Barcelona Llibres

The Fundació Joan Brossa and Barcelona City Council have jointly published a book linked to the exhibition “Carles Santos. I ara, què?”. The publication is now available in bookshops. The book is the result of a unique work process and gives a voice to friends, colleagues and teams who worked with the musician during his career,

According to Lilianna Marín de Mas, the editorial coordinator for the book, memory and the contemporary meet in this work to start shaping the future Carles Santos archive, a resource that will offer a chance to get closer to this figure for everybody who for one reason or another never got to meet him. “With the Santos-Brossa thread (the thread of the avant-garde, of culture) we’ve produced a book and traced lines of knowledge (even friendship)”, explains Marín. “This is a collective work that has made it possible to bring together the perspectives of all those who contributed to it”, she adds. “As there’s not a performance or composition that makes into theatres or streets without a network like the the one we’ve created for this publication”.

The book includes:

• “La xarxa Santos”, a text by Ona Balló, curator of the exhibition “Carles Santos. I ara, què?”, taking a historical look at the figure of Santos and also highlighting the methodology that shapes both the exhibition and the content of the book. 
• A narrative about the process of research and documentation based around the figure Carles Santos, by Elena Lasala. The text works as a diary about specific pieces found during the documentation process. This intimate yet technical vision brings us closer to Santos in a certain way, highlighting the importance of documentary processes and the tasks of archivists that are often made invisible.
• The text “Bubujajararaloloz”, by Lluís Nacenta, curator of the Inaudit music festival, part of the Primavera Santos programme, explains to us the experience of understanding Carles Santos from a distance, through music.
• “El jo i Carles Santos”, by the pianist and film scriptwriter Núria Roura, explains what it is like today to sit at a piano and perform the work of Santos while recovering the line between music and his audiovisual world with directors such as Pere Portabella.
• “El plaer de sentir estranyesa”, by the philologist in Hispanic studies and doctor in performance, theatre and film, Jolanta Rękawek, , is a text which guides us through Santos’ most stage-oriented side and gives us an account of the importance of the exuberance and innovative avant-garde of his stage presence in the world of performing arts.
• Images from the exhibition “Carles Santos. I ara, què?”.
• The voices from the Santos network -in specific texts and conventional passages- lace the book with a close-up narrative of the artist.
• A biographical work looking at the life and main works of Carles Santos.

Presentació a la Fundació Joan Brossa

The book is being launched at theCentre de les Arts Lliures at the Fundació Joan Brossa on Wednesday, 3 July, at 6 pm. Taking part will be the director of Visual and Textual Arts at the institute, Maria Canelles; Ona Balló and Elena Lasal, curator and documentalist for the exhibition respectively, and Alba Font, the designer of the publication.