Barcelona’s slightly mad traditions
No tradition should be dismissed as minor or superficial, whether simple or complex to practise. It grows out of generations of customs, knowledge and beliefs that, over time, shape a community. However modest its beginnings, and however true it is that every tradition is ultimately invented, it is we who give it value over time, through a shared commitment to keeping it alive.
At this point, the question is why we see these traditions as mad or unusual. In part, it is because a history as distinctive and turbulent as ours can only give rise to traditions that challenge logic, push boundaries and stand apart from those around them. That same history has shaped a character that is somewhat nonconformist, even rebellious, which is why we experience these traditions all the more intensely.
That is why we see them as we do, and why we take the approach set out here. From a contemporary Barcelona that is constantly changing, and therefore needs to reinterpret its own traditions, we reimagine them for today’s city. We highlight their contrasts, so distinctly ours, and strip them back to their essence, almost with an anthropological eye, to understand what lies behind the gestures, rituals and forms. Not to betray them, but to pay tribute to them.
