“The Horiginal Poetry, evicted”. The new ownership of the premises dismisses the continuity of the poetry cycle that has been taking place since 2001 and which made it a meeting point and place of worship for poetry lovers.
This was announced this Monday by the coordinators of the cycle, Laia Carbonell, Maria Sevilla and Raquel Santanera, who denounced “the late night, contempt and lack of communication with which the transfer has been carried out”, in addition to “the destruction of a space of reference that has long been part of the cultural, literary and poetic history of the 21st century in Barcelona, with the set of sculptural works and visual poetry that made it up”.
Those responsible for the cycle denounce the loss of an important cultural heritage
Ferran Garcia, who coordinated the cycle between the end of 2001 and 2019, and who had numerous sculptural pieces on display, remembers that he spoke with the new owners at the end of June and it seemed that there was some hope, but that ultimately has not been the case. “Now we have to think about a new stage of refoundation, because the work that was done has to continue,” he insists. Garcia does not want to compare this closure with the threat that the programming suffered in 2010, when the City Council sealed it off because the permits for the interior part were not in order. “That was a claim against a questionable performance of an institution, now it is the inexorable world of business,” he says resigned. I dislike it, but as much as it annoys us there is no possibility that the thing will go back.
He has been in contact with the property and has been able to keep a good part of the pieces that were there, although he regrets that some that must have gone to the trash, such as a huge metal fish that hung on a wall or some of the lights created from a bicycle wheel. Garcia understands that it is the law of the market, but he also thinks that there could have been better communication, given the long poetic history of the place.
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And it is that since its inception, under the programming and guidance of Meritxell Cucurella-Jorba, it had been a bar where poetic performances of all kinds were held, a fact that brought together many of those interested in the most restless poetry on a weekly basis, and which grew over time and under the coordination of Garcia and the poet Josep Pedrals. Many, if not all, poets of various generations have met and performed on its stage at various times.
The new establishment on Ferlandina 29, which they hope to open in mid-September, will be called 78/33 and will be the brother of two nearby bars, 33/45 (Joaquim Costa, 4) and 45/33 (Riera Alta, 4). Ignasi Partida, one of its four partners, assures that at no time have they closed the door to programming poetry, the decision had simply been left for when they were ready to open, because now they are focused on the reforms: “When it is underway, yes that we want to do new cultural activities, like concerts, and it would be possible to do poetry again”.
Many voices have risen on the networks in recent hours to lament the end of the cycle, such as Dolors Miquel (the last recital, in June, was to present one of her books), Joan Todó (she gave her first recitals here), Míriam Cano (remembering having met his best friends), Miquel Adam, Laia Malo or Marçal Font.
The coordinators assure that they have never even managed to speak with the property, and that they have the feeling that “they have not given any importance to the work we did.” They have also wanted to make it clear that in no case will they put an end to the cycle, that for the moment they will resume the recitals, provisionally, on September 13 at the Llibreria Calders – which has already hosted them on other occasions. The act will have a marked vindictive character. Beyond that, everything is yet to be defined: “We will assess where we can go, although at Calders we are very comfortable, but we also believe it is important to separate poetry from the publication of a book. At the same time, we would like to link ourselves to a place that does not eat away at and gentrify Barcelona, that is linked to the neighbourhood. But we will continue.”
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