Cultural Organizations, Networks and Mediators in Contemporary Ibero-America

8 Barcelona on the International Map of Modernity The Conferentia Club’s Role 1 in the Interwar Period Gabriella Gavagnin 1. Premise: Conferences and Circulation in Transnational Literary Mediation Processes While the international literary mediation processes that characterized the evolution of modernity throughout the first half of the twentieth century centered on writing, either public (books, magazines, translations, and essays) or private (letters), on the side, various forms of oral com- munications and personal contact reinforced these exchanges as well as the circulation and dissemination of literary production. We may dis- tinguish two main forms of oral exchange, among others: those among agents whose roles were rather homogenous and those between people who spoke before publics whose roles were quite different. The first kind would include academic or institutional gatherings—either large or small—among writers and academics. In contrast, the second kind of oral activities encompass those organized by writers or academics for didactic purposes, with either general or specific audiences who play a more receptive role and attend for pleasure. Throughout the Interwar decades, the most active and prominent figures in literary modernity increasingly traveled between cities, countries, and continents to address a broader and more varied public using the conference model—a genre that began to mold into various contexts, going from the erudite to the performance. This study will focus on this model’s role in the spread of Catalan culture—that of the common reader, the critic, academics, poets, and writers—to an active and prestigious international scene. Founded during the Interwar period, the Conferentia Club was a cultural institution in the city of Barcelona that intensely promoted international exchange and, in a prime exhibition of the cultural policy of Noucentisme , hosted Catalonia’s most hegemonic cultural movement during the first decades of the twentieth century, amassing some of its main features. The club was founded in 1929 with the goal of organiz- ing conference cycles two seasons per year: spring (March–June) and fall (October–December). These sessions articulated over two yearly courses developed from the first year (spring of 1929) to the eve of the Spanish Barcelona on International Map of Modernity 145 Civil War (spring of 1936) quite regularly: the only significant incident was a delay in the course scheduled for the fall of 1934, given a number of convulsive political events.2 As a whole, the club’s performance was remarkable, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Notably, throughout the fifteen courses that took place over eight years, the club celebrated one hundred forty-four conferences: the equivalent of three or four per month.3 Beyond the thematic variety and the renown of those invited to give the conferences, the speakers’ international quality is also worth highlighting: one hundred six were given by foreigners (although some did live in Spain at the time, such as Hugo Obermaier, Gertrud Richert, and Gustavo Pittaluga, who worked in universities, as well as the Jewish speakers Lene Schneider-Kainer, José Arnaldo Weissberger, Paul Ludwig Landsberg, and Atina Wiskeman). Of the remaining thirty-eight conferences, Catalans gave twenty-seven (though some had moved outside of Catalonia, such as Eduardo Marquina and Antoni Ribera, or abroad, such as Josep Pijoan and Joaquim Nin). This means that 73.6 percent of the speakers were international. It is also worth noting that beyond the one hundred forty-four conferences organized specifically for members of the Conferentia Club, some foreign speakers took on a number of additional conferences (at least twenty, according to the still-rough inven- tory we have registered so far) to take advantage of their stay—which is still common practice today—in collaboration with other institutions that offered up their own spaces and auditoriums. This broadened the impact of their stay beyond the members of the Club. From an organiza- tional point of view, the influence of those cultural networks that man- aged to expand the events put forward by foundations, associations, and mediating cultural entities is clear. 2. The Conferentia Club: Its Public and Conference Format Before delving into the geocultural characteristics of the club’s speakers, I would like to mention several sociological details that may provide a context for these gatherings. In April of 1929, newspapers announced the club’s creation and described its mission: With its half-British, half-Latin name [a name thus summarizing the Noucentista spirit of communion between classicism and modernity], a group of Barcelonans of varied social status and disciplines founded a society whose sole objective is to put on cultural conferences.4 However, as was later clarifed by Carles Soldevila, the indefatigable and hardworking secretary, whom Manent (1994 , p. 48) later called the “perpetual secretary”, the Conferentia Club was created to “provide a spiritual nourishment [spiritually educating the public was another Nou- centista feature] that most of our society can digest” ( Soldevila 1936 ). 