The silk of Barcelona

An exhibition at the Historical Archive of the City looks back 500 years to the city silk corporations

The Arts of silk in Barcelona

Until April 30, the Historical Archives of the City hosts an exhibition which covers five centuries of silk Barcelona. The exhibition takes a chronological journey through 500 years of history and provides an overview of the origin and evolution of silk organizations, forms of corporate organization have taken the functions that have been developed and have invested resources to achieve their goals.

The exhibition, curated by Victor Mata is performed based on documentary transferred to the Historical Archives of the City of Barcelona and constitute the Archive of the College of Art Major de la Seda de Barcelona: Guild Sailing, Velluters Guild, Guild Perxers and the same (CAMS).

Five centuries of silk

Silk, sumptuous product par excellence, known in Catalonia since the Middle Ages. Business contacts between Catalan and Andalusian merchants tenth century are the first known evidence of professional dedication around the silk. A royal provision of Peter the Great, the last third of the thirteenth century, for the first time regulates the silk activity in Barcelona.

At that time, most of the silk artisans were part of the Jewish community in Barcelona, ​​so it is not organized as a corporation engaged in trade or municipal government institutions. The rise of the fourteenth century silks pushes the Consell de Cent Barcelona authorize some ordinances regulating the sale of silk. The pogrom and expulsion of Jews from Barcelona in 1391 is a turning point in the world silk city, because the main human group that disappears represents.

In the mid-fifteenth century silks experiencing a revival since the formation of small factories and companies engaged in the production and trade of manufactured products, which strengthens the bases of the process of creating institutional seven guilds silks of Barcelona which began in the late fifteenth century and lasted until the early seventeenth century: millinery needle (1495) Perxers (1509) Sailboats (1533) Velluters (1548) Passamaners (1572) torcedor ( 1619), Dyers (1619).

Most of these unions disappear root of a process that began in 1834 and resolves the decree of 20 December 1836 that ends the union organizations in Spain. They survive only as advocacy organizations or interest groups as mutual work. This is the case of the College of Art Major of the silk of Barcelona (CAMS) born in April 1834 from the merger of the unions sailboats and Velluters.

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The light of the Asian giant

Chinese Lantern Festival, with over 500 figures silk giant illuminated from the inside, mixed with folk oriental elements with Catalan cultural and artistic references | The exhibition, 9,000 m2 and installed in the Forum Park, can be visited until March from Tuesday to Sunday

Chinese lanterns in Barcelona

Lighting has been embellishing the streets and squares of Barcelona during Christmas was a few days ago saying goodbye until next November but lovers of light and color are still a good alternative to the Forum Park: Festival of Chinese Lanterns, since the beginning of the Christmas period and until March brings locals and tourists to an ancient tradition of China, with a sample of more than 500 figures giant silk lit from within.

The Lantern Festival is one of the great festivals of China. Held at the height of the Chinese New Year, which this year will take place on February 18, according to the calendar lunar- and during the Moon Festival -a mid August-. These days, the lights are turned on and contemplate, in a tradition that goes back to the I.

In the Catalan capital, the Chinese Lantern Festival translates into a fantastic journey of 9,000 m2 of lights and colors that you visit at night -from 18 to 24 pm, Tuesday to sunday-. The lamps and metal structures, whether great energy saving LED bulbs covered with Chinese silk natural multicolor- measure up to six meters high and 25 meters long and can weigh a ton. The figures are an original design and are handmade by twenty artists from Chinese Zi Gong, in the province of Sichuan. From Thursday to Saturday, in fact, a craft workshop allows the public to learn the hands of two artists, the traditional method of creating lanterns.

From pandas to Gaudí

The route of the festival is divided into seven main areas: the city Traditional Chinese, Tea Zone, the Great Wall, the Chinese Water Garden, Four Seasons, Park Pandas and the Chinese Zodiac. The exhibition also pays tribute to the local art space dedicated to Antoni Gaudí, Miró and Pablo Picasso, with thirty lamps that reinterpret known works of three artists and their trends, such as the Sagrada Familia the woman and bird Park Güell.
Among eight entries and 18 euros can be purchased at the ticket office or http://www.festivaldefanalsxinesos.cat Forum Park.

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