PICK OF THE WEEK: Saturday, 22nd April – Friday, 28th April, 2023

PICK OF THE WEEK: Andorra (Pyrenees)

Main places:

Andorra la Vella, Escaldes-Engordany, San Julia de Loria, La Massana, Ordino, Encamp, Canillo, Pas de la Casa

CULTURAL EVENTS IN ANDORRA

THE FESTIVAL OF SANT JORDI, THE BOOK AND THE ROSE

Canillo

v Sunday, 23rd April from 9h – 14h – Sale of books by the Municipal Library. – Sale of roses by the associations of mothers and fathers of the

educational systems of Canillo. – Sale of sustainable and solidarity roses from the NGO Local

Development Cooperation Association.

Encamp & Pas de la Casa v Saturday, 22nd April at 17h30 in the Biblioteca Comunal del Pas de la Casa, Encamp. (For children aged between 5 and 10. Registrations: 732 704 or / [email protected]) Children’s Workshop: What a beautiful dragon. Creative and family activity in which masks will be made on the occasion of Saint George’s Day.

Ordino v Saturday, 22nd April from 11h – 13h & 16h – 18h in the Casa d’Areny-Plandolit Museum, Ordino. (Reservations at: 836 908 / 839 760 or [email protected]) Sant Jordi bookmark workshop. Create your own bookmark inspired by the Casa d’Areny-Plandolit Museum. Throughout the day we will have a table outside the Museum so that anyone who wants to can paint.

La Massana v Saturday, 22nd April at 11h30 in the Municipal Library of La Massana, La Massana. (For children aged 4 – 8. Pre-registration required: Phone: 838 910) La flor del panical (The panicle flower)

Narrator Jordina BIOSCA will tell us the story ¨La flor del panical¨. A king falls seriously injured. No one is able to heal the wound in his leg and his life is in danger of death. However an old man informs the monarch and his three daughters that there is indeed something that can cure him: the panicle flower. This is how, in order of age, the three girls go out to look for the flower that is supposed to heal their father’s leg. Whoever finds it out of the three, will be the future queen of those lands. Now, this reward may or may not be the key to finding the flower. Short and direct, this beautiful story shows human attitudes when riches and power mark initiatives that should be dictated by heart and responsibility.

Andorra la Vella v Saturday, 22nd April at the FNAC at the Pyrenees, Andorra la Vella. Sant Jordi at the FNAC: Book signing.

From 18h – 19h:

– Iñaki Rubio, Morts qui us ha mort? Dead, who killed you? In 1943, Andorra faced the onslaught of European gunpowder as best it could. Spain was immersed in the worst post-war period; France was suffering from the Nazi occupation. In this context, in Cal Gastó, a gunshot rang out. Months later, the brother who remained alive was sentenced to death and executed in the public square. Which death was more unfair? This chronicle tries to answer that.

From 18h – 20h:

– Noemí Rodríguez: El que mai et vaig dir./What I never told you. They are intimate reflections on life and mainly talk about “how the little things that hurt us can generate a lot of suffering”. The moral of the story is that the only person who can fix these problems is yourself.

– Francina Pons: Moles i molins fariners / Mills and flour mills of Andorra. Francina Pons Pifarré began documenting the Tobira hydraulic flour mill, which could not withstand the onslaught of urban growth and was demolished in 1974. From this story was born the author’s concern to document the lost mill, where many families went to grind the grain to obtain flour and make bread at home, and leave testimony to the stories it housed.

– Pau Chica Fernàndez: Andorra i la Guerra Civil Espanyola, / Andorra and the Spanish Civil War. The book was commissioned by Cal Pal and the purpose was to study how the fact that one of its neighbours was at war for almost three years affected Andorra and, by extension, how this conflict could affect the country. The book pays special attention to the more than 17,000 refugees who passed through the country.