146 Gabriella Gavagnin The initiative’s promoter, the politician and patron Francesc Camb, was even more explicit when he wrote of the club’s circumstances and aspirations in his memoire. Camb asserted that he had been inspired by a will to curb the contrasts between the elegance and refinement that “ladies and damsels in high society” were taught in the Barcelona of the time and their “excessive ignorance” (Camb 1981 , p. 400)—a contrast that seemed completely passé in the midst of Noucentisme. A clear social pursuit characterized this proposal: “Why not connect the intellectual cream of the crop with the most elegant of Barcelona’s feminine society? The women would gain culture, while the men would learn manners.” 5 Camb noted that the Sociedad de Cursos y Conferencias (Society of Courses and Conferences) that the director of the Residencia de Estudi- antes (Student Residency) had founded in Madrid in 1924 preceded his initiative,6 even though, in contrast to the Barcelona club, this Madrid society was heavily subsidized, as the Direccin General de Bellas Artes (Ministry of Fine Arts) contributed more than half of the Madrid society’s annual budget ( Ribagorda 2008). In our view, the institutional model closest to the Conferentia Club’s was that of the Université des Annales, founded in Paris in 1907 by Yvonne Sarcey, who served as director for decades. This initiative was founded under the discourse of social responsibility for bourgeois women, offering them the appropriate spiritual and cultural knowledge for the role in childcare they were raised to assume ( Martin-Fugier 1990 ). They organized courses to complement the education of high-class women according to the university calendar, that is, from November to May. In parallel to a more practical course that took place midday, there was another, the Cinq à six littéraire , which, as the title suggests, took place from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. every day, cover- ing subjects such as morality, hygiene, French literature, history, foreign literature, the arts, and music. This second course is the most akin to the Conferentia Club’s and was particularly analogous in terms of the social composition of its public, its didactic character, the subjects taught, the central role that literature played, and even in terms of some organiza- tional aspects: the private nature of the institution and its female leader- ship. Indeed, even though the Conferentia Club’s promoter was the male Francesc Camb, a bourgeois woman, Isabel Llorach, always held and boasted the club’s presidency. A certain letter from June of 1936 between Camb and the critic Joaquim Folch i Torres is highly illustrative in this sense. Folch i Torres requested finance from the Conferentia Club for a conference cycle on El Greco that was to accompany an exhibition of El Greco’s work in Sitges. Camb advised the following: “Regarding the Conferentia Club, it would be best for you to address the President, Miss Isabel Llorach, who is quite protective of her presidential prerogatives. As almost always is the case, she will most likely consult me and you may rest assured that my opinion regarding your wishes is positive” (cited by Domènech 2013, pp. 92–93). The fact that the club’s model was quite Barcelona on International Map of Modernity 147 different from the Sociedad de Cursos y Conferencias’s was well under- stood by Llorach herself: the press mentioned that she was planning to found a Conferentia Club in Madrid as well, in order to share its mission and cut down on speakers’ traveling costs.7 As for the public, according to the founder’s intentions, the Conferen- tia Club’s activities addressed Barcelona’s aristocracy and high bourgeoisie beyond the academic and intellectual world. The conferences were to host elegant and refined soirées that never lacked a touch of harmony and, of course, worldliness, providing these cultural events with social distinction. The events were members only as of the third conference, reinforcing the prestigious and selective character that had been hoped for from the start. The conferences began at 7 and were preceded by tea- time at 6 in the evening. The tea ritual always ended at a prudent time, since the public, though grateful and faithful, was not generally willing to change its domestic customs: if events went on for too long, there were always a few members of the public who would unscrupulously leave the room.8 Often, events were followed by a brief photography session, which would provide material for the Catalan bourgeoisie’s newspaper par excellence: La Vanguardia . Once in a while, distinguished authorities would appear in the photographs, but usually one could find the speaker encircled by a few high-society women. Indeed, the public was made up of mostly women, married and single, who were duly dressed for the occasion.9 News articles often highlighted their presence,10 as well as any exceptions to the norm.

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