ACCA Award for Best Magazine

The Catalan Association of Art Critics presented the 2012 ACCA awards at the MACBA auditorium on March 21st. The award for best magazine was given by the Catalan critics to bonart , which was first published in November 1999 and launched the online art newspaper bonart actualidad ( www.bonart.cat ) in early January 2012. bonart is the first art magazine in Catalan to exceed 100 issues (issue 157 was published in February 2013). It is edited by cultural manager Anna Maria Camps and art critic and cultural manager Ricard Planas, who is also the magazine's director. Josep M. Minguet, president of the ACCA, presented the awards and Albert Mercadé, a contributor to the magazine and member of the ACCA, gave a gloss on the trajectory of bonart. Albert Mercadé also presented the award to the editors and director of bonart. The evening began with a speech by Josep M. Minguet who praised the work of the awardees, while also lamenting the closure of the Can Xalant program in Mataró. Mercè Alsina, secretary of the ACCA, announced the Assembly act where the awards were voted on. The awards were then presented, with representatives of all the awardees present and also different members of the ACCA who commented on the reasons for awarding the awards. Before the presentation, the former president of the ACCA, Arnau Puig, spoke a few words. The director of bonart, Ricard Planas, in his speech, thanked the awarding of the prize, while highlighting bonart 's commitment to Catalan art. He thanked the presence of the deputy Pere Macias "who in that now distant month of November 1999 presided over the launch of the magazine" and congratulated the rest of the awardees; congratulations that he extended "to all our collaborators who with great enthusiasm and dedication have helped us develop the project". He had words of gratitude for Arnau Puig "a collaborator of bonart since day one" and also praised the work of the ACCA. In addition to bonart, awarded for "the persistent work in favor of art in Catalonia, through information, criticism, reflection and the promotion of its protagonists", the following awards were granted: Contemporary Art Exhibitions, prize for the exhibition Contemporary Maps . Drawing the mind, curated by Helena Tatay, presented at the Caixaforum between 25 July and 28 October 2012; historical research exhibitions, prize for the exhibition El Paral·lel, 1894-1939. Barcelona and the spectacle of modernity , curated by Xavier Albertí and Eduard Molner, presented at the CCCB between 26 October 2012 and 24 February 2013; Contemporary art galleries, prize for the Galeria A34 for the exhibition by Antoni Llena, Obres 1967-2012 , presented between 22 March and 19 May 2012; modern art galleries and historical research, prize for the exhibition career of the Francesc Mestre gallery; initiatives, prize for the Museum of Montserrat for its commitment to contemporary art; production and creation spaces, award for the programming of the Can Xalant space, Centre for Creation and Contemporary Thought in Mataró, for its programming over the last seven years; books, award, ex aequo, to the books by Jaume Vidal i Oliveras, Galerisme a Barcelona, 1877-2012. Discovering, defending, spreading art , published by the Barcelona City Council and the Barcelona Art Association, and to the book by Vicenç Furió, Arte y reputación. Estudios sobre el recención artístico , published by the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the University of Barcelona, the University of Girona, the University of Lleida, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, the Rovira i Virgili University and the National Museum of Art of Catalonia; heritage initiatives, award ex aequo to Cal Cego, Contemporary Art Collection, and the Museum of Catalan Modernism, in Barcelona; promotion of Catalan art abroad, award for the Dalí exhibition, curated by J. Hubert Martin, Montse Aguer, J. Michel Bouhours and Thierry Dufrêne, and presented at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris between November 21, 2012 and March 25, 2013. In the images, above, all the winners of the ACCA 2012 awards; below, Josep M. Minguet, Ricard Planas, Montse Aguer, Albert Mercadé, Arnau Puig, Gabriel Pinos, Pare Laplana, Antoni Llena and the representatives of Can Xalant, during their speech.