At the end of the XIX century, a new awareness crystallized, which essentially was nothing else but modernity.
Technology, now the digital industry, keeps being the key for our business world
The modern personality of Barcelona was projected in its town planning and architecture, and it was based on the creation of an economic world similar to the one in industrialized European cities, as well as in the resulting creation of an ambitious bourgeoisie community and an organized working class.
The Universal Exhibition of 1888 made Barcelona an international and Cosmopolitan city. And once our city experienced that feeling, it could not imagine itself in any other way. The modern spirit of Barcelona was also consolidated in its faith on technology, that in those times, were the means of transport and the industrialization process.
Society was changed thanks to a leading economy and to the exhibition of a certain aesthetic taste. The money from the textile industry was mainly invested in works of art and architectonic projects. The assignments’ wealth gave work to architects and local painters, which were able to develop their creativity freely.
The Liceu, a theater larger than Scala de Milán, was the paradigm of the Catalonian ambition, fully comparable to the European one. A bourgeoisie which was strict with the opera repertoire but which, above all, turned the opera nights into an important social interaction forum.
Nowadays, the elites are the people who have the power to influence society independently from their social class
There are a lot of parallels between the society of the ends of XIX century and the present time. Despite not having reached the proper exposition from the public world, our economy keeps nowadays its strength thanks to a private action which keeps defining us. Therefore, technology, now the digital industry, keeps being the key for our business world.
The classic bourgeoisie does no longer have a significant role in the economic world or in the definition of our aesthetic taste. Nowadays, the elites are the people who have the power to influence society independently from their social class. These people have very different profiles: digital entrepeneurs who work in Pier01, liberal professionals who develop their work successfully and a crowd of people who found the way of passing their values on to us and their way of seeing the world.
The social interactive forums have been multiplied and have gained in diversity, although they should be more structured and focused on reaching specific goals.
We come from a magnificent tradition, from a society with cosmopolitan vocation which mobilized to build a city based on modernity. It is our duty to rescue this tradition, update it and show it off
Regarding the aesthetic benchmarks and the world of culture´s impetus, there is a high conceptual spread and lack of proposals which define the present time. The social classes of higher acquisition power, unlike those of the XIX century, seem not to have enough interest in investing their money in art and architecture. This disconnection between the money world and the culture world affect current artists.
The people from Barcelona in general should live a cultural life much more intense because culture is what defines us and not having it close makes us loose our identity.
We come from a magnificent tradition, from a society with cosmopolitan vocation which mobilized to build a city based on modernity. It is our duty to rescue this tradition, update it and show it off.
View magazine: Vision 2019 [click here]
