Rosa Ferré, exhibition director of the CCCB since September 2012.
Let’s begin with a little history. What was the Casa de la Caritat (House of Charity) before 1994, when it became the CCCB, the first European art center devoted to the study of cities designed as a universal phenomenon?
From the beginning of the 19th century to to 1957, the Casa de la Caritat was a charity center dispensing clothes and food to people in need. It also functioned as a training center where boys came to serve as apprentices before leaving in search of steady work. Among the largest and most profitable studios was a printing house. La Casa also had a theatre, which we were able to salvage following a long restoration process. It has been in operation since 2011, serving as a performance space for the CCCB’s programming.
The function of the CCCB has been to analyze and represent cultural, urban and historical development in urban centers like Barcelona. How is this carried out in the center’s programming?
Programming at the CCCB is reflected in its exhibitions, conferences, and other audio-visual, musical and theatrical events, as well as through the laboratory, CCCBlab. The CCCB relies on culture as a driving force behind social change, as an indispensable need for individual and communal development. This is how we conceive of the city. At the center, we work towards recognition of new “common spaces” to experiment in a cooperative and decentralized manner. Simply put, our focus is a “third culture” in which artistic creation, scientific research, and digital culture and communication coexist and interact.
Interview by Lola Fabry
Read the full article on the French version of Le Journal.
CCCB – Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona
Montalegre, 5
08001 Barcelona
Spain
