This week, the weekend arrives earlier. With September 11, Catalonia’s National Day, falling on a Friday, the week takes on a different rhythm — and the first of the three days comes with a character of its own. The Diada will once again bring events to the streets and institutional venues, but it will also open the doors of heritage buildings and historic spaces, while music takes to the streets to mark the occasion.
After the Diada, however, there will still be two days for the city’s cultural agenda to unfold. Time to switch gears and explore everything from the vibrant paintings of José María de Aurora, who is opening the new Escat Gallery space in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, to the jazz that will once again fill the streets and squares of Gràcia. There will even be time to head to Badalona in search of the best pizza or linger until nightfall among the vintage treasures of Mercantic in Sant Cugat del Vallès.
Exploring the Diada through Barcelona’s heritage
September 11
Beyond the institutional events and demonstrations taking place across the city, September 11 is also an opportunity to visit museums, palaces and historic buildings free of charge. Several of them open their doors for the occasion, inviting visitors into spaces that, despite being part of the city’s landscape and heritage, we usually only see from the outside.
Entering the Pati dels Tarongers and climbing the Gothic staircase of the Palau de la Generalitat, visiting the Parliament, or spending some time among the collections of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya are just some of the free options available this September 11. The day also offers the chance to discover other heritage sites, from the Palau Güell, which offers free admission with advance booking, to the Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, where tickets are available at a reduced price, and the Museu d’Arqueologia. Some sites also offer a chance to revisit the history behind the Diada, such as the September 11 tour at El Born, which explores the settings of Barcelona in 1714 and the stories of the families who lived through the siege.
… and also extends through music
September 11, at 7 p.m., at Passeig de Lluís Companys
Beyond the open doors, in the street the Diada will take on another dimension: after the mobilization —organized by the ANC, Òmnium Cultural, the AMI, the Council of the Republic, Intersindical and CIEMEN and distributed in two columns, that of the present and that of the future, which will depart at 5:14 p.m. from different points of Barcelona and converge in Plaça de Catalunya—, the Diada will still have one last stop: Passeig de Lluís Companys.
It is there, next to the Arc de Triomf, where Òmnium Cultural organizes the Festa per la Llibertat (Festival for Freedom), which will extend the day with a night of free concerts. DJ Trapella will be in charge of inaugurating the program at 7 p.m., but the central moment will arrive at 9:30 p.m., with the performance of La Gossa Sorda, the headliner of the night. The Valencian group will offer its first free concert in Catalonia after ten years off the stage.
Color as a refuge in the new stage of Escat Gallery
From September 9 to October 2, at Escat Projects (L’Hospitalet de Llobregat)
SOLAZ is an old word to speak of comfort, pleasure or, simply, rest. This word is also the title with which the painter José María De Aurora (Santander, 1988) inaugurates the new space of Escat Gallery in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat. His painting is full of intense colors, shapes and contrasts that, at first glance, might seem far from any idea of calm. But it is precisely through this intensity of colors that the artist finds a way to stop, leave behind the outside noise and find a space of peace, a small solaz.
The exhibition also serves to present a new stage of Escat Gallery, the gallery founded by Pau Escat and based at Carrer Trafalgar, 47 (Barcelona), which now expands to L’Hospitalet de Llobregat with Escat Projects. The new space is born with the aim of expanding the gallery's activity beyond the conventional exhibition format and promoting research, artistic production and experimentation. In this new headquarters, there will be room for artistic projects, installations, performances, publications and collaborative proposals, but also work areas designed to foster creation.
A conventional family, a fricandó and an omelet that turns everything upside down
Until October 18, at Teatre Poliorama
A village house, a birthday, and a family lunch that begins with complete normality. In La truita, however, it's enough for one of the daughters to reject the fricandó her mother has lovingly and tenderly prepared and ask for an omelet for, little by little, the differences, reproaches, and tensions that the family has been dragging along for some time to surface.
A family made up of the parents, already past sixty, who have left the city to start a new life in a village, at the head of an organic bakery; two daughters who are first-time mothers; and a middle daughter who presents herself as the rebel, as she arrives at lunch with convictions that clash with those of the rest. She is lacto-pesco-vegetarian and does not intend to eat the veal her mother has cooked. A luxury cast, with Emma Vilarasau, Jordi Boixaderas, Sara Espígul, or Júlia Bonjoch, among others, stages the clashes between generations, convictions, and ways of understanding life that end up posing a harsh question: what weighs more, defending what we believe in or not hurting the people we love?
