ENGLISH HOUR

GOING NATIVE NEIL STOKES [email protected] Between form and plot

ow does moving around because I’ve been a translator. H a lot affect your work? Every Monday at 7.10 pm, El P u n t A v u i T V ’s E n g l i s h Even if you think you know a lot When I change my horizons Hour airs the interview series Going Native. This about another language you and my landscape is new, some- week, Neil speaks to the author of Pell d’armadillo don’t. The person who is the thing new comes from it. I have and Maletes perdudes, writer Jordi Puntí, who native speaker knows best. It’s writer friends who need to fol- talks about the challenges of writing novels probably easier when it is not fic- low the same rules every day, but tion but when it’s fiction you that is not my case. I sometimes have thought so much about all think this has to do with when I those sentences that it makes it was a child. Both my parents more difficult to accept. worked in a factory, so when I What about the New York left school I would go to their fac- fellowship you recently did? tory until they finished work at I’m writing a novel now about sevenish. And so I used to do my the life of a Catalan musician, homework in the factory with all Xavier Cugat. He was born in the noise of the textile machines 1900 and when he was five he and I learnt to concentrate very moved with his family to Cuba. easily, so I can write anywhere. In 1915 he travelled to the US, What’s it like to break where he eventually started a ca- through as a writer? reer as a musician, and he intro- It happens over time and you duced Latin rhythms to the US realise little by little that it is and became a huge star. So, I ap- growing. I feel that every time a plied to this fellowship that gives Neil talking to writer Jordi Puntí on El Punt Avui Televisió / ARCHIVE new translation comes out, it’s you an opportunity to work in an extra life for the novel, that the New York public library, these characters I imagined years which of course has everything ago now have an opportunity to try to do it gracefully. some skills you can learn because it is a large, well-funded stay alive and entertain and With my novel I was try- and there are many uni- institution. I spent a year there make people think. Every ing to do was to appeal to versities teaching writing, doing research and writing, and country throws up different people looking for enter- but there is a part that has the good thing is that this fellow- kinds of readers. Catalan and tainment, but also to to do with the instinct for ship is shared by 15 scholars and Spanish readers share with me a people who want to find philos- telling stories. It’s like people writers. Everyone has their own landscape and an understand- ophical points so they can think who can tell jokes, while others different project but at the same ing of what life is. But in Bulgaria about what is happening. An- can’t. time, as you are sharing the same or Australia you realise people other thing is thinking of what You have also translated space, you end up exchanging a read the novel in different ways. the reader will think. I like to novels. To do that do you experiences, recommendations, Are there formulas to pro- think that it is in its reading that have to re-write the book? advice, all kinds of things. duce a successful novel? the novel is properly finished. I have the biggest respect for How far ahead are you I never thought about a for- How do you keep all that translators. As a translator you with the book? mula or a secret ingredient. in mind while writing? are very much an author, too. It’s difficult to say. In this case What I was doing when I wrote It’s not easy and it takes time. You put things in your own it is not a biography but a novel the book [Lost Luggage] was to Lost Luggage took me over six words but you don’t imagine, be- based on real life, which makes it find the balance between the years to write, but it requires cause the story has been given to extra difficult in that you cannot form and the story. Usually be- many different things. First, you. Yet this process is still a very only use your imagination but stsellers are books heavily based there is patience. You don’t get creative process. It is also the best you have to follow the path of on plot and not so much about results immediately so you have way to read an author, for me. I the man’s real life, although form and style. But I consider to invest a lot of time and energy compare it to having a radio that sometimes you can make excur- myself a literary author so it’s a into it, and at the same time you you dismantle and have to reass- sions and make some things up. challenge to find a style that have to be very self-critical, emble as a radio again that will When you are working with the works with what you want to say. while relying on the first people function but in your own way. story of a real person you have to But I am also interested in how who read it and who tell you How defensive do you get ask at what point you stop being plot gets developed, so I will end what works well. I also think it is when your work’s translated? loyal and start being unfaithful a chapter with a cliffhanger but about pure intuition. There are I try to be very open-minded to that life you are portraying.

