Barcelona Pensa comes with more activities than ever

 
 
Culture
(09/11/2021)

Coinciding with the UNESCO World Philosophy Day, the third Thursday of November, the eighth edition of the festival Barcelona Pensa is here. It will take place from November 15 to 19, in different places of the city of Barcelona, and it includes more than thirty free activities, which take different shapes, and which are innovative and unconventional.

 

 
 
Culture
09/11/2021

Coinciding with the UNESCO World Philosophy Day, the third Thursday of November, the eighth edition of the festival Barcelona Pensa is here. It will take place from November 15 to 19, in different places of the city of Barcelona, and it includes more than thirty free activities, which take different shapes, and which are innovative and unconventional.

 

Organized by the Faculty of Philosophy since 2014, it has become an unmissable date for philosophy lovers and it aims to disseminate this discipline in its broadest sense: take it outside the academic and bring it to the great audience. The attendees can choose to visit exhibitions, film screenings, book presentations, conferences, plays, concerts, cineforums (film showing and debate) and activities aimed et families, children and adolescents.

Maite Larrauri and Concha Roldán, important voices in this edition

For the opening and the closing ceremony of this yearʼs edition of the festival, there will be two consolidated voices of the Spanish philosophical scene: Maite Larrauri, who will focus her conference on common sense, and Concha Roldán, who will close the festival talking about the lack of women in the official history of philosophy.

COVID-19 will also be the focus of two roundtables. We can enjoy a philosophical reflection on what the pandemic has meant, with thinkers from both sides of the Atlantic. Also, Íñigo González will chair a debate on pandemics and work, by a sociologist, an economist and a philosopher.

Maria Rodó-Zárate and Florencia González Brizuela will share a roundtable with Núria Sara Miras in the activity “Feministes i interseccionalitat”. Juan Evaristo Valls Boix will explore the paths of laziness. And the lecturer Joost J. Joosten, will talk about mathematics in “Què són els nombres?”.

Literature will be present in the festival. Núria Bendicho and Arià Paco, former students of the Faculty of Philosophy, will meet in a presentation of their first novels: Terres mortes and Mentir a les mosques, respectively. Also, Stefania Fantauzzi and Salvi Turró will talk bout the translation of philosophical texts and the challenges they present.

In the dialogues and debates, the lecturer Gonçal Mayos will be part of the philosophy café “Què és bo i què és dolent en el populisme?”. The association El Globus Vermell invites us to imagine the best city ever in “Nova babilònia. De la utopia possible a les alternatives necessaries”.

Rethinking the past

There will be time to have a look at the past, and pay attention to the legacies. “Lʼesperit de les lleis” and “Qui és qui filosòfic” are two ludic activities to find biographic and daily aspects of authors such as René Descartes, Rosa Luxemburg and Simone Weil. The lecturers Marta Campdelacreu, Josep Macià, and Joan Josep MOreso will pay homage to Judith J. Thomson (1929-2020). And Carles Rius Santamaria will share the keys of the aesthetic thinking of Antoni Gaudí, at the doors of the opening of a new exhibition in MNAC.

This yearʼs ephemerides will commemorate the centenary of the birth of the Barcelona writer Carmen Laforet (1921-2004), the bicentenary of the Parisian poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), the death centenary of the North-American John Rawls (1921-2002) and the death centenary of the Galician writer Emilia Pardo Bazán. Núria Sara Miras, Carles José Mestre, Xavier Bassas and Maria Xesús Lama will introduce us to these authors.

Proposals with a unique perspective

The views of this edition will be brought by Elena Kuroda, who will exhibit the installation “Dissonàncies” during the week at the Faculty of Philosophy; Albert Calderó, who will study the relationship between memory and photography; MON:NOM, who will put music to thinking; Berta Vallribera, who present her idea of art next to the philosophy of language; and Misericòrdia Anglès, who will explore the philosophical side of la plaça dels Àngels. Moreover, Nesrin Karavar, Marga Castells and Noemí Duran Salvadó will bring to the scenario the poetry and dance of the Ottoman empire and the Al-Andalus.

Little Barcelona Pensa, for children and youngsters

To bring philosophy closer to young people and children, Grup IREF will coordinate the first meeting of Filoinstis and will resume the meeting with Filoescoles (philo-schools) to think. Jordi Beltran will organize, with schools and high-schools, the Photo-philosophy Exhibition 2021, which links ideas and images. Fèlix de Castro will be back with the group Pati Filosòfic, and the Episteme Foundation will propose a roundtable on the role of science fiction. The lecturer Xavier Massó will talk about education reforms in the presentation of the book El fin de la educación.

The festival counts on the participation of the teaching staff and students of the Faculty of Phislosophy and from other centers, as well as entities and people linked to thinking.