The voices of the women who have built the city
Until September 13, at the Museum of History of Barcelona
“History is written by the victors.” Although the authorship of this famous phrase is not known with certainty, the quote serves to understand how we approach the narrative of the past, which has often reached us from the perspective of those who held power and were able to leave a record of it. The vanquished, the conquered, and all those who have remained outside the spaces of power also form part of this narrative, even if their voices have not always been collected. Vindran les dones. 150 anys de lluites als carrers de Barcelona focuses on a part of these voices and recovers the role of women in the construction of the city.
The journey delves into a trip from the female workers and anarchists of the late 19th century to current feminisms, passing through the struggles for education, political rights, autonomy over one's own body, housing, or living conditions. Known and anonymous women appear, women who occupied the streets, entered the public sphere, or turned literature and art into tools of resistance.
Eight pizzerias and a battle for the best pizza
From September 10 to 13. Plaça Josep Tarradellas (Badalona)
What is the best pizza in Barcelona? Probably, the answer is not simple. There are so many, and so different, that to decide which one deserves the title of best, one would have to taste them all and compare them under equal conditions. Pizzas Fest proposes precisely this exercise: bringing together up to eight pizzerias in the same space so that the public can taste them and decide which one deserves to take the title. Each restaurant will present a classic pizza and a gourmet one, in a competition that will also have a professional jury.
After three editions held in Barcelona and more than 90,000 attendees, the festival moves for the first time to Badalona to expand the gastronomic map. And, between one pizza and another, the festival also offers live music, DJs, workshops and showcookings.
Gràcia lets jazz be the soundtrack of September
From September 12 to October 17, in Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia
Gràcia and jazz have understood each other for years. And this September they will meet again in Plaça de la Vila, one of the usual stages of L'Hora del Jazz – Memorial Tete Montoliu. For three Sundays, the square will host six free concerts that will bring together musicians of different generations and sensibilities from the Catalan jazz scene. The first of these concerts will be this September 13, with performances by Rai Castells Quintet and Marta Garrett Assanhado 4tet.
But jazz not only has a good synergy with Gràcia, and the 36th edition of L'Hora del Jazz, in fact, will travel beyond the city, with 17 concerts throughout Catalonia and the participation of 65 musicians.
Looking at the world from the other side of the camera
Until September 20, at Foto Colectania
Infrastructures are part of our daily lives and, yet, we almost never notice their presence. The screens that surround us, the data we generate or the networks that connect cities end up conditioning our way of life and are part of a mechanism that often remains in the background. The photographer Max de Esteban precisely starts from this background of contemporary life in the exhibition Tantas historias.Tantas preguntas, installed at Foto Colectania until September 20. More than fifty works including photographs, videos and installations try to make visible this less evident part of the world and pose a more uncomfortable question: to what extent does everything we don't see end up conditioning our lives?
This, however, is not the only photographic look at the contemporary world that Foto Colectania proposes these days, which this Thursday inaugurates the temporary exhibition Tomorrow Never Comes, Ed Templeton's first individual exhibition in Spain. For ten days, the foundation moves photography to Espai Metrònom and focuses on another aspect of modern life: young people, skaters and suburbs are part of the scenes that inspire Templeton.
From shop to shop until night falls
September 12, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Mercantic, in Sant Cugat del Vallès
Mercantic has become a reference space for lovers of antiques, decoration and objects with history, where it is difficult to find two identical pieces. The space, created in 1992 in the old ceramic factory founded by Josep Barnils in 1956, occupies more than 15,000 m² and brings together more than 100 merchants and six restaurants, open every day from Tuesday to Sunday. In addition, every Sunday the market expands with more than 50 stalls of second-hand goods, second-hand items and collectibles, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
To celebrate the return to rhythm after the summer break, Mercantic proposes a special edition that will extend the usual hours until well into the night. This Saturday, September 12, the shops, gastronomic spaces and the venue will open until 11 p.m. with music, activities and free admission.
Four days in which Tàrrega becomes the great showcase for the performing arts
From September 10 to 13, in Tàrrega (Urgell)
The performing arts rarely leave the four walls of theaters, athenaeums and civic centers. But for four days, Tàrrega makes the arts change scenery: the streets, squares and everyday spaces of the city become improvised stages for local and international theater, circus and dance companies. This is the essence of FiraTàrrega, a professional fair that has consolidated itself as one of the great showcases for the performing arts in Catalonia and even beyond.
This long weekend can be a good excuse to leave Barcelona and visit Tàrrega, which this year brings together up to 57 shows, 60% of which are free and 35% are absolute premieres.