional negation and distortion of appearances, by use of plastic imitating marble, but on the fact of anticipating a way of questioning the audience of the provocative action of Els Comediants, which was also applicable to some films. Ràfols Casamada observed at the time how ‘the objects on display are masked by the action, the actors do not allow, or make psychologically difficult, concentrated attention on the objects.

This, naturally, creates a sense of unease in the viewer’ 12. His broken table in homage to Duchamp purchased by Dalí and on show in the Mae West room of the Dalí Museum in Figueres is from this period, as well as video montages such as Cadires [Chairs] (1974).

It may seem a stretch to go from here to his dinners in the 21st century, but this time I want to transform the table that he so often shared in one way or another -with connotations that are different from those of his early work- and, as the residue of a whole experience of life, position it in a place that allows us to consume our visual Bigas Luna with a mix of personal elements that lead us into his world. When we look at his filmmaking, the people he worked with had to be the same ones he could share a meal with, so it comes as no surprise that his favourite line from the history of cinema was, Mangia mangia que ti farà bene.

Around a table there should be a maximum of 12 people and if it is for a celebration, there should be one side with no one sitting there, facing the brightest area or the most representative part of the place or room. This arrangement, as in the Last Supper, allows the food to be easily seen, it is more comfortable for the person who is the host and for the person serving the food.

To revise rituals and symbols to do with food so as to ‘enhance the sensuality that the act of eating can bring’, but also to sit with diners at a table and, as a ritual, recount stories. In his project Ingestum (2008) three essential fluids converge: blood (motor of life),

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11 Interview with Ángel Harguindey.

Valencia, Cuadernos del IVAM, 2007.

12 Albert Ràfols Casamada, op. cit., p7.

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milk (virgin lactation) and water (remedy).

To look for this harmony via the senses and return to the origin of the human being, to a fusion connected with the words of Luca Beatrice on the desire to ‘cancel the collision course between nature and culture’ 13.

All the symbols he uses are a reflection of this return to the land: breastfeeding and eroticism, setting up the ritual of eating, eating with all the senses and digesting. His entire philosophy is synthesised in Ingestum, with food as one of the central elements of Mediterranean culture, but always as a process of learning about these origins that connect us with the land. Among his rituals, food as the symbol that unites us all around a table, as in the supper for 12 people where he introduces a poetic that includes biological products made by artisans and local producers as well as the cultural characteristics of a place. For him, lovers of the land are always ‘bioneers’…

Ingestum appeared in my life thanks to a series of meetings, discoveries and reflections that revealed in me a desire to return to the land, our origins, a respect for our food and those who care for it. (...) a work in progress that aims to show the energy of a project and inspire other works where boundaries disappear and art, science, biology, medicine and gastronomy unite, mix and cross fertilise.

Art can and must be in everything

13 Luca Beatrice.

“El sabor de la luna”, from Bigas Luna. Ninots. Turin, Marena Rooms Gallery Contemporary Art, 2009.

14 Roberta Bosco.

Bigas Luna + Paolo Maggis. Bioners.

Carlo Cambi Editore, 2012.

15 Pere Soldevila, op. cit, p14.

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Live to tear down limits, to mix everything and so that art ‘can and must be in everything’: the land, what is valid from the past, roots and the return to origins, new technologies, biology… in a process that is nothing more than life itself.

Reviving traditions is essential; preserving those that work interests me. (...) New technology interests me greatly and I believe it is greatly improving the work of man, but I believe it is also fundamental to return to the land.

An example of interdisciplinary work that supports this idea is the series Els Ninots [The Dolls] (2007), another transforma-

tion in his work that started as sketches for ideas, original drawings, treated with digital printing techniques – as he had done with the 2004 series Llavors [Seeds] – but with a further mutation added the moment they became characters in his films. There is always this sense of work in progress, the energy that every project generates and which, when it seems spent, continues its transit.

The reading of any work is incomplete or limited if we fail to understand the unitary process of the work, the confluence of painter, draughtsman, designer, photographer, sculptor, writer, collector, filmmaker…

The plurality and confluence of different elements favours strange alchemies. (...) it is an artistic and human experience. (...) There is a tendency to value the result, the price and the opinion of the audience, but without doubt the most important thing about a work is the process of its making.

In the words of Roberta Bosco, ‘a place to think, create, to live’ 14 was made in the two poultry sheds which were converted into creative spaces in collaboration with Pere Soldevila 15, who had been at his side since 1997. Under the name Bioners all kinds of cultural activities were promoted with the aim of finding a balance between the use of technology, the immediacy of communication, and the isolation produced by a hidden-away place where nature, art and energy are combined.

Bioners has no structure, no rules, nor even any strategy. It is a question of energy, of a mix of creative, cultural and didactic energy with great potential for fun…

Touching the image, testing life

The early photographic exhibitions, such as 200 Polaroid in the Vinçon gallery in 1976, came out of the conceptual world and domestic technology. With this system he caught the moment and was able to ‘touch’ the images, feel attraction for ‘the energy interleaved between opposites and paradoxical situations’, but especially the direct relation

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that produces the desire to touch…

I have always wanted to ‘touch’ images (…). In a certain sense it means ‘testing’ life again, its possible depth, its force. (...) When I worked as a designer and painter I could touch what I made.

