To erect a space to preserve and project Catalan singer-songwriter music. This is the objective that Barnasants has pursued for years, and which is materialized through the demand for a facility: the Ateneu de la Cançó d'Autor. Now, the festival has taken another step in this path of vindication: it has gathered the support of six of the eight Culture ministers that the Generalitat has had in the last two decades. Ferran Mascarell, Joan Manel Tresserras, Santi Vila, Lluís Puig, Laura Borràs and Àngels Ponsa have made their support for the proposal official through an open letter, to which they do not rule out adding more adhesions.
Thus, the objective is clear: to promote a reference facility dedicated to preserving, studying, developing and projecting singer-songwriter music. And it is that the promoters conceive this space as a key infrastructure to care for musical memory, promote contemporary creation and support emerging talent, as well as reinforce the international projection of singer-songwriter music, especially Catalan and Occitan.
Given this objective, the facility must be "the big house of singer-songwriters", which can combine study with preservation, creation and also a regular and stable program, according to the founder and director of Barnasants for 30 years, Pere Camps. The Barcelona singer-songwriter cycle —now under the direction of Marçal Girbau— leads the initiative in the face of what it considers an essential facility: "It is an absolute national anomaly that the city of Barcelona does not have a center for the study, creation and exhibition of singer-songwriter music, probably the most genuine artistic genre of our country," remarks Girbau.
And it is that the origins of Catalan singer-songwriter music are deeply rooted, with a historical value that links the troubadour tradition to the present day, passing through the Nova Cançó during Franco's regime. With this proposal, the promoters are determined to put all the elements to guarantee the continuity of this cultural heritage. How? With a space that includes documentation, research, creation, exhibition and that also acts as a meeting point, with an international outlook.
All of this, in a project long demanded by the cultural and musical sector, and which began to take shape in 2020, through a study by sociologist and cultural management specialist Gemma Ponsa, under the tutelage of former councilman and doctor in Political Science Ricard Gomà. The commitment to launch the facility already gathered the support of 260 musicians at that time, through a manifesto that has continued to accumulate adhesions until exceeding 350 singer-songwriters.
1,800 square meters and 1.2 million
The commitment to this new equipment is not made in the abstract, but based on an already concrete proposal, through the Ponsa study. Specifically, the promoters advocate for launching an equipment of 1,800 square meters with an annual budget of 1.2 million euros, with a public contribution of 64%, and with civic management.To make it a reality, institutional commitment is essential, as highlighted by the promoters. Thus, they urge the City Council, Generalitat, Barcelona Provincial Council, and even the Ministry of Culture to work in a coordinated manner with the entire cultural fabric to build this project, as a bastion of singer-songwriter music and its future, and as a loudspeaker for Barcelona's role, and its singer-songwriter music, as a cultural capital of international reference.