– Grela Bravo, Maneras de decirlo / Ways to say it

– Josep Dalleres, El camí de la Constitució /The road to the Constitution, In this volume, the prolific Andorran writer, Josep Enric Dallerès brings us closer to the years of the Andorran constituent process, especially the decades before 1993, detailing the various factors – internal and external – that led Andorra to begin the process of drawing up a written constitution. A path, however, that was not easy, and in which not all the political representatives of the seventies and eighties, at the time of the reform of the institutions, joined in the same direction. Thirty years after the referendum, Dallerès’s contribution allows us to approach decades that have not been discussed and the problems of Andorra at the moment, in full transformation and political upheaval.

From 19h30 – 20h30

– Joan Peruga and Txema Díaz-Torrent: Shanghai Andorra is a novel that revolves around the life of Ursula Simpson (1930-2007), who was born in Shanghai, but lived many years in the Principality. (An amazing woman, with a character writ large and a beautiful writing style, Ursula was one of the very first English-speaking people to settle in Andorra. As a teenager, living in Cairo, she sent a short story to the renowned short story magazine, Blackwoods.(1870 – 1980) They accepted her piece with alacrity saying, “And if it’s true you are only 18 then you are the youngest author we have ever published.” Ursula replied, “It is not true. I am 17.” CA)

v Sunday, 23rd April from 10h – 20h at the Plaça del Poble d’Andorra la Vella. Activities: – Throughout the day: Born to read in the square! (Register your child – aged from 0 to 3 – and you will receive a very special gift. More information at the Government Public Library, tel.: 828750 )

From 12h – 14h Book signing. – 13h. A suitcase of stories: “The legend of St. Jordi de veritat” by La Moixera and Líquid Dansa – 17h. Musical performance with Odara Quartet

Sant Julià de Lòria v Sunday, 23rd April from 10h in the Plaça Laurèdia, Sant Julià de Lòria. (For more information: University Cultural Library: 744 010 or [email protected]. Tourism Department – Tourism Office: 744 045 or [email protected])

Escaldes-Engordany v Sunday, 23rd April from 10h – 14h at Thyssen Museum, Escaldes-Engordany. (Limited places. Prior reservation at +376 800 800 or [email protected] ) The Carmen Thyssen Andorra Museum will participate in the Sant Jordi Fair organized by the Commune of Escaldes-Engordany with a stall located in Plaça Coprínceps where art books and products from the museum’s shop will be sold.

SANT JORDI FOR CHILDREN

(See also the Children’s section lower down.) v Saturday, 22nd April at the Thyssen Museum, Escaldes-Engordany. (Family activity from aged 4. All children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Registrations: / +376 800 800 [email protected] ) Bookmark workshop: Thyssen activities. Coinciding with Sant Jordi, the activities will focus on books and roses. We propose a family workshop at the museum, in which participants can design a bookmark with a red rose and accompany it with a poem.

Hours:

Saturday sessions: 11h30, 12h30, 16h and 17h v Saturday, 22nd April at 11h30 and 17h at the Escaldes-Engordany Municipal Library, Escaldes-Engordany. (For children aged from 3 to 10. Advance reservation at +376 802 256 or [email protected]) A suitcase of stories. ‘The legend of Sant Jordi for real!’ Legend has it that the princess wears a dress. Legend has it that Sant Jordi must save the princess. Legend has it that the dragon is the bad guy. Who says that? A legend? Well, I want to believe that things went differently. A fun version of the traditional legend of Sant Jordi! v Saturday, 22nd April at 17h30 at Pas de la Casa Municipal Library, Encamp. (For children aged between 5 and 10. Registrations: 732 704 / [email protected]) Children’s workshop: ‘What a beautiful dragon!’ Creative and family activity in which masks will be made on the occasion of Sant Jordi’s Day. v Sunday, 23rd April from 11h30 – 12h at the MW Electricity Museum, Encamp. (Reservations at: + 376 739 111 or – [email protected]) Storytellers ‘Colour Drops’ A bag of stories and FEDA Cultura invite you to listen to a story to sensitize the little ones about the importance of water and its preservation.

The village river is dry. Little Nirina needs the help of the world’s rivers, so she embarks on a fascinating journey in search of her magic drops. During her adventure she visits countries, meets very funny people and learns the songs and dances that children sing and dance in their different countries.