10 • CATALONIATODAY • April 2016 CATALAN CONNECTIONS MARCELA TOPOR [email protected] Redemption from evil

ou’ve just released the dealers... Yfilm, The Evil that Men Ramon Térmens It allows us to talk about the li- Do, shot in English. Each Wednesday at 7.10 pm, El Punt Avui TV airs mits of violence. I have never Yes, it’s my first film in Eng- the series of interviews, Catalan Connections. seen so much violence before in lish. It happens at the border be- Marcela Topor talked to Ramon Térmens, director my life. On TV, all the news tween Mexico and the US, we of the film The Evil that Men Do. about the refugees, terrorism in shot in Martorelles, a small vil- Paris, it’s terrible. And straight lage near Barcelona. The team after we watch the sports news. I was Catalan but the script was in feel we need to reflect and react. English and in the cast we had Otherwise, what comes next? English-speaking actors such as This is what my film wants to re- Andrew Tarbet or Daniel Far- flect on: “Do we have a limit or aldo, who is from Los Angeles. not?” Are we condemned as a You were born in Lleida, species and just have to wait for where exactly? our final hour, just like my char- From a very tiny village, Bell- acters in the film? munt de Segarra, there are only Is there any space for re- 50 people. In my family there are demption? seven of us. I love going back Yes, this was my idea, al- there for Christmas and as often though it is not easy to empa- as I can. thise with such bad characters. I How did you switch from can’t imagine anything worse Philosophy to film? than cutting people into pieces Actually, I started Economics Ramon Térmens during the interview on El Punt Avui TV. / ARCHIVE as a job. But as the film goes on and I studied that for two years, you can see that there is place for but I was unhappy, so I went redemption, even for these bad back home and told my parents I with good expectations. quote from Shakes- people. wanted to do something else, You described the peare’s Julius Caesar. Which festivals are you and I started Philosophy and film as a moral narco- How come? going to take the film to? after two years started film thriller. Each act we do, and any We started in Montreal and we studies, in parallel. It was good, Yes, it’s not just about narcos evil act that we do, has conse- found a very enthusiastic audi- because the two degrees had a and shooting people, it’s about quences, violence generates ence and a good response. Next, connection: every film has an violence and the limit of cruelty. more violence. We are respon- we are going to Chicago in April ideology, and it’s all about the We are surrounded by too much sible for our acts. In the film, vi- to the Latino film festival, and human condition. I’ve made five violence: on TV, in the olence cannot be justified with then to festivals in Catalonia films so far, and they are not just news...The film is about a drug the excuse of obeying orders. In and Spain, as well. I like the con- for entertaining, but reflect on dealers and mercenaries, who the moment you commit an evil tact with the audience, I learn a morality and social dilemmas. carry out orders. One day they act, it is your responsibility, and lot from the Q&A sessions. So why is this film in Eng- receive a different, unexpected it has consequences. This is the You already started work- lish? delivery. It’s a story of love, be- idea behind the title. ing on your next project, Here we’ve tried to do some- trayal, religion and violence. Where did the idea come based on a book by crime thing different in terms of the It has been said it has ele- from? novelist Andreu Martín. market, because all the industry ments of Breaking Bad or It started from the setting, this Indeed, Societat negra, and that sells films worldwide is in Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. huge warehouse. We thought it we’ve just finished the script. It’s English. It is really difficult to sell In my opinion, it has more ele- was an amazing place to shoot a ready for shooting, and we are a film overseas in Catalan, or ments maybe of Polanski, in film. I showed Daniel the space trying to get a co-production even in Spanish. With my pre- terms of psychological terror. and he loved it. He had the idea with an US partner. It’s a comedy vious film Catalonia Über Alles I The way characters try to ma- of mercenaries and redemption, thriller, about the Chinese mafia maybe went to 25 festivals, but nipulate each other, it creates a and I had the idea of a film about in Barcelona, full of black hu- that doesn’t mean sales. So we psychological tension which is a child kidnapped by the mafia. mour and with bad guys who are are trying to sell this film around more frightening than physical, The character of the inno- also very human. It will also be the world, and we have a Cana- explicit violence. cent girl among all those shot in English, with a multi- dian company in charge of that, The title of the film is a mercenaries and drug ethnic cast.

