New Urban Cultures’ strengthens ties between Spain and India
New Delhi, December 2011: The Ministry of Culture- Casa Asia, the Cervantes Institute and the Spanish embassy in New Delhi joined efforts to promote the Spanish cultural industries in India through the third edition of “New Urban Cultures” programme. The two-day event that took place on the 17th & 18th of December epitomized the best possible amalgamation of Indian and Spanish culture in the fields of fashion, videogames, sports, music, design, gastronomy and films.
The first day started with the dialogue on ‘Fashion and Design’ by designer Ritu Kumar, Spanish artist Agatha Ruiz de la Prada and hosted by Jivi Sethi. Ruiz de la Prada also inaugurated the exhibition entitled “Carteles” , which is a selection of her graphic work in all its diversity, from advertising communication to her work as a fashion designer. It was followed by a dialogue on ‘Video games and Digital content’ by Xavier Carrillo, CEO of Digital Legends and Vishal Gondal, CEO of Indiagames, hoted by Iván F. Lobo, president of the academy of Arts and Interactive Sciences in Spain and director of Gamelab Barcelona. The last talk of the day ‘Gastronomy’ was presented by José Luis Galiana of Basque Culinary Center, the first university-level education centre in Gastronomic Sciences in Europe.
The second day of the event highlighted the film and music industry of both the countries. Young and notable directors Raj Kumar Gupta (Aamir, 2008 and No one killed Jessica, 2007) and Kike Maíllo (Eva, 2011) talked about the new filmmaking trends in Spain and India, and the talk was moderated by Mike Hostench, sub- director of the Sitges Film Festival. Music was the final treat of the programme with concert that was paradigm of the dialogue between traditional and modern cultures. The concert by the emerging group Fuel Fandango by Nita Cordoba, Ale Acosta (of Mojo Project) and drummer Carlos Sosa, played pop music, mixed with flamenco sounds and left everyone stunned. The programme completed a full circle when Sunny Singh, the founder of first professional bollywood dance company in Europe ‘Bailamos Bollywood’ staged a performance.
The event was well attended by Kike Maillo, Mike Hostench, Ritu Kumar, Raj Kumar Gupta, Jivi Sethi, Xavier Carrillo- CEO Digital Legends, Vice Minister counselor of Spain Embassy- Ramon Blecua, Naseer Abdullah, Caroline Young, Christine Rai, Vikram Baidyanath, Tristan Ramirez, Jesus Clavero- Cultural Manager of Cervantes Institute, Vishal Carrillo-CEO Indiagames, DJ Ale, Sunny Singh- bollywood and hollywood dance chorographer.
About ‘New Urban Cultures’
New Urban Cultures programme seek to show the diversity and creative capacity of Spanish culture to young Indians and open the doors of this country to the professionals, designers and artists that are part of our national cultural industries. The enormous economic, political and cultural weight that India has and the growing interest that Spain raises at all levels among the Indian public make this event a necessary and essential dialogue to talk about the possibilities of working together and sharing in the field of the cultural industries.
About ‘Casa Asia’
Casa Asia is a public diplomacy institution formed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Spanish Government, the Generalitat of Catalonia, Barcelona City Council and Madrid City Council. Its mission is to promote knowledge concerning Asia in Spain and to foster relations between the civil societies of Spain and Asian countries. Juan José Herrera de la Muela, director-general of Casa Asia said, “India is the subject of utmost interest in Spanish foreign action programmes, and the promotion of the cultural industries in India, along with the development of education, culture and the economy is a priority for Casa Asia.”
About ‘Cervantes Institute’
The Cervantes Institute, dependent on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, is a non-profit entity created by the Spanish government in 1991. Its mission is to promote the teaching of Spanish and other co-official languages of Spain, and to contribute towards the diffusion of the culture of Spanish-speaking countries. In 2009 it inaugurated its office in Delhi. Òscar Pujol, director of the Cervantes Institute in New Delhi said, “For us the opportunity of this initiative has three dimensions: the growth of the city of Delhi, the synergy between Spanish institutions and the strengthening of the dialogue between Spain and India.”
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