Family, don’t miss it! v Sunday, 23rd April at 17h30 at the Plaça Coprínceps, Escaldes-Engordany. Children’s show: “BUNJI, the little koala” Bunji is a koala who lives in a unique place: a eucalyptus forest. Koalas have very little daily activity, which is why the temperament of our protagonist makes her tribe dance. When everyone is sleeping, she wants to play, discover, climb… Why doesn’t she behave like the rest? But suddenly, an unexpected event will shake the village and force Bunji to move away from her home. What will happen to the little koala? Come and find out! (In case of rain, the show will be moved to the auditorium of the Municipality of Escaldes-Engordany)

April Fair in Sant Julià de Lòria

From Saturday 22nd – to Sunday, 23rd April Through the streets of the parish, Sant Julià de Lòria..

v The Laurediana April Fair will be an event full of fun and designed for the whole family. Both Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd there will be live performances by artists from the country such as Johel Artista, Francisco Amat, Alba Cañabate and the flamenco dance group Alendoy Flamenc Andorra. In addition, there will be live entertainment by the Colla Laurediana and guest DJs who will set the music and the atmosphere to enjoy this event with a festive and Andalusian atmosphere to the fullest. There will be live music and dance in the garden in front of the Plaça de la Germandat-

MUSIC v Saturday, 22nd April at 18h at Roca & Ribes, Andorra la Vella Performance by guest artist DJ Patricia Montovani, as part of the Roca & Ribes Concert Series with the musical talent of Andorra. Come and enjoy an evening of live music at the Roca &

Ribes store.

These concerts are designed to promote the country’s young musical artists. In addition, we will have the presence of Ratassia de la Carmeta, a small company producing artisan liqueur based on walnuts and healing herbs from the mountains of Andorra, and harvested by hand. Saturday, 22nd April at 21h30 at the Andorra National Auditorium, Ordino. (General admission: €20. VR seats (reduced vision): €15. 15% with the youth card. Tickets available on line at the link near the top above.) Season 2023 National Auditorium of Andorra. Concert: Clara Peya ‘Piano solo & Electronica’ In the month of April, the National Auditorium will vibrate with one of the most original and unique creators who have appeared in recent times on the Spanish music scene:

A frenetic biography that moves between music, theatre and activism. Avant-garde and transgressive, musically Peya is unclassifiable: she swings between jazz, pop and electronica, always keeping the piano as her centre of gravity. This will be a journey through her musical career in which she adapts already published songs and lets us discover unpublished ones as well.

Peya will appear alone in front of the piano playing the keys and combining instrumental passages of a magnetic pianism with synthesizers and electronic bases that generate this unique atmosphere of the pianist in which every little detail is as intense as it is essential.

A unique opportunity to enjoy an exquisite and avant-garde concert.

v Sunday, 23rd April from 11h – 14h singing traditional Caramelles and starting at the Casa Comuna, the Coral Rocafort & Petitis Cantaires Lauredieans will then parade through the streets of the parish of Sant Julià de Lòria ending in the Plaça de la Germendat.

CHILDREN v Saturday, 22nd April at 11h at the University Community Library – Reig Factory Museum, Sant Julià de Lòria. (Registrations: For more information: Communal University Library: (+376) 744 010 or [email protected]

Storyteller The Piper of the Mountain. Moor lives happily in the mountains with his flock and goats, but an unexpected event will take him from his village to the palace, to a dungeon, and to travel the world with his bagpipe .

People who act or intervene: Maria Valuen. v Saturday, 22nd April from 17h & 18h30 in the Teatre Communal, Andorra la Vella. (Registrations: La Llacuna Cultural Centre Tel. 730 037. Adults: €4. Children free and from aged 6) Children’s Chinese Shadow Show: Fratelli La Strada. The black cat and other naughty shadows plus live music. This is the journey of a fly that accompanies us from beginning to end. All the stories, scenery, puppets, music and sound of the play are original, created and performed by Fratelli La Strada. Maximum punctuality is requested. Once the performance has started, entry to the room will not be allowed. v Friday, 28th April at 17h30 at the University Community Library Garden – Reig Factory Museum, Sant Julià de Lòria.