When I started working in film, ‘I could not touch my films’ and my fetishist instinct and my love for objects felt abandoned. Photography has been my salvation, it has given me everything I needed. A marvellous therapy that allows me to fix time and spaces, look at them, touch them. An indispensable complement to my work.

These photographs that go from a general shot to a close-up, remind us of what he did later starting with Cares de l’ànima and with the Microcosmos project. From a panoramic view he goes to a writing system of images that borders once again on collage, to the constant integration of an indivisible whole.

The series of slides taken in 1964 and manipulated by him in 2012, A fior di pelle, becomes a synthesis of this transformation of the character in a scene in transit where the difference is marked by the passing of time.

The repetition of thought, fixing a moment from time and joining together different instants is the origin of cinema and takes him closer to the telling of a story.

My photographs were born of deep compulsions.

I take them when I am preparing and shooting a film, I never need a particular reason to take them, I have never made an effort to look for a photo; they come to me, and when that happens it is wonderful. I grab my camera, which is always ready, I stop everything, I squat down, I get up, I crouch down again and never stop shooting in all directions. (…) later my studio is filled with these photographs, which are not ready until I mount them and they are on a single support. This mounting and selection of each photograph is another magic moment: I touch, stick, compare, unstick, view, change, play with the distortions that occur between each photo and which I often deliberately cause, with the changes in light, which especially interest me for their role as witness to the time that has elapsed between each picture.

The changing limits of the body and the mind

He is interested in the tiny differences in a brief space of time, the distortions, changes in light, the anecdote, the memory, the tensions, the confrontations… For Rotelli, all these images are ‘a constellation of differences’ 16.

In the Monegros, location scouting, after taking one of those panoramic vistas, I was drawn to a small stone at my feet and going from a general shot to close-up it was an exciting and magical vision. I started to shoot with my camera all the details of the ground at my feet.

An interesting experience that influenced his painting took place in 1968 with the psychiatrist Josep Lluís Fabregas. It was a revolutionary idea for the time; a department for healing the mentally ill by using art. His role consisted of teaching drawing and helping patients produce artworks, material that would then be used to analyse their mental problems. There he discovered many hidden things that emerge clearly in drawings, and the corroboration of the idea that a mentally ill person, so brilliant from a creative point of view, when cured is not able to produce with the same energy…

One of them was that what you do with your hands, when you draw or paint, is ahead of your thinking. I mean that the expressive capacity of an artist is ahead of the intellectual process of elaboration. This is why many artists first discover their theories in their own art.

It should be pointed out, however, that the surroundings did not help at all, and that when patients returned home they wanted to be back in the hospital, and they were warned not to treat them so well because later it would be worse. There is often a tendency to associate a project that is revolutionary for its time with madness, but always, over time, things are revealed in the end and the reasons for the attack become apparent: discomfort and fierce preservation of everything at stake and, ultimately,

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16 Rotelli, Nereo.

“Creare è una ceremonia simile allo strip-tease” and “Tre domande a Gabriele Perretta partire da Bigas Luna”, from Bigas Luna a Firenze. Il sesso dei segni. Florence, Santo Ficara, 1996.

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corrupt interests (ideas, power, economics…). The always restrictive determining elements that are far removed from the quote by Zuloaga that Bigas Luna liked so much, ‘dare to do anything and go mad for everything’. (...) if you paint in an automatic or intuitive way, later you will not only understand it, but you will understand yourself through painting.

17 Hustvedt, Siri.

Los misterios del rectángulo [Mysteries of the Rectangle: Essays on Painting].

Barcelona, Circe, 2007.

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And the negative metaphors return which inject us with a divided society devoid of the ability to generate the recognition of our inner completeness. Instead of searching for a balance between the body and the mind, they are separated, and this is as applicable to illness as it is to other aspects of life where it is imperative that the gaze produces creative experience. Far from this world that hems us in with limiting screens that provoke confrontation instead of opening ways of sharing concepts, that sicken the body and the mind, we have to scour the boundaries for maximum energy.

Perhaps still, often, as Siri Hustvedt says, we hear comments that make us feel inheritors of the encyclopaedist Illustration and this is as applicable to the art world as it is to history, society or politics.

The thing is to realise, as she sees it, that there is not a single parameter common to all for research and, when observing the world of Goya, she sees clearly that the represented historical facts do not explain what is, because ‘the essential element in all history is movement and change’ 17. It is not easy to break with a genetic memory that conditions our actions and understand that our own interior is the one that provides us with the key to reinvent ourselves, to go back to drawing with the invisible connections of a positive energy that allows us to access and multiply different perceptions of the world. Calvino noticed in his own literary processes that nothing is classifiCatalan International View

able, that everything escapes the pigeonhole since it can be seen and interpreted in multiple ways.

When Bigas Luna cites his most important references, the Altamira caves appear and all the basic mechanisms that are repeated throughout the cultures of all human history: things that should not be unlearnt, such as recognising the biological function and memory that is recorded in the cells of our bodies; the permanent interrelation between all the elements of nature that link us to all others; the ancestral memory that connects us to food and the way of interacting with the work, as he did when he stepped on the covers stretched out on the ground to see how they worked, to know their rhythms and await results.

And we could continue talking about his cultural links with the Renaissance, Duchamp, Buñuel, Vittorio De Sica, Warhol or Beuys, amongst others, but pride of place goes to Goya, a constant presence as a painter and as a person.