April 2016 • CATALONIA TODAY • 11 ENGLISH HOUR

SMALL TALK BARNEY GRIFFITHS [email protected] A place in the world of art

hat’s the story behind can artist Andrea Fraser, who Wyour surname? Ferran Barenblit practises institutional critique. I was born in Buenos Aires, Every Friday afternoon on El Punt Avui Televisió, In May we’ve got the show Punk. and moved here in 1977 when I Barney chats with an English-speaking expat. For Its Traces in Contemporary art. was eight. When I was a teenager this month’s interview he talks to the director of It’s not a show about music or I translated my name into Cata- the Macba art gallery, Ferran Barenblit. about people’s hair, but it’s about lan, one of the reasons was that cultural revolution. when people saw my name in The Macba also runs educa- Spanish they would address me tional programmes. only in Spanish. They are very intense and va- Your family left Buenos Ai- ried and we plan to make them res to escape dictatorship. Do more intense in the future. We you have memories of that? have programmes for schools, Very clear ones. The ’70s were families and adults (www.mac- very difficult times in all Latin ba.cat). I would say that almost America. Fortunately, we found every day there is something dif- a home in Barcelona and we we- ferent. I also recommend shows re extremely welcome here. of Macba’s own collections to vi- Do you ever go back? sitors. Macba is also a collector Yes, sometimes. But every ti- and we have about 6,000 works me I go it is a very intense and at the moment, ranging from emotional experience. Identity the second half of the 20th to the is something that you cook very 21st century. And finally, we ha- slowly. ve three more solo shows, one by Before coming to Barcelona Miralda, a conceptual Catalan you spent three years in New Ferran Barenblit with Barney Griffiths on El Punt Avui TV. / ARCHIVE artist who was very well-known York and seven in Madrid. for his work related to food. This When I finished studying art is a very ambitious exhibition, history here, I went to New York mostly about his work in Ameri- to study museum studies, and That job gave me an un- pesonal taste might not ca in the ’70s. Then another solo then I was lucky enough to get derstanding of what con- fill a museum as big as show by Lebanese artist Akram my first museum job there at the temporary art meant in a Macba. It’s about collecti- Zaatari, about how to create a co- New Museum. Later, in 2008, in moment when it wasn’t ve decisions; what the llective memory via images. And Madrid, I was offered the direc- what we have now; there were museum has to be is something finally, another show which torship of the Centro de arte 2 de no museums of contemporary decided with the council. looks into the decade of the’80s. mayo. art, just the Miró Foundation. Macba has just celebrated Nowadays we are bombar- Have you always been fond That was when I decided I wan- its 20th anniversary, last No- ded with images. Is that a of contemporary art? ted to work in a museum. vember. help or more of a hindrance? I didn’t see it as a vocation, but Any tips for those who My first day in this position It’s just a reality. Somebody I’ve been very lucky. When I fi- want to do this type of work? was October 1, and this gave me said that in one year we generate nished my degree, I got a great That your talent is always nee- a great opportunity to think more images than in the whole job, which was assisting a photo- ded, the second tip is that there about the next 20 years. My history of humanity before, and grapher, Leopold Samsó, to take are no great recipes to be a cura- question is how the museum I think that gives a great oppor- photos for artists’ catalogues, a tor: just curate, anywhere. In the will look in 2035. It is a very poli- tunity to art, because most of the job I think now doesn’t exist any ’80s curators started doing tical question, museums are very information we receive is via more, but which was important shows in their apartments. Hans political places. They are also images. at the time. And I was very lucky Ulrich did shows on his own institutional labs in which we What are the main challen- because that way I had access to fridge. You need information, imagine the world in the future. ges you face as director of a artists’ studios. And I found out positioning, and courage. What exhibitions has Mac- contemporary art museum? that there were also living artists, Do you choose all your ba got on at the moment? Being insignificant, doing not just artists from the Middle shows? A show by José Antonio Her- work that makes our lives a bit Ages, the Renaissance or Baro- A museum shouldn’t be about nández-Díez, a Venezuelan artist more intense: “Art is what makes que, which is what I had studied. the director’s personal taste. My living in Barcelona; then Ameri- life more interesting than art.”

12 • CATALONIATODAY • April 2016 English Hour Daily programming in English on El Punt Avui Televisió. From 7.10pm

The Week in Football Every Tuesday, Barney Griffiths and guests review the weekend’s football and look ahead to the coming week.

Our Finest Hour with Matthew Tree Roundtable debate on the week’s news with Matthew Tree and guests. Every Thursday from 7.15-8pm.

Going Native with Neil Stokes Prominent Catalans from different walks of life talk to Neil in their very best English every Monday evening.

Catalans in English

This month Neil talks to Dr. Bonaventura Clotet, the band Mi- nerva and wine ex- pert Miquel Houdin.

Catalan Connections with Marcela Topor On Weds, well-known Anglo-speaking and Catalan fig- ures talk to Marcela about their links with Catalonia

Working with Catalonia

This month Marcela talks to the Catalan actor David Selvas and OBC conductor, Kasushi Ono.

Small Talk with Barney Griffiths Start the weekend watching Barney’s interviews with foreign residents in Catalonia. Fridays after 7pm

A home from home

This month Barney has a chat with bas- ketball player Goran Suton and musician Julyien Hamilton.

I/ Eye Witness 869536-1129036w

I/Eye Witness in BCN speaker living and studying Every Wednesday I/Eye Wit- in the Catalan capital, pro- ness in Barcelona features a duced by local filmmakers portrait of a young English of the same generation.

April 2016 • CATALONIA TODAY • 13