Project partner(s)
Springbackers
As part of Barcelona’s La Mercè festival, Springbacker Clàudia Brufau was invited to moderate an event called ‘Community, diversity and representation in public spaces’, co-organised by the Culture Department of the Catalan Government, La Mercè (Barcelona City Hall) and Manchester-based XTRAX. As a follow-up, XTRAX also commissioned a written text that summarised and reflected on the encounter, which you can read below.
Manchester and Barcelona gather to reflect on community, diversity and representation in public space
Bees in Barcelona
Towards the end of September, Barcelona celebrates La Mercè – the patron Saint of the city – a big public festivity which over the years has become a festival of festivals, showcasing local traditions but also, very much, contemporary performing arts and music, offering around five hundred activities in total. Each year, Barcelona City Council invites a guest city to bridge with; in 2025 it was Manchester’s turn, so the bees – the English city’s symbol – flew down to Barcelona to visit.
One of the major events at MAC – Mercè Arts de Carrer (Mercè Street Arts) was a meeting of professionals called ‘Community, Diversity and Representation in Public Space’, collaboratively curated by Manchester-based organisations XTRAX and Without Walls, and teams at La Mercè, ICEC Catalan Arts, with the support of the British Council in Spain.
I was invited to facilitate the event which was structured in three panels trying – as usual – to cover too many complex topics in a short span of time. Despite this, the discussion amongst the panellists and interventions from the audience brought together enlightening and thought-provoking reflections. Here are my highlights.
Embracing diversity in public space
‘We need to accept and embrace a bastard culture,’ said Barcelona-based cultural manager Marta Vallejo. Perhaps the word choice raised eyebrows amongst the audience, but I was equally struck and amused by the comment. In a blunt, but playful way Vallejo meant letting ourselves acknowledge and embrace other cultural expressions from various diasporas, that might not seem so autochthonous, too disruptive or too outside the box. In fact, one of the key questions tackled throughout the day was whose voices are amplified, and whose are left out? And how do we identify who is represented?
‘Street Arts Festivals as a vehicle for community engagement: giving visibility to cultural communities in public space’ was the title of the first panel, which featured Manchester-based creative producer Liz Pugh (Walk the Plank), Leicester-based executive producer Parmjit Sagoo (Inspirate and Indian Summer), artistic director Jordi Duran (Mercè Arts de Carrer Festival), as well as Vallejo (Culture, Education and territory programme of Fabra i Coats). Dave Moutrey, Director of Culture at Manchester City Council, chaired the talk. Despite working in very different contexts and professional backgrounds, all the panellists have an expertise in developing community networks and ecosystems for cultural action and production.
Part of the purpose of street arts festivals is showcasing a wide range of imaginaries relating to diverse communities, and bringing communities together. Despite some common ground, Manchester and Barcelona are not on the same page when it comes to embracing and acknowledging diversity. Catalan speakers pointed out that traditions in Catalonia are often associated with a specific image, while the UK seems to have integrated a more diverse cultural landscape, with traditions from various diasporas, such as from South Asia or African countries. In fact, Parmjit Sagoo, who leads Leicester-based arts organisation Inspirate and curates An Indian Summer, which showcases and explores contemporary South Asian arts and culture, is an example of this diaspora rooted in the UK cultural landscape. Vallejo did, however, explain how cultural expressions are rising and growing outside the traditional institutional frameworks in some Barcelona neighbourhoods.
We often think of culture as a system confined to institutional buildings, which are embedded in deep cultural hierarchies but all the panelists explained in one way or another that part of their jobs consisted of reaching out and trying to find those who are not represented. In this quest, arts professionals need to assume the risk of sharing power and decisions with the communities and collectives they encounter.
Since the event was taking place in the framework of La Mercè, a historical local festivity, the question of tradition was unavoidable. How do we balance tradition and heritage with avant-garde or non-normative voices? Finding strategic places is key, at least for Jordi Duran, who explained how programming takes into consideration a wide range of artistic proposals, how some spaces can become a corner for non-normative voices, and others a mesh of traditional and mainstream showcases, while spectacular shows like Walk the Plank’s Fire Garden can take audiences outside the city centre. It’s a matter of programming bearing in mind artistic proposals, communities and the city’s landscape and social map.
An accessible Agora
In his monologue, Spasticity, Marc Buxaderas – an actor and comedian with tetraplegic cerebral palsy – hilariously described the relentless obstacles he finds in daily routines – not only physical but also social ones, the persistent stigmas associated with people with disabilities.
‘Disabled led arts in the public space and its impact on cultural rights’ was chaired by Lorena Martínez Mier, Europe Beyond Access manager, and brought together Stopgap Dance Company’s executive producer Lucy Glover and dance artist Nadenh Poan, director of UK’s Festival.org Bradley Hemmings, and co-director of Barcelona’s L’Altre Festival Beatriz Liebe. The panel discussion focused on how street arts offer a space to democratise access to culture and provide a powerful platform for representation.
