Presentation of the National Culture Awards: Rosa Fabregat, Núria Guiu, PEN Català, Jordi Casanovas and Càntut

The National Council of Culture and the Arts (CoNCA) has awarded the National Culture Awards to the dancer and choreographer Núria Guiu, the PEN Català writers' association, the playwright Jordi Casanovas, the Càntut cultural project and the writer Rosa Fabregat in an act of proclamation and delivery at the Fundació Miró in Barcelona.

This year the awards were presented by people with a professional bond with the winners. According to the Plenary of the CoNCA, jury of the Awards, they bring together the commitment to Catalan culture and society. He has also valued his wealth of approaches, freedom of creation and expression, both in his long careers and in his emerging talents. The winners also exemplify with their work the values of innovation, circulation of ideas and self-understanding of the complex reality of our time. They are pioneers in their field without ceasing to establish links with roots and tradition.

The event was attended by the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Pere Aragonès, the Secretary General of the Department of Culture, Jordi Foz and representatives of the cultural sector. This year, the National Culture Awards celebrate their ninetieth anniversary, evolving since 1932 when they were called the Generalitat's Literary and Musical Awards. This is the 47th edition because they were banned during the Civil War and were not resumed until 1982. by the Generalitat. Since 2020, the Plenary of the CoNCA, made up of Vinyet Panyella, Margarida Troguet, Jordi Font, Tania Safura Adam, Jaume Ayats, Salvador Casals and Núria Iceta annually recognizes five people or entities balancing criteria of gender, discipline, trajectory and territory.

Starting today, the Year of the 2022 Prize winner begins, where the figure and work of the winners will be made known through different activities around the country in order to bring them closer to the public. Photographer and artist Tanit Plana has been in charge of the official portraits. Among the most outstanding activities, there will be a documentary in homage to the National Culture Awards that will be premiered by Televisió de Catalunya, and will continue with the traveling exhibitor in libraries. The president of the CoNCA, Vinyet Panyella, inaugurated the event by emphasizing that “we are a culturally rich, diverse and plural country, with its own language that must be defended in its dignity, integrity and fullness from the vocation of universality of our culture ”and that“ the cultural and creative panorama of Catalonia today is a splendid reality thanks to tens and hundreds of people who work there from creativity and from professionalism, it is a question of prolonged trajectories in time or experiences that burst in, creating trends that soon cease to be emerging and become benchmarks ”.

Núria Guiu

The dancer and choreographer, Núria Guiu, has received the National Culture Award for her proposal of artistic language and her own code as a creator where she investigates as a choreographer the relationship of dance with the digital environment, always with a socio-anthropological perspective. A graduate of the Institut del Teatre in classical dance, she was part of IT Dansa and has since worked as a dancer in various international companies. In addition to his artistic excellence, he enjoys a great national and international projection, which has found support in various structures and festivals throughout Europe. The award was presented to her by dancer and choreographer Catherine Allard, National Dance Award 2001. In her speech, she explained that dance allowed her to reinvent herself and overcome anorexia, she added: it is vital that dance welcomes and gives voice to new languages and codes that young people use to dance. "

PEN Catalan

The Catalan PEN Writers' Association, which is celebrating its centenary this year, has received the National Culture Award for its one hundred years of continuous defense of freedom of expression and Catalan literature and language. The Catalan PEN is the third of the centers created worldwide from the call of the PEN Club, born in London in 1921, to create an international network in defense of the free circulation of ideas and freedom of expression throughout the world. It is an example of the value of creation, of solidarity and of the frank exchange between literatures and cultures in our turbulent times and a way of remembering that conflicts, censorship and violence can always find a space of peace in the letters, in the arts. Its director, Àngels Gregori, received the award on behalf of the organization and the visual artist Joan Fontcuberta, National Visual Arts Award 2011, was in charge of presenting the award. Angels Gregori thanked the Catalan PEN for the recognition, highlighting the hundred years of history of the entity, where they have firmly maintained their responsibility and commitment to the word.

Jordi Casanovas

The playwright, Jordi Casanovas, has been awarded the National Culture Prize for his proposal for documentary theater with a social and political component that has allowed him to denounce aspects of our society that we do not normally find on stage. His exercise in deconstruction in relation to Catalan society or in his capacity for self-understanding has also found applause in other parts of the world. He has written more than thirty texts and has been a promoter of projects for the dissemination of contemporary Catalan drama. A constant in his creations has been the reflection on violence and fear. The award was presented to her by playwright and screenwriter Cristina Clemente. Upon receiving the award, Casanovas emphasized that “the level of our dramaturgy is fascinating all over the world. There are more and more references to theater as a tool to shake up citizens and to break down borders. We must do everything possible so that the culture and in this case the theatrical dramaturgy are always available to everyone ”.

Singing. Songs of oral tradition

The cultural project, Càntut, has been awarded for the value of the project born in 2012 which collects and disseminates the musical heritage of oral transmission of the Girona counties, with a clear intergenerational vocation and to give value to tradition by bringing it closer to the present, as well as the success in innovation and the ability to project an often underestimated aspect of culture. Càntut has been able to build a project that has a heritage dimension in the collection of folk songs, a communicative dimension for the organization of the annual festival and other public events, which promote meeting and participation spaces, and a cultural dimension for the production of recordings that favor the creation of new references. Francesc Viladiu i Illanas and Albert Massip i Pinatella, co-responsible for the project, have received the award on behalf of the organization and the musician, researcher and disseminator of Catalan folklore, Artur Blasco, National Prize for Popular Culture 2004, has been in charge of deliver it. Albert Massip thanked for the recognition and wanted to share that “not too long ago it was sung a lot and everywhere, it was a necessity, a form of communication. Our grandparents did it normally, but today we delegated it to the professionals. We are also, in part, what we sing. It is necessary to give new life to these songs so that they can be sung again in community ”.

Rosa Fabregat

The writer, Rosa Fabregat, has received the National Culture Prize for her long literary career and cultural commitment since she began writing at the age of 14. She has cultivated mostly poetry, but also novels and essays, from innovative places for her generation, such as science fiction and feminism. His literary career is constant and prolonged, always attentive to contemporary issues, without renouncing the confrontation between reality and lyrical interpretation. He combines his literary vocation with his scientific vocation. She has a doctorate in pharmacy and was the first president of the Catalan Society of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Writer Laia Noguera presented the award. The 89-year-old writer is very grateful for the recognition of her long career. She ended her speech by exclaiming "Long live free and feminist Catalonia". Finally, the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, concluded the event by emphasizing that “the National Culture Awards granted by the CoNCA are necessary recognitions to empower citizens and to offer the tools that society needs to become truly free and, for both to promote a better country and a better society, a non-conformist society with a desire to move forward ”.