A conference on Berga’s Swedish Pavilion in the Institut Ramon Llull
The conference on the 8th of January will be headed by Jaume Farguell, promotor of the reconstruction of the building originally designed for the 1929 Barcelona World Trade Fair
On the 8th of January, Jaume Farguell, president of Berga’s Casal d’Europa culture centre and mayor of the municipality from 1979 to 1987 and 1991 to 1999, will offer a conference on the history of Berga’s Swedish Pavilion in the Institut Ramon Llull, in Barcelona. The pavilion itself is a Nordic pine building that was originally designed and built especially for the 1929 Barcelona World Trade Fair. On termination of the fair the organisers conceded the contract for the reconstruction of the building to the Barcelona City Council, who subsequently tendered the contract among Catalan town councils desirous of being the building’s new home. The contract was finally awarded to Berga, capital of the Catalan district of Berguedà.
The Swedish Pavilion was then rebuilt in Berga, where it was inaugurated by president Lluís Companys in June, 1933. Up to 1939 the building was used as a school for children from underprivileged families and, following the civil war, was transformed into the local military barracks. In the 1960 the building was finally disassembled and destroyed. Construction of the new pavilion, an initiative encouraged by Farguell, began in 1998 and the building finally reopened in 2001. Part of the wooden construction is now occupied by the Berga Regional Historical Archive while the remainder is currently the headquarters of the Casal d’Europa culture centre.
In his conference, Farguell will offer attendees an insight into both the history of the Swedish Pavilion and the ongoing cultural dialogue that exists between the two countries via the Casal d’Europa and will attempt to provide a fitting end to 2014, a year in which the Institut Ramon Llull organised a number of notable cultural activities in Sweden, including the participation of Catalan music and performing arts groups in Stockholm’s Kulturfestival, the city’s biggest summer festival, and the participation of ten Catalan authors in the Voices from Catalonia section of the Gothenburg Book Fair, the most important book fair in Scandinavia.
Conference on the Swedish Pavilion
When: 8th of January at 6.30 pm
Where: Institut Ramon Llull
More information is available here