We can see him in different stages of his cinema, where actors move into and compose well-known tableaux: from the executions to the Caprichos, as well as sequences including Duelo a garrotazos in Jamón, jamón (1992), which even ventures into the mystery of the interpretation of the Maja desnuda.

Goya is an artist central to my life. In Caniche (1978) I reproduced some of his Caprichos and a picture of the Duchess of Alba… I think it was a premonition of me doing Volavérunt (1999). (...) I have produced a human portrait of him during his time in Madrid, which is the period in which he had dealings with the Duchess and the whole social set of which was a part.

Goya has had an enormous influence on me.

The mix of forms and ‘the changing limits of the body’ in the figures appearing in Goya set off a fusion of anatomies where the interior and the exterior are

fused. From the impossible line of suture that Baudelaire saw in the Caprichos, ‘this cut, this threshold or limit between one object and another (…) has become blurred (…), making his transformations appear natural since despite their supernatural aspect they are profoundly related to lived experience’. The entrances and exits of the body, the desire for food and sex, creative and sexual energy, lactation, the mouth that looks like a vagina, suspended bodies, references to the Crucifixion… Like Goya, Bigas has also played at including his presence in his photography, whether via a shadow or capturing two expressions on a single face.

Many of his symbols are related with ‘the problem of seeing and not seeing, revealing and obscuring, a fundamental drama in the story of any seduction’ 18, as Hustvedt puts it.

Bigas Luna’s preoccupation with the human contradiction draws him to those thresholds where light and emotional perspectives join the shadows to recover an essence. We can see then that the presence of Goya was hugely important in his life and, surely, he would have enthusiastically applauded the speech he gave in 1792 at the Real Academia de San Fernando, when he avowed that there are no rules to be followed in painting. The oppression or servile obligation of making everyone study or follow a single path is a great impediment for the young people who practice this most difficult art’. His interest in presenting himself as an artist of the moment meant that scenes of lived experience were increasingly important and, in 1796, the irony that distanced him from prescribed genres or commissions, without any restrictions on the imagination was, according to Hustvedt, the illness.

More by Bigas and more by Luna

Accepting the nature of bio and trans, that there are new ways of thinking and living, that every discipline crosses into many others, that things cannot now be separated into watertight compartments, as Ángel Kalenberg put it 19, the dissolving of genres is a

fact in which everything interacts to show up the problems of our age.

‘We always go hunting for something hidden’, noted Calvino, ‘or that is only potential, hypothetical, and we follow the trails that appear on the surface of the ground’.

Everything occurs in order to open up new and old paths for exploration, to transform the image we have of things and escape from a petrified world, from the ties that bind us to convention and constraints. The only option is the movement and the energy of an intelligence capable of unblocking, deprogramming and reinventing, to make possible the invisible connections and correspondences between different disciplines.

Like Kapuscinski, without any concerns about whether he was working on journalism or a novel, who gave us multiple variants and registers of language, we prefer to trap the many characters that exist in ourselves so that they may strengthen each other, with the aim of generating more stories by Bigas and more by Luna.

18 Siri Hustvedt, op. cit., p17.

19 Ángel Kalenberg from the catalogue for the exhibition Ingestum, p.77.

Valencia, IVAM, 2008.

Glòria Bosch (Camp de Tarragona - Barcelona, 28 August 2014 - 18 March 2015)

An exhibition on Bigas Luna can be seen at:

Fundació Vila Casas Museu Can Framis

Carrer Roc Boronat 116-126. 08018 Barcelona

Until December 20th

Other sources consulted Angulo Barturen, Javier. El poderoso influjo de “Jamón, jamón”. Madrid, El tercer nombre, S.A., 2007.

Bigas Luna, “Cares de l’ànima” in Bigas Luna. Cares de l’ànima, Valencia, sala Estudi general, La Nau, Universitat de Valencia, 2004.

Canals, Cuca; Bigas Luna. Retratos Ibéricos. Barcelona, Lunwerg, 1994.

Fantoni Minnella, Maurizio. Bigas Luna, Rome, Gremese Editore, 2000.

Sánchez, Alberto. Bigas Luna. La fiesta de las imágenes. Huesca, Festival de Cine de Huesca, 1999.

Various authors. Ingestum. Valencia, IVAM, 2008.

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The impossibility of the gaze.

A conversation with Jordi Fulla.

by Natàlia Chocarro, Head of Press and Communication and Deputy Art Director for the Fundació Vila Casas

“Thresholds to a fixed point in a world that turns” is the latest artistic venture by Jordi Fulla (Igualada, 1967), as part of the Fundació Vila Casas’ programme Itiner’ART. His work maps out the stone architecture of rural landscapes found in the Mediterranean basin in various exhibitions held throughout the region. Known as cabanes de pedra seca or dry-stone huts, these examples of ancestral architecture act as sites of communion between the land and the sky, placing man at a fixed point from which to view the universe.

On the occasion of your exhibition at the Espai Volart in 2011, you wrote that the root of memory is found in childhood, a place to which we always return, because it is where all those unopened boxes that inhabit our subconscious, are to be found.

