Vanessa Graell Barcelona

Barcelona

Updated Saturday, March 30, 2024-00:18

  • Weekend in Valencia Beyond the massive Fallas

  • Weekend in Barcelona Iñaki Ellakuría's plans outside of manual tourism

'Alegría', the new premiere of Cirque du Soleil

Overlooking the Bellvitge blocks (so similar to those of Carabanchel or any suburban area), in the heart of the Industrial Crossing, Cirque du Soleil has its headquarters in southern Europe: a large tent with capacity for 2,400 people in which It has already hosted world premieres such as

Luzia

in 2022. The largest circus producer in the world could have stayed in Barcelona, ​​but L'Hospitalet made it easier for them and since 2018 it has become their home in Spain. Last week Cirque du Soleil presented the new

Alegría

, its most legendary show, created in 1994 and which toured around the world for 20 years: 250 cities and more than 14 million spectators. After a decade of absence, the Canadian company has recovered it with even more spectacular numbers, the ones that take your breath away and start several

Oh my God!

before those impossible jumps -and without a safety net-, those contortions that do not seem human, those impressive fire juggles by the Samoan Jacktai Laban... All with the same Versailles elegance and the magic of the 90s. For the final number - this maybe with a net - an army of trapeze artists dressed in white literally flies: superheroes capable of defying all physical logic.

Morad's Florida, a walk through his video clips

"Because you are from the street, from the street / His manners are in his blood / (...) He wanted to be Messi, and he ended up in the police station / It was never very easy for him," Morad sings

in

MDLR

(

acronym de

mec de la rue

, street boy in French),

single

from his first album that led him to break all the charts. From La Florida to stardom, Morad sings in the neighborhood, for and with his people. And the neighborhood is always the protagonist of his video clips, with its hard squares, its benches where kids in Adidas tracksuits spend the afternoon and its cheap buildings in which hanging clothes replace the balconies that never existed. Despite the exotic nature of its name, La Florida has always been a humble district of workers: first were the Andalusians and Murcians who arrived in the 60s; Now, Pakistanis, Moroccans, Peruvians and Bolivians represent almost half of its population. And Morad is his icon, his voice.

graffiti territory

Andy Warhol as an icon of L'Hospitalet? And also in the police deposit of vehicles involved in a crime? Yes, and it sums up the city's philosophy quite well. As part of an urban art festival, local graffiti artist Uriginal painted a large mural with Warhol's face in the parking lot of stolen and confiscated cars, next to his iconic Campbell's soup can, except that he changed the brand for a BCNy L 'H, the logo of L'Hospitalet (or L'Hospi for locals). From the train from the airport to Barcelona anyone can see it briefly, among the cars with broken windows, smashed hoods or charred trunks. It is one of the many murals that the city proudly displays on its party walls, squares and tunnels. Another of the essential spots is the underground passage on Isabel la Católica Avenue, 1,000 square meters of wall that Kwets1 covered in green tones, like a suburban forest. Waves columns of the Santa Eulàlia metro transformed into

Totems

and a magnificent mural dedicated to the

blues

.

Víctor Roig vs Plato at the Arranz-Bravo Foundation

The old Tecla Sala factory complex (run by one of the great Catalan textile businesswomen) is one of the jewels of L'Hospitalet, with its beautiful industrial architecture of exposed brick, so British. Today it is an enviable cultural center, with a public library, a magnificent exhibition hall (the anthology of the Uruguayan painter Juan de Andrés is wonderful) and the Arranz-Bravo Foundation, more discreet, but in which promising young artists or artists are always discovered. of focus, like Víctor Roig (1990). His painting is absorbent, fluid and delicate. And part of the myth of Plato's cave: for the artist, painting is a shadow of reality, an artificial and ethereal reflection that returns us to an existential dimension. To return to earth, there is nothing better than crossing the street and going to the terrace of La Pradera, one of those traditional bars, deliciously authentic (and somewhat shabby), where the grandparents continue playing dominoes and the beers don't reach 2 euros. In Barcelona it would have already fallen into the hands

of hipsters

. But we will always have L'Hospitalet.