(More information E-mail: [email protected] Tel. +376 744 044.)

A show for all audiences. Duration: 50 minutes Garden time – Puppet show with Teatrino Dei Piedi. ‘See here that once there were… two feet!’ Verònica González has two feet like almost all people in this world… But her feet are special: they embody grotesque characters who live in stories where absurdity and poetry magically merge. These flesh-and-blood puppets perform, with music and a subtle touch of humour, scenes rich in fantasy, rhythm and colour.

A show that makes audiences all over the world dream, without language or age limits.

EXHIBITIONS

v NEW! Until Saturday, 20th May at the Edifici Sociocultural l’Estudi, Ordino. The Woman and the Bird’ – Exhibition of Markos’ drawings. Of lights and shadows. Inspired by the diversity of forms. From feeling to emotion. Letting the feeling fly. A wide universe of possibilities. From where, in time, I take some image. And it offers them between frame and horizon. 7 drawings dedicated to “The woman and the bird”

– Washing technique (Chinese ink)

– With golden acrylic

People who act or intervene: Mark Roussel

Opening hours:

Monday to Friday from 9h – 20h

Saturdays from 9h to 13h v Until Sunday, 23rd April at the MW Electricity Museum, Encamp. (Limited places. Prior reservation required: 376 739 111 or [email protected]) Photography exhibition: “A sustainable view”. What is sustainability for you? How would you capture it in a photograph?

If the eyes are the mirror of the soul, the photographs are the mirror of our emotions. Winners of A sustainable look photographic competition. The thirteen photographers participating in this exhibition have captured their vision of sustainability and the impact of human beings on the planet.

Each person has their own view on sustainability, but we strive to make it a more conscious view and with an intention to improve.

Nature returns its reflection to us depending on how we treat it. Let’s observe it and take care of it to look to the future with hope.

Opening Hours: From Tuesday to Saturday from 9h30 – 13h30 and from 315h – 18h30. Sunday from 10h – 14h.

v Until Thursday, 27th April at the Spanish Embassy in Andorra,

Andorra la Vella. Footprint in Andorra by Jorge Colomina.

Although Colomina’s artistic activity is close to the “Figurativo abstracto”, the artist is constantly looking for the definition of his own style, based on the mixture of warm, bright, vivid, moving colours and geometric shapes and fleeting lines that express their passion and emotions. The result, a work in which balance and coherence are two of its main attributes.

In his more than four decades of artistic production, Colomina has exhibited his works in different cities in Spain (Málaga, Girona, Platja d’Aro), France (Paris, Lyon, Cannes, Montpellier), China (Shanghai), Luxembourg, Belgium (Brussels), Canada (Montreal) and Morocco.

Hours: Monday to Friday from 10h – 13h and 16h – 19h and 10h – 13h on Saturdays. Sundays closed. v Until Friday, 28th April from 9h at the Centre Cultural La Llacuna, Andorra la Vella. Colour in the Dark by Cecília Santañes Molina. Colour in the Dark is a personal story, an illustrated diary born from the need to share the ups and downs of going through breast cancer. An inner dialogue where monsters come to life and dots of colour mark the path in the gloom. The people who accompany me in the process put these points of colour giving me the warmth and light necessary to not get lost on the way. v Until Sunday, 30th April at the Hotel Roc Blanc, Escaldes-Engordany.

Andorran artist Mireia Tarrés exhibits in the lobby of the Hotel Roc Blanc. An exhibition focused on landscapes, both natural and urban, day and night, all made with the watercolour technique. The artist captures in her work the sensations she perceives when she contemplates the landscapes that surround her. She does not aim to copy reality but to embody the sensations that the environment reveals to her, she seeks to transmit the dynamism of the city, the light of a specific moment of the day, the sensation of a snowy winter day, or the beauty of an underwater world…. These are some of the themes that can be seen in this exhibition.

v Until 14th May at the Government Exhibition Hall