These boxes, the drawers to which Bergson alludes, present themselves as intimate spaces that allow you to recompose lost worlds which, thanks to a combination of seemingly disconnected specific facts, emerge timidly to the surface. This moment is revealed to you as something magical and makes you realise that everything is intimately related. Since that school drawing, which you’ve kept, of a little yellow chicken, the one you had to colour in, without going over the lines, in coloured pencils, lines which you traversed in the search, even then, for a concept of space, to the current dry-stone constructions, where you also confront a concept of the cosmos.

What pathway have you followed?

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The path I’ve followed has always been a tentative one, –and in fact that’s the way I like it, I really like the image of the blind man’s cane, that never stops probing the limits of the air, of the atmosphere.

When I lived in Paris, aside from painting I also wrote, and curiously this really helped to outline the visual journey I have undertaken over the last 25 years. The text Batôn d’aveugle [White cane] dates from then, and I also put on two exhibitions at that time, “Une chambre pour un seul aveugle I, II” [A room for one sole blind man I, II], that marked a turning-point for ever more in my work, timidly proposing the beginning of something. The image that pinpointed everything in those exhibitions was the photograph I took of an isolated, three-storey house, all boarded up, in the centre of Paris (Rue de Fourcy). It enthralled me and I went to look

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at it often. I liked the idea of that closed container and imagined it as the dark room of a blind man, who seeks pure and real images within himself. A few years after that project, and that photograph, the building was knocked down, and conserving the garden, a building was built in the same place and of the same size. A building with no windows, once again a container, which since then has been the Maison Européenne de la Photographie. Curious coincidences, the poetics of the construction of thought…

I’ve always believed that reality doesn’t exist, that it’s visible only in those moments when interferences are produced.

There, in the Rue de Fourcy, a permanently closed building, a space without light, the blind man’s room… opened my eyes to investigating the impossibility of ever seeing reality, of touching it, believing it. I understood that we could 98

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only ever move forward tentatively, like the blind man, as in a painting, where you rarely manage to come even close to caressing your objectives.

I’ve never dared to enter the Maison Européenne de la Photographie; I won’t find reality in there. I, myself, would divide these little boxes of our interior between those that configure us in childhood (the root) and those that autonomously contain the gazes, interferences, and words that have arisen during our journey, that are awaiting reorganisation.

The processes of introspection are, in this sense, tools of knowledge that enable us to confront the anxiety of existence. The body as a container of particles of memories, dispersed in our interior; the stone hut as a receptive chamber for the positing of time.

The exhibition “Thresholds to a fixed point

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in a world that turns” stems f rom a specific type of construction whereby storage and shelter, aside from their functional purpose, become catalysing elements for space and time. These architectures understood as intimate habitats make it possible to establish a transposition of what is human: in the words of Gaston Bachelard in the Poetics of Space, the walls behind which we take shelter form a space for the human soul. Beyond the constructive rationality, the house is the scenario that propitiates our dream states where we project a space of refuge, isolation, reflection… In previous works you expressed the idea of intimacy through a total symbiosis of the tangible and immaterial world, in which you embrace endeavouring, perhaps, to understand what our place is in the world.

Yes, for me this sort of four walls, construction, or container, is vital; I un-

derstand it as the closest thing to what would be our skin. I don’t think our body has a frontier in our own skin; the atmosphere that surrounds us is charged with everything we give off, and everything that of which we are made. The construction of this personal cabin, as far as I understand it, is necessary not to protect us so much as to mark out a space of reflection, because it’s impossible to understand the universe from the outside... we’re just too insignificant. Artists have different characteristics, I’m the kind that’s inside the studio; from there I can better perceive the movement of ideas. As you know I have three studios in different places, for different moments, and different propositions. It’s a perpetual obsession of mine to construct the ideal space, I always find myself imagining building the definitive space.

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Looking back over your career I found out that in the 90s you elaborated a series around cabins, and with a nod towards the American artist Jackson Pollock, you named it “La cabana de Jackson”. We probably ought to link this piece as well to the commission you received when you were still a student, which led you to scout the Catalan territory, defining popular names for elements in the landscape and all those, often abandoned, rural constructions, which emanate from the earth and seem to form part of the territory itself.

Yes, that job, quite unconnected from my artistic praxis enabled me to wander for a time through an environment that for me was unknown. Where I needed to scrutinize with exactitude the whole landscape from very specific places, and obviously, gazes, images and thoughts are left from all this. Later on, I began to mentally link these constructions that had inspired mystery in me and which I’d seen distributed across the country, with the refuges where artists unfurl their soliloquy. Hence the reference to Jackson Pollock and his wood cabin separated from the house, where he shut himself in to paint, far from the world and from himself. But all that work I was doing during the first half of the 90s came to an end. It is at precisely that moment when the most important change in my work occurs, a shift from the materiality of paint to an absence of gesture, a sort of suspended time of seemingly anonymous manufacture.

It was years later when I decided my objective was to confront this relationship between thought and space, between landscape and painting, within this metaphor of the threshold. I like this point where it’s not clear if the painting is the landscape or the landscape is the painting. And this way of painting as if constructing the hut, brings me extraordinary knowledge and understanding.

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The suspension of time, a necessary requirement for your work that is simultaneously constituted out of the process of construction of rural architecture, and the elaboration of a painting. This contemplation, on the other hand, also demands a predisposition to lose oneself in the instant, just as the stone hut, understood as a refuge for the soul, invites the individual to become aware of the passing of time. A form of evasion? Just when it seems our time is throwing us into an unforgivable annihilation, when this notion of the experience of time seems to enter into dispute with the cult of immediacy, your work rebels and suggests a new relationship with spacetime coordinates.

