1985. The First Experience
Enric Truñó
City Councillor for Youth and Sports (1979-91)
Municipality of Barcelona

The Biennial of the Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean was born from a double initiative: one of the Municipality of Barcelona through its Área de Juventud and one of the Italian Association ARCI Kids.
Following the experience of the First Meeting of the Bands of the World, held in Rome, ARCI Kids organized an informal artistic comparison between Spain and Italy, plus some French and Yugoslavian guests, named "Tendencias," which was held in Barcelona at the end of 1984.
ARCI Kids, starting from the success of "Tendencias" and knowing the dynamics of the Área de Juventud of the Municipality of Barcelona in the various areas of youth culture, launched the idea of a multidisciplinary meeting, open to all the Euro-Mediterranean countries.
This was the birth of the 1st Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, held in Barcelona from November 15-24, 1985. 860 young artists participated in the event, and experienced the presence of 68,000 visitors and spectators. 1985 was a very special year for the youth policies of the Municipality of Barcelona. The United Nations General Assembly had proclaimed, a few years earlier, 1985 as International Youth Year, inviting the audience and institutions to approve it so as to focus their attention on the youth reality and to promote particular activities to improve it. The Municipality created and carried out during the two previous years the realization of the "Proyecto Joven" through the idea of developing a new youth policy, oriented towards the social and professional insertion of young people.
Its main interlocutor was the Youth Council of Barcelona, an institution consisting of about sixty youth organizations of all types, not forgetting that about 116,000 young people participated in the activities and debates which took place within the framework of the project. In July, the city hosted the World Youth Congress organized by UNESCO.
In this context, the Biennial put into practice a series of criteria and goals of a city that in those days was immersed in the final phase of its candidature for the 1992 Olympic Games. Its opening to the outside, the confronting of ideas and projects with other realities, the promotion of an adequate atmosphere for cultural and artistic creation were the key elements of the life of a city on a hopeful move to design and the fulfilling of its own future.
According to its promoters, "the Biennial is an attempt to compare and contrast, in the sense of meeting and exchange, the cultural production of the youth of Barcelona with other young Mediterranean artists, faced with the huge cultural weight of Anglo-Saxon culture." For this reason, through the Youth Institute of the Ministry of Culture and the Youth Council of the Municipality of Madrid, young artists were invited from all over Spain, as well as Italy, France, Portugal, Greece and Yugoslavia. In the case of Barcelona, young artists were selected through an open exhibition where they presented works, selected by an advisory committee and for each category that would be part of the event, thus ensuring the presence of the most important artists of the city.
The different sections of the event were: Performance, Architecture, Visual Arts, Cinema and Video, Photography, Design and Graphic Arts, Fashion and Style, Music, Comics, Poetry and Creative Prose.
The permanent exhibitions were mainly installed in the Casa de la Caritat, an ancient city orphanage, recovered especially for this event before the completion of its definitive restoration when it would become the Centro de Cultura Contemporánea of Barcelona. The Biennial was useful in proving the excellent capacities of the city to host exhibitions and cultural activities.
The Casal dels Transformadors, the Casa Elizalde Civic Center, the Les Cotxeres de Sants Civic Center, the Cinemathèque and a carpet installed in the emblematic Plaza de Catalunya plus a group of some twenty-five bars and venues hosted the more than hundred planned shows.
At the moment of realization, it was commented that: "The Biennial of Barcelona shifted towards the institution of a permanent network of communication and contacts among the young artists of the main cities of Mediterranean Europe, a network that will become reality through bilateral interchanges established from city to city." "Moreover, the Biennial ensured its own reproduction.
Every two years it will be held in Barcelona and in the in-between years various Mediterranean cities will host in turn this art meeting. Thessaloniki, Greece, will be the host in 1986. The following year the Biennial will take place in Barcelona." In conclusion, mention of the pioneers who realized this innovative event: Miquel Lumbierres, Manuel Vila, Andreu Solsona, etc.

