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The Espai Català de Cultura i Comunicació Foundation, Escacc

The future of Catalan culture must have, by necessity, a strong, modern, creative and independent culture industry, capable of competing with the hegemony of the large majority-language corporations at all levels within the Catalan culture market.

We want a culture industry that is committed to society, close to the people and the region and which prioritises quality over banality and leads in critical thought as opposed to the ruling ideology prevalent today, but which at the same time provides good pleasing products. We want this because we strongly believe that all the above is essential to complete the democratic ideal.

The culture industry

Culture and communication produced from here and in Catalan must become an international reference point, due to its level of innovation, quality and professionalism, as well as for the emphasis it places on the values of freedom, democracy and shared ownership.

Escacc’s sphere of influence is the linguistic domain of Catalan. It is in the territory of the Catalan-speaking lands, the Països Catalans, where its activities and work must be established and spread.

We believe that the Catalan language is the central axis around which our culture and communication industry should turn. This is why Escacc will encourage the recovery of the social use of the language as a guarantee for the future, while at the same time trying to raise awareness about the importance that communication and the culture industry have for consolidating democracy and building national consciousness.

We will not be undertaking all this alone, but rather Escacc will become an active agent among all the players involved in the culture industry and ensure that it is a catalyst among civil society, professionals and companies. We will regularly promote cultural projects that are economically viable and self-financing. Escacc will also make every effort to directly influence the public authorities and political organisations in decisions affecting matters relating to the culture industry, so that they tend towards models favourable to the Catalan language, the knowledge society and democracy.

New Chairman

On the meeting of December 2006 the Board of Trustees of Escacc chose the journalist and founding member of the organisation, Oriol Cortacans i Calvera, as the new Chairman, in place of Eduard Voltas.

Escacc also renewed the position of Vice-Chairman, a post until then held by Francesc Abad. Oriol Soler i Castanys is the incoming Vice-Chairman. Aleix Coll i Creus, however, will be continuing as the organisation’s Secretary.

Oriol Cortacans is a journalist. He has worked for more than ten years on the weekly El Temps, and has contributed to diverse magazines. He is co-founder and currently co-director of the Batabat television production company. He is also Chairman of the Ramon Barnils Journalists’ Group. Oriol Soler is a manager of cultural enterprises, currently the Manager of the Grup Cultura 03. Aleix Coll is a graduate of Business Sciences and works as a risk analyst in La Caixa savings bank.

Escacc has a Directive Plan that points out its strategic objectives

Based on this Directive Plan the working lines for the following years have been defined. Therefore, in the latest period we have started several projects in three areas of action of Escacc: in the professional field, in the civil society and in the business world, each one with its own coordinator responsible for carrying it forward.

20 years of Catalan communication space: is it still a realisable objective?

The foundation organised a conference for the 20th anniversary of the entity, given by the professor of communication at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Josep Gifreu, on the concept of “Catalan communication space”, referring to the national communication framework required for consolidating cultural interchange within the whole linguistic sphere.

The round table discussion group was made up of Gifreu himself and the Minister for Culture and the Communication Media of the Generalitat de Catalunya (autonomous government), Joan Manuel Tresserras, as well as the Chairman of Escacc, Oriol Cortacans.

The event, attended by close-on two hundred professionals and figures from the world of culture and communication, was held at Blanquerna Communication Faculty of the Universitat Ramon Llull on the evening of the 21st of June.

Here you can read the conference (in Catalan)

Conference video


Articles and features:

ACN
El Mundo
El Punt
El Temps
Comunicació21
InCom-UAB
Tribuna

Some images:

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