How does a chef get inspired? Where does a video game emerge from? And a new business idea? Or a brand capable of connecting with millions of people? Before any project, company, or product, there is an idea, and every idea draws from creativity. To delve into the city's creative ecosystem, the Inspired in Barcelona Creative Day initiative will approach ten creative universes, through ten conversations, in ten key spaces in the city.
The proposal invites you to explore Barcelona through its creative talent, with meetings this Wednesday and Thursday to learn how professionals from very diverse disciplines that make up the Barcelona creative ecosystem work, think, and create. Through this map of conversations, the initiative seeks to highlight the power of Barcelona's creativity, in a first edition that aims to become an annual event, as explained by the president of the Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation, Enric Jové. The foundation stems from what until a year ago was the Barcelona Centre de Disseny, which changed its name —keeping the acronym— to broaden its perspective and embrace creativity from a wider range.
From this perspective, the initiative will focus on creativity from diverse fields, through pairs of professionals that include names such as Genís Roca, a specialist in digital culture and president of Accent Obert, who will open the cycle at the Cambra de Comerç de Barcelona this Wednesday. During the same day, chef Oriol Castro and architect and designer Merche Alcalá will also converse at the Roca Barcelona Gallery, while Ugo Boulard will take over in the afternoon to explore his universe of creative fashion at the Disseny Hub Barcelona.
The publishing world will also be a protagonist of the day, in a conversation between the CEO of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, Núria Cabutí, and the president of the Gremi d'Editors de Catalunya, Daniel Fernández, at Juno House. Design could not be missing in this first edition of the initiative, which will come from the hand of Isern Serra and Jaume Ramírez, who will converse at La Casa de la Llum.
The appointment with creativity will continue on Thursday, with a meeting between publicist Toni Segarra and director and novelist Félix Fernández de Castro, who will elaborate on their perspective of creativity from the Llojta de Mar. The founder of Futuriy Systems, Cecilia MoSze Tham, and the co-founder of MidBrain, Timmy Ghiurau, will bring creativity to the field of entrepreneurship at Tech Barcelona - Pier 07, while the CEO and founder of Digital Legends, Xavier Carrillo, will star in a conversation about video games in Palo Alto with Sandra Smedegaard Mondahl, senior manager of Global Studio Strategy at IO Interactive.
Craftsmanship will also be explored from a creative perspective, with profiles as diverse as luthier Harriet Kjær, founder of the Cinc Cordes workshop in Barcelona, and anthropologist Freya Burgos-Kjaer, from The Social Hub Poblenou. The person in charge of closing this first edition of the initiative will be Francesca Sangalli, C&T Design Director at Seat-Cupra, together with Alessandro Manetti, strategic director of Kering Accademia and curator of the Barcelona Design Week, in a conversation that will link creativity and mobility from Casa Cupra Raval.
Through all of them, the initiative aims to capture the diversity and power of Barcelona's creative ecosystem, drawing a map that connects sectors and professionals. And it is that Barcelona "has been becoming a network where you find a lot of people, and it is very easy to find a lot of talent in any creative industry. And this is where everything starts to roll," according to Jové. Not only that, but some sectors enrich others, since in most cases they are not watertight compartments, but communicating vessels.
And why does this talent nest in Barcelona? Jové attributes it to a mixture of factors, which include "the Mediterranean character of the city" and a mix of cultures that can serve as a source of inspiration. "The historical background also adds up, and the city has a dimension attractive enough to live in, and a quality of life that values creative talent." And it is that, according to him, the city "has a history in the embodiment of beauty," which translates into architecture, culture and quality of life: "Anyone attracted by creativity finds a space in which to feel vitally comfortable in Barcelona."