1987. Creation and Market
In 1986, Thessaloniki took the baton from Barcelona, brilliantly organizing its own contest and consolidating the project as the most important youth oriented and multidisciplinary exhibition of Europe.
Beginning from the experiences of the first two editions, the 3rd Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, held in Barcelona from October 9-18, 1987, intended to "go deeper into the first goal we set: fostering the entrance of young artists into commercial circuits. The times when the artist spoke only to his own shadow have passed.
Today, young cultural producers hope to earn a living exclusively from their art and, therefore, need to be exposed to the public in general, and more in particular to industrialists, managers, planners, dealers, etc. In short, they need to introduce their own creations into the cultural market." Because of this approach, the Biennial was accompanied by the slogan "Creation and Market." The Biennial, in its third edition, was called by the Intercity Committee of Southern Europe consisting of the following cities and bodies: the Municipalities of Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, and Valencia, with the collaboration of the Youth Institute of the Ministry of Culture, from Spain; the Municipalities of Lyons, Marseilles, and Montpellier, and the Eurocréation Association from France; the Municipalities of Athens and Thessaloniki, and the Youth General Secretariat of the Ministry of Culture, from Greece; the Municipalities of Bologna, Florence, Modena, Turin, and Venice, and ARCI Kids, from Italy; the Municipality of Ljubljana and the Confederation of Young Socialists from Yugoslavia, the Municipalities of Lisbon and Porto, and the Youth State Secretariat, from Portugal; and with the incorporation of Cyprus, through the Municipality of Nicosia and the Cultural Service of the Ministry of Education.
271 productions were presented, in the same sectors as the first edition of the Biennial, corresponding to about 600 participants. The Casa de la Caritat once again hosted the permanent exhibitions of Architecture, Visual Arts, Design, Photography, Moving Images, and Multimedia, which remained open to the public until October 31, to facilitate high attendance.
According to Andreu Solsona, director of the Biennial, "This year we have a much higher level than in 1985, when the first edition was celebrated. We raised the standards for the selection of works, and this is reflected in the event itself." Rosa Queralt, commissioner for Painting and Sculpture, received 370 proposals from Catalan artists: about thirty of them were chosen in the first selection. Then she visited the studios of these artists, choosing the finalists.
Four informal debates with experts were promoted to reflect and discuss the themes of the Biennial: a roundtable on Creation and Market, Cinema and Market with the contribution of the film director Bigas Luna, Fashion and Market with the contribution of Toni Miró, and Dance and Market with the contribution of Cesc Gelabert.
Parallel to the Biennial, the "Off" Biennial was created, with almost forty venues and premises in Barcelona, to exhibit the best works among the nonselected artists, according to the various commissioners.
At the end of the Biennial, the feeling was that the project had made another step forward towards its consolidation, that the dynamics of interchange and comparison generated were the right ones, and that the system of selection had proven excellent in each city and country, thanks to the collaboration of the municipalities and associations and the support of state authorities.
Within the context of the Biennial, the city chosen to host the next event was Bologna. Mention should be made as well of the team who made it possible to organize the third edition, among them: Miquel Lumbierres, Manuel Blasco, Núria Fradera, Andreu Solsona, Joaquim Bellmunt, Pepa Argenter, Anna Esteban.

1989. Young Artists from Europe
Once the path of the Mediterranean Biennials was consolidated, Barcelona focused its attention on convening a meeting of young artists every two years, necessary to the start of the permanent work of promotion and support of the production of its youth.
It was unfeasible and irrational to consider the presence of the Mediterranean Biennial every two years. Therefore, further to enlarge its own field of action came the proposal to organize the Barcelona Biennial of Young European Artists, celebrated from October 5-30, 1989.
Barcelona, while continuing to be involved in the Biennial of Young Artists from the Mediterranean, opened a new area of relations with the countries of the European Community with the intention of strengthening the young artists of the city, offering them a new opportunity to exhibit and with the desire to stimulate communication among the young people of Europe.
While the young artists from Barcelona participated in the 1989 Biennial through the selection carried out in the "Muestra Abierta," a public announcement of a competition which saw the participation of more than 900 artists under-thirty, the artists of the Guest Section came from the suggestions of the various European experts, who had been invited to recommend some artists under thirty-five with established reputations. The final selection was made in Barcelona by prestigious and renowned professionals.
According to Rosa Martínez, director of this Biennial, "the outlook of these professionals on what is valuable in each sector claims to invite dialogue and to create a debate that will contribute towards arousing and developing the new tendencies of European creation."
Organizing a competition such as the 1989 Biennial in Barcelona endeavored togive the city a specific weight in the European cultural scene and to turn it into an essential center of attraction for contemporary culture.
The various sectors and the spaces hosting exhibitions and presentations were primarily the same ones as the previous editions, pointing out as well that the central venue of the Biennial events themselves was the Casa de la Caritat, which was now the Centro de Cultura Contemporánea of Barcelona, following restoration.
The team who made it possible to organize the 1989 Biennial was made up of, among the others: Miquel Lumbierres, Montserrat Flaquer, Xavier Suñol, Rosa Martínez, Pepa Armenté, Esperanza Ferrer, Gemma Freixas, and Nuria Gómez.
A new edition of the Biennial was again celebrated in November 1991, but its analysis is not the subject of this text.

2006. A Few Considerations in Retrospect
The prolific work carried out during the reviewed years, from 1983 to 1991, can be outlined as follows:
Throughout these years there was the same staff working in the youth department of the Municipality, affording clear and stable continuity to an established line of implementation, support, and impulse for the young artists.
Such implementation is not an isolated action, since it falls within the context of the "Proyecto Joven" of the city, approved in 1985, revised, and updated in 1991, as the framework of a complete youth policy.
In 1986, Spain enters the European Community, creating the proper climate for mutual relations and dialogue with other cities and countries within this context.
Also in 1986, on October 17, Barcelona is designated as the host city of the 1992 Olympic Games. This 32 33 event involves a strong impulse to the international projection of the city and an extremely open attitude of the Municipality towards its own international promotion.
During these years the climate of cooperation between the public and private sector deepens, and generates a complicit environment surrounding the Municipality and various areas of the city bringing in their best competences for the fulfillment of all types of common projects.
Since 1993, for various reasons, the realization of the Biennials has been suspended and the presence of Barcelona in the competitions held in other cities has decreased. Luckily, this collaboration was started back in the last years and the young artists from Barcelona can take part once again in these annual appointments.
Thanks to the Istituto de Cultura of Barcelona, several competitions for each sector have been developed, with new formats (BAM, Sonar, etc.) and with sectional goals coinciding with those of the Biennials.

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