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Inspired in Barcelona Creative Days connects local talent with iconic places
Barcelona will have an unusual route on 3 and 4 June: ten free conversations in ten different spaces for viewing the city through creativity. The first Inspired in Barcelona Creative Days aims to show what lies behind local talent in fields such as design, gastronomy, fashion, technology, video games, publishing, crafts or mobility.
The proposal does not operate like a conference confined to a single auditorium. Each talk takes place in a different venue, from the Cambra de Comerç to the Disseny Hub, Tech Barcelona, Palo Alto, La Llotja de Mar or CASA CUPRA Raval. That turns the programme into a kind of creative map of Barcelona, intended for professionals, students and curious people who want to look into sectors that do not normally intersect so much.
Genís Roca will open the programme on Wednesday 3 June at the Cambra de Comerç. Conversations will then follow, such as that of chef Oriol Castro with architect Merche Alcalà at Roca Barcelona Gallery, or Ugo Boulard's on fashion at the Disseny Hub. In the afternoon, the publishing sector will have space at Juno House with Núria Cabutí and Daniel Fernández, before the day closes with Isern Serra and Jaume Ramírez at La Casa de la Llum.
The route will continue on Thursday 4 June with names such as Toni Segarra and Félix Fernández de Castro at La Llotja de Mar. Technology will take centre stage at Tech Barcelona – Pier 07 with Cecilia MoSze Tham and Timmy Ghiurau, while video games will be addressed at Palo Alto with Xavier Carrillo and Sandra Smedegaard Mondahl.
Thursday afternoon will also look towards more material crafts. At The Social Hub Poblenou, Harriet Kjær and Freya Burgos-Kjaer will talk about craftsmanship, and the closing will take place at CASA CUPRA Raval with Francesca Sangalli and Alessandro Manetti, in a conversation about design and mobility. Registration is free but compulsory, and some sessions may fill up because of limited capacity.
The event's interest lies in bringing together sectors that often work close to one another but do not always listen to each other. Barcelona has spent years marketing itself as a creative city, but that label only makes sense when it is seen in concrete projects: restaurants that engage with architecture, designers who think about spaces, studios that combine technology and culture, or craftspeople who update traditional techniques.
For those who live in the city, Inspired in Barcelona Creative Days can be more than an agenda of talks. It is a way of entering buildings, listening to people who are setting trends and better understanding why Barcelona continues to attract talent. Not everything happens at large fairs or events closed to professionals: sometimes creativity is better understood by sitting for an hour to listen to how someone who is advancing it works.