People with different disabilities might not only find physical barriers to access cultural events, but often the obstacle might be that they are just not used to it. It’s a remark that I’ve often heard from cultural professionals working on accessibility, which emerged when we met online to prepare the discussion with Marc. There has been a historical tendency of denying in a way or another cultural rights to people with disabilities, the outcome is or has been that attending cultural events might not be part of their daily life.
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If you don’t truly believe in the richness of diversity, creating inclusive and accessible projects will likely feel forced, making them difficult to sustain over time. Reflect, for instance, on the benefits at an artistic and creative level, as well as for economic sustainability and both individual and collective well-being.—Beatriz Liebe
Again, in terms of policies and opportunities for people with disability, the UK is pretty ahead of Catalonia. Companies such as Stopgap or Candoco are actually a reference worldwide in terms of bringing dance artists with disabilities to the forefront. Beyond the physical adaptations and accessibility tools and activities addressed to a wide span of groups with physical, sensorial or intellectual disabilities, what I find the most powerful to make arts really inclusive is when they take part in them, or at least, they are part of the sector, like dancer Nadenh Poan or actor Marc Buxaderas. Actually, amongst the audience there were some members of the Catalan group Liant La Troca, an integreated dance collective, who remarked that despite a long trajectory there’s still a glass ceiling for them.
For many dance fans like me, a reference is David Toole’s enduring performance in DV8’s Cost of Living (he also danced at Stopgap for over ten years). However, for the vast majority he was known from London’s 2012 Paralympics opening ceremony, which Bradley Hemmings co-directed. This was not a street arts event, but a televised one that reached millions of people, an engraved memory for many. Although the streets don’t have the same capacity as mass media, everything builds towards changing mindsets. Arts must be for, and also made by, people with disabilities.
Artist perspectives and opportunities of quality
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Beyond quotas there are opportunities of quality.—Jordi Duran
A talk with artists was also organised, with speakers Marc Buxaderas, mentioned above, Catalan-Japanese actress, playwright and stage director Sònia Masuda, Cameroonian-Catalan composer, musician and performer Xumo Nunjo, UK artist-academic Jim Parris and Manchester hip-hop dancer and writer Chad Taylor. Throughout this talk, I asked about their artistic journeys and how and why they ended up working in the arts, particularly in their respective fields. Finding a voice within the arts was and has been very significant for them. Taylor explained how dancing and writing helped him overcome his shyness and feel he has the tools to articulate his thoughts and emotions into something meaningful for audiences. After having suffered bullying from his classmates, Buxaderas found that theatre and comedy helped him gain confidence, and almost most importantly he found his passion and professional purpose. Amongst other interesting remarks, Masuda recounted her experience as a person of mixed ethnicity in the performing arts, and how she is rarely called for castings or auditions because she does not fit a mould. Nunjo explained cultural contrasts and how differently we think of culture in his two lands, Cameroon and Catalonia – and how these sometimes amuse him.
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I have met long term followers of my work from performing in outdoor spaces, as the work usually reaches people that usually didn’t know they needed to see my work until they’ve seen it. As an artist, the public space also lets you connect with your audience in a capacity that doesn’t let you in traditional settings, being able to talk with your audience after a performance is a beautiful thing.—Chad Taylor
Several remarks and points made by the artists resonated with other issues tackled in the other two panels. Since we were in a festival context, and street arts usually take place within a festival frame, cultural managers and artists insisted on the need to work within a long-term horizon. As Parmjit Sagoo put it, ‘it’s about being present and gaining trust’. Another common observation was that in order to break barriers, cultural organisations need to increase their funding and transprofessional teams. Jordi Duran also gave a compelling twist to the topic of quotas by stating that ‘beyond programming quality, there are opportunities of quality.’
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Everything you do in the public sphere takes on a different level of relevance and a new meaning – for instance, regarding our rights as citizens. It also serves as an excellent laboratory for questioning the deeply rooted social norms and codes of conduct that we often take for granted.—Beatriz Liebe
The audience, who had been invited to participate after each talk, at the end of the event were asked to add their voices. On one hand, there was a common feeling of a lot of ‘homework’ to do in terms of changing mindsets and ways of working regarding issues of diversity and accessibility. If moderators and panellists had the feeling we had just scratched the surface, first hand testimonials and narratives, the intercity exchange of perspectives and inspiring tools gave a lot of purpose to professional attendees seeking information and inspiration. On the other, it is crystal clear that in bleak times, stained by far-right and fascist influences on society, street arts are more than ever (to borrow Duran’s words) an opportunity of quality, to preserve and grow cultural rights – thus human rights.