I have nothing against immediacy, it forms part of the experience of time.

Today undoubtedly, immediacy allows us to understand better the suspended time I’m talking about. I personally believe that immediacy (the true aim of developed Western society) forms an inevitable part of our temperament: we want to have, and know, everything right this instant! The frustration of this impossibility offers us a residual margin for observation, and this is a huge source of inspiration. Everything is found around the margins of this ever so fine line along which we travel.

The drawings and large format paintings, contemplated in this exhibition, are tinged with a mysterious patina that situates us halfway between painting and photography. It’s a constant in your work to establish this game of gazes that creates a tension of opposites: nature-artifice, absence-presence, real-imaginary...

What interests me about an image is everything that isn’t actually present: the contradiction between what we see and what is actually there. I’m interested in conflicts of perception. As I mentioned earlier, the journey is a tentative one and this process of trial and error provokes

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tensions that are, ultimately, the driving force behind my work. I’m not concerned with whether the images pertain to a world related to reality or a world closer to abstraction. I prefer to maintain myself closer to a leap in the dark, perceiving what is articulated by experimenting with things that are quite simply happening right in front of one’s nose.

You situate yourself in this privileged threshold that enables you to glimpse everything that often escapes our field of vision, impossibilities arising from the blindness of the gaze. From this viewpoint, the painter, as Lyotard writes, makes us see something that can’t be seen. Do you want us to become aware of absence?

The way you’ve formulated the question I find myself obliged to start by saying that I don’t believe the painter or artist is capable of interfering with the spectator’s consciousness, nor do I believe

they should. I believe the experience of painting is a personal and intimate question, a situation as you rightly suggest that is a sort of threshold from where things can be marked out in the need to understand. I carry on creating simply out of personal necessity. I have always thought art is a sort of system of communication but now I’ve realised it’s not the case. The traces artists leave behind, I think, are undoubtedly more relevant after the event, in the future…

It’s clear that I say this under the supposition that something (some trace) has been left and/or has been there at some point.

Returning however to the question, I endeavour, for myself, to become aware of a certain state of absence, of emptiness, of no-place. This perhaps explains my fascination for these sorts of constructions that I imagine as a refuge for anchorites.

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During the lengthy, careful gestation process of these works you document through notes, drawings, and photographs, the singularity of these houses. You also explained to me that each and every one of these constructions maintains the same method of construction, one that stretches across different countries of the Mediterranean, over centuries. One which lets you subject them, once again, to a process of unmasking, that lets you capture the primordial essence, linking with all your previous work.

Observing and annotating everything we see, that can arise through chance or from something we’ve never stopped long enough to look at, in some way you end up stripping things down out of the need to make an interpretation.

At a certain point in one’s work, it dawns on you which threads are intertwined, and which aren’t, in everything that has gone on during these years of process. For a while now I’ve found myself in this position. I have to say it’s a very intense moment because I’m tying all these threads together and I have the feeling of being able to walk in a much more conscious manner.

Conceived as an itinerant show that will unfold in different centres across Catalonia and understood as a work in progress in that, as you advance, new pathways of knowledge open up, with the incorporation of other voices, the exhibition layout in Tinglado 2 of the Port de Tarragona evidenced a formal evolution towards abstraction that allows you to situate yourself in the “Thresholds to a fixed point in a world that turns”.

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It’s a process, that of the last few years, that began in a fairly simple and descriptive manner. I believed something revolved around these images I conserved in my mind and I found myself obliged to resolve the mystery. And more than ever, I wasn’t clear where this would all lead, so I decided simply to walk around, look and photograph the stone huts, and then back in the studio, with surgical precision, draw them, purely as a form of documentation. For me, this slow process of making, sitting in a chair for weeks on end and elaborating methodical drawings, that mark the passing of time, enables me to enter into a certain feeling of interior emptiness, where in a very physical manner all the parallel questions, and everything that configures the reality we don’t see, appear to me.

In fact, for me this is all an excuse to cast my eyes on a specific place, in order to begin to generate new expectations in my own path. This is why, as I’ve sometimes mentioned to you, far from being resolved or completed before the first exhibition, this project has maintained a state of permanent uncertainty, one that was initially problematic but which over time has come to be its raison d’être. The lack of concretion allows me to walk along the frontier, in the middle, through a sort of no-man’s land, between the objectives of the painting. And I’m excited in this case to see the way the interferences of the spectators are articulated by this process of unveiling certain images; images that correspond solely to a personal experience.

A Poem Curated by Enric Bou Professor in Iberian Studies, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia

TESTAMENT Quan l’hora del repòs hagi vingut per mi vull tan sols el mantell d’un tros de cel marí; vull el silenci dolç del vol de la gavina dibuixant el contorn d’una cala ben fina.

L’olivera d’argent, un xiprer més ardit i la rosa florint al bell punt de la nit.

La bandera d’oblit d’una vela ben blanca fent més neta i ardent la blancor de la tanca.

I saber-me que sóc en el redós suau un bri d’herba només de la divina pau.

TESTAMENT When the time of rest has come to me I just want a mantle made with a piece of marine sky; I want the sweet silence of the seagull’s flight Drawing the outline of a thin cove.

