Learning from Barcelona: Art, Real Estate and the pre-Olympic City

A dialogue between London and Barcelona.

When? 28-29 January 2011
Where? Birkbeck at Stratford - see directions from Stratford Station

A two-day workshop bringing together for the first time academics, activists and cultural practitioners from Barcelona and London to discuss how the Olympic Games have a capacity to influence the production of political culture and how, in turn, this political culture is of use and intervenes in social debates.

The project has as its horizon the 2012 Olympic Games and the discussions around the phenomenal impact that winning a bid to host the Games has on the built environment, heritage and conditions of living for the city dwellers, but also on the artistic production by and of the city. It looks particularly at how local cultural producers and activists have joined forces to call attention to and help transform the way in which local lives are being affected by these big events.

This workshop is co-organized by the Centre of Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies and the art organisation Gasworks. It is funded by the London Centre for Arts and Cultural Exchange  (LCACE) and Birkbeck’s School of Arts Research Fund.

Participants: Peter Coles, Marina Garcés, Beatriz García, Josep Maria Montaner, Zaída Muxí, María Ruido, Benedict Seymour, Iain Sinclair, Martin Slavin and Virginia Villaplana.

Organizers: Mari Paz Balibrea,  Anna Colin, Catalina Lozano, Julia Morandeira, Maria Ruido and Virginia Villaplana, with the collaboration of Cristina Garrido.

Admission free but booking essential. For more information and to book please contact Dr. Mari Paz Balibrea, m.balibrea@bbk.ac.uk