The silvery olive, a staunch cypress And the flowering rose in the midst of night.

The flag of neglect of a bright white sail Making cleaner and burnt the whiteness of the fence.

And knowing that in the soft refuge I am Just a blade of grass of divine peace.

(Translated by Enric Bou)

Rosa Leveroni (Barcelona, 1910-1985) was a poet and storyteller. She studied at the prestigious Escola de Bibliotecàries, where she learned classical languages and library science with prestigious teachers. There she began her close friendships and romantic relations with Carles Riba and Ferran Soldevila. Her first book of poetry was Epigrames i cançons (1938). After the war, she served as a liaison with the community of intellectuals in exile. Her second book, Presència i record (1952), included a foreword by Salvador Espriu. In 1981, she published her collected works in Poesia, with a foreword by Maria Aurèlia Capmany. Some key elements of her poetry are unrequited love, loneliness, a desire to grasp the mystery of nature and a desire to ‘return to earth’, which sees death as the only way to appease the suffering of being alive. She also wrote short stories, collected in Contes (1985), prepared by Helena Valentí along with a selection of autobiographical texts in Confessions i Quaderns íntims (1997). She also made significant contributions as a translator, with her version of T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland, and also in her translations of poems by Mariana Alcoforado, Mary E. Coleridge, Aldous Huxley, Rudyard Kipling, Katherine Mansfield and Boris Pasternak, among others.

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Editorial Board Martí Anglada Former foreign news editor at TV3 (Catalonia Television). He has been foreign correspondent in the Middle East, Italy and Great Britain (1977-1984) for the Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia and TV3’s foreign correspondent in the United States (1987-1990), Brussels and Berlin (2009-2011). He has also been an international political commentator. His books include Afers no tan estrangers [Not So Foreign Affairs] (Editorial Mina, 2008), Quatre vies per a la independència: Estònia, Letònia, Eslovàquia, Eslovènia [Four Ways To Independence: Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia] (Editorial Pòrtic, 2013) and La via alemanya [The German Way] (Brau Edicions, 2014). He was named the Government of Catalonia’s new delegate for France and Switzerland in September 2014.

Jordi Basté (Barcelona, 1965). Journalist. ​H​e worked at Catalunya R​àdio, collaborating on Joaquim Maria Puyal’s football broadcasts​(​ 1982​-​2004​)​. He also r ​ eported on basketball matches and presented ​the programs La Jornada and No ho diguis a ningú. ​Later h​e joined RAC1 radio station, where he presented the sports program​T ​ u diràs (​ 2004​-2007​)​. S ​ ince then he has been the director and presenter of the morning magazine El món a RAC1 (​ currently the leading program in Catalan radio history)​ ​ for which​​he received the Premi Nacional de Radiodifusió in 2010 and the Premi Òmnium Cultural de Comunicació​i​ n 2012. O ​ n TV, he has w ​ orked on Basquetmania and a ​ s a c​ odirector and presenter of Gol a gol for Televisió de Catalunya (2001-2003). In 2010 Basté received the Protagonistas award ​for communication and in 2011 he r ​ eceived an Ondas award ​in recognition of his distinguished career in broadcasting.

Enric Canela (Barcelona, 1949). Holds a degree in Chemistry from the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and a PhD in Chemistry, specialising in Biochemistry. He has taught at the UB since 1974, where he is currently professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and collaborates on research into intracellular communication. He also conducts research on theoretical Biochemistry and regularly publishes in scientific journals of international repute. He is a member of numerous scientific societies. Between 1991 and 1995 he was vicepresident of the Catalan Society of Biology. Between 2007 and 2009 he was president of the Circle for Knowledge. Between 2007 and 2011 he was a patron of the National Agency for Evaluation, Certification and Accreditation (ANECA) in Spain. He is currently vice-rector of Science Policy at the UB.

Salvador Cardús (Terrassa, 1954). PhD in Economics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). Visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge, Cornell University (USA) and Queen Mary College of the University of London. Currently he is professor of Sociology at the UAB and the former Dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology. He has conducted research into the sociology of religion and culture, media, nationalism and identity. His published works include, Plegar de viure [Giving Up on Life] with Joan Estruch, Saber el temps [Understanding Time], El desconcert de l’educació [The Education Puzzle], Ben educats [Well Educated] and El camí de la independència [The Road To Independence]. In the field of journalism he was the editor of the Crònica d’Ensenyament magazine (1987-1988) and was deputy editor of the Avui newspaper (1989-1991). He contributes to ARA, La Vanguardia, Diari de Terrassa and Deia newspapers. He is a member of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. www.salvadorcardus.cat

August Gil-Matamala Has been a practising lawyer since 1960, specialising in the fields of criminal and labour law. He has taken part in numerous cases in defence of those on trial for their demands in favour of people’s rights, as well as hearings before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Gil-Matamala fought the first successful case against the Spanish state for the violation of basic rights. He is a founder member of the Commission for the Defence of Individual Rights of the Col·legi d’Advocats de Barcelona [the Barcelona Bar Association] and the Catalan Association for the Defence of Human Rights, which he presided over from its foundation in 1985 to 2001. Gil-Matamala has also been president of both the Fundació Catalunya and the European Democratic Lawyers organization. In 2007, coinciding with his retirement, he received the Creu de Sant Jordi (St. George’s Cross, the highest honour awarded by the Catalan government).

Montserrat Guibernau Professor of Politics at Queen Mary College, University of London. Holds a PhD and an MA in Social and Political Theory from the University of Cambridge and a degree in Philosophy from the Universitat de Barcelona. She has taught at the universities of Warwick, Cambridge, Barcelona, the London School of Economics and the Open University. Guibernau has held visiting professorships at the universities of Edinburgh, Tampere, Pompeu Fabra, the UQAM (Quebec) and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Currently she holds a visiting fellowship at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics. Montserrat Guibernau is the author of numerous books and articles on nationalism, the nation-state, national identity, and national and ethnic minorities in the West from the perspective of global governance.

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Editorial Board

Guillem López-Casasnovas (Minorca, 1955). Holds a degree in Economics and Law from the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and a PhD in Public Economics from the University of York. He has been a lecturer at the UB, visiting scholar at the Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Sussex and at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Stanford. Since 1992 he is full professor of Economics at Barcelona’s Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), where he has been vice-rector of Economics and International Relations and dean of the School of Economics and Business Science. In 1998 he created the Economics and Health Research Centre (CRES-UPF), which he directed until 2005. In 2000 he received the Catalan Economics Society Award, in 2001 the Joan Sardà Dexeus Award and in 2008 the Ramon Llull Distinction from the Balearic government. He is a member of the Catalan Royal Academy of Medicine and distinguished member of the Economists’ Society of Catalonia. Former President of the International Health Economics Association and since 2005 a member of the Governing Board of the Spanish Central Bank. He serves on the advisory councils for Health, Economic Recovery and Catalan Research of the Government of Catalonia.

Manuel Manonelles A political scientist specialised in international relations and human rights, he has been Director General for Multilateral and European Affairs of the Catalan Government since June 2014; a position he combines with that of associate professor of International Relations at the University Ramon Llull (Barcelona). Member of the Steering Committee of the Jean Monnet Centre of European Excellence on ‘Intercultural Dialogue, Human Rights and Multi-level Governance’ located at the University of Padua (Italy), he has participated in the work of the Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development (2009-13) under the coordination of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in support of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty (2011-2). He has been special advisor to the Co-chair of the UN High Level Group for the Alliance of Civilizations, as well as director of the Foundation Culture of Peace and the World Forum of Civil Society Networks (known as the Ubuntu Forum). He has been an international electoral observer and supervisor for the OSCE and the EU on many occasions, and has participated in several international intergovernmental and non-governmental processes. He is currently the Government of Catalonia’s Director General of Multilateral Affairs.

Fèlix Martí Former president of the International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs (Pax Romana), from 1975 to 1984; director of the Catalonia magazine (1987-2002), aimed at disseminating the Catalan culture around the world; director of the UNESCO centre of Catalonia (1984-2002) and subsequently its honorary president. From 1994 to 2002 he was editor of the Catalan editions of the yearly reports of the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute, L’Estat del món [The State of the World] and Signes vitals [Vital Signs]. He promoted the Declaration on Contributions by Religions to a Culture of Peace, signed by leaders of the great religious traditions in 1994. President of the Linguapax International Institute from 2001 to 2004 and its honorary president thereafter. He published his memoirs Diplomàtic sense estat [Diplomat Without a State] in 2006. His latest book is Déus desconeguts. Viatge iniciàtic a les religions de l’Orient [Unknown Gods. Journey of Initiation Through the Religions of the East], published in 2013. He was awarded the UNESCO Human Rights Medal in 1995 and the Catalan government’s Creu de Sant Jordi award in 2002.

Eva Piquer (Barcelona, 1969).Writer and cultural journalist. Works for several newspapers and magazines. Has been a lecturer at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a New York news correspondent. Won the 2002 Josep Pla prize for her novel Una victòria diferent [A Different Victory]. Also author of several books, including La noia del temps [The Weather Girl], Alícia al país de la televisió [Alice in Television Land] and No sóc obsessiva, no sóc obsessiva, no sóc obsessiva [I’m Not Obsessive, I’m Not Obsessive, I’m Not Obsessive]. Her latest book is called La feina o la vida [Life or Work].

Ricard Planas (Girona, 1976). Journalist, art critic and cultural promoter. Studied Philology and the History of Art at the Universitat de Girona. In 1999 he founded the magazine Bonart, dedicated to the contemporary art scene in the Catalan Countries. More recently he created and directed the Catalan art fair INART in 2005 and 2006. Has worked as the curator for exhibitions by important artists such as Arranz-Bravo, Lamazares, Formiguera, Cuixart, Ansesa and Grau-Garriga. Ricard has collaborated with Ona Catalana, Catalunya Ràdio, iCatfm and Onda Rambla radio stations. Has also worked for the Diari de Girona, El Punt and El Mundo newspapers, among others.

Clara Ponsatí Professor of Economics at the University of Saint Andrews. Holds a degree in Economics from the Universitat de Barcelona, a Masters in Economics from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and a PhD from the University of Minnesota. She is a research professor and director at Institut d’Anàlisi Econòmica-C.S.I.C., affiliated faculty and research fellow at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. She has been senior researcher at C.S.I.C., associate professor and assistant professor at UAB and Postdoctoral research associate at Bell Communications Research, Morristown, NJ. She is a member of the editorial boards of The International Journal of Game Theory and The Review of Economic Design.

Arnau Queralt Holds a degree in Environmental Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and a Masters in Public Management from ESADE, the UAB and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Since October 2011, he has been the director of the Advisory Council for the Sustainable Development of Catalonia (CADS), an advisory body of the Government of Catalonia attached to its Presidential Department. Since October 2012, he has been a member of the Steering Committee of the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils (EEAC). From May 2010 to October 2011 he was secretary general of the Cercle Tecnològic de Catalunya foundation. He has been on the board of the Catalan Association of Environmental Professionals since 2004 and was its president from 2010 to 2012.

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Vicent Sanchis (Valencia, 1961). Holds a degree in Information Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. In his career as a journalist it is worth highlighting that he has worked and collaborated on many publications and with numerous publishers; he is director of El Temps magazine, and he has been director of Setze magazine, the Catalan supplement of Cambio 16, and director of the newspapers El Observador and Avui. He has also excelled as a scriptwriter and director on different TV programmes.

At present he is president of the editorial board of Avui, and vice-president of Òmnium Cultural. Vicent is also a lecturer in the Faculty of Communication Sciences at Universitat Ramon Llull in Barcelona.

Mònica Terribas (Barcelona, 1968). Holds a degree in Journalism from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Stirling (Scotland). She is a lecturer at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. From 2002 to 2008 she presented and subsequently directed the current affairs programme La nit al dia for TV3 (the Catalan public television). From 2008 to 2012 she was Director of TV3 and the following year, the CEO and editor of the newspaper Ara. Since September 2013 she has presented El matí de Catalunya Ràdio, Catalonia’s public service broadcasting flagship current affairs programme.

Montserrat Vendrell (Barcelona, 1964). Has been BIOCAT’s CEO since April 2007. As a cluster organization, BIOCAT’s goals include promoting the development of biotechnology companies and research institutions. Vendrell has been the Chairwoman of CEBR (the Council of European Bioregions) since 2012. She holds a PhD in Biology (Universitat de Barcelona), a Masters in Science Communication (UPF) and a degree in Business Administration (IESE, PDG). Before BIOCAT she was linked to the Barcelona Science Park, where she held several posts such as Scientific Director (1997-2005) and Deputy Director General (2005-2007).

Among other tasks, Dr Vendrell led the design and implementation of the Park’s Strategic Plan, as well as the organization and management of scientific activities and technological platforms. She was a member of the Steering Committee of the Park’s Biotech Incubator, and in charge of international relations.

Carles Vilarrubí (Barcelona, 1954). Businessman. He is currently Executive Vice-President of Rothschild Spain Investment Bank, specialising in key mergers and takeovers in the financial sector on an international scale. President of CVC Grupo Consejero, an equity and investment advisory firm, with a portfolio of shares in consulting and service companies from the world of communications, the media, marketing, technology and telecommunications. President of Doxa Consulting Group, independent consultants on technology, media and telecommunications, leaders in the sector and with a presence in Spain and Portugal. He is a member of the advisory board of the Catalan confederation Foment del Treball Nacional [National Employment Promotion] and patron of the Fundació Orfeó Català - Palau de la Música. He has also been a member of the governing council of ADENA WWF (World Wild Fund for Nature), and sat on the boards of the Fundación Arte y Tecnología, Fundesco and Fundación Entorno. He is vice-president of F.C Barcelona.

Vicenç Villatoro (Terrassa, 1957). Writer and journalist. Holds a degree in Information Sciences. He is director of CCCB (Barcelona’s Center for Contemporary Culture). Former president of the Ramon Trias Fargas foundation and the former director of the Institut Ramon Llull. As a journalist he has worked for numerous organizations. He was the editor of the Avui newspaper from 1993 to 1996 and head of the culture section of TV3. Between 2002 and 2004 was director general of the Catalan Radio and Television Corporation. He has contributed to a range of media companies, such as Avui, El Periódico, El País, El Temps, Catalunya Ràdio and COM ràdio. He has written a dozen novels.

Francesc de Dalmases (Director) (Barcelona, 1970). Journalist and consultant in humanitarian aid and cooperation and development. Has been president (1999-2006) of the Association of Periodicals in Catalan (APPEC); coordinator for the delegation to the Spanish state of European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages (1995-1999); coordinator for the third conference of the CONSEU (Conference of European Stateless Nations) (1999); and coordinator for the publication Europa de les Nacions (1993-1999). Has acted as a foreign expert in aid projects in such diverse locations as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mongolia, Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mexico, Guatemala, Morocco and Congo. He is a member of the Cooperation Council of the Catalan government. In 2011 he joined Barcelona’s Council’s Aid Commitee and is a board member of the Federation of Internationally Recognized Catalan Organizations.

Víctor Terradellas (Editor) (Reus, 1962). Entrepreneur and political and cultural activist. President and founder of Fundació CATmón. Editor of Catalan International View and ONGC, a magazine dedicated to political thought, solidarity, aid and international relations. Víctor has always been involved in political and social activism, both nationally and internationally. The driving force behind the Plataforma per la Sobirania [The Platform for Self-Determination] as well as being responsible for significant Catalan aid operations and international relations in such diverse locations as Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Pakistan and Kurdistan. Currently he is General Secretary of International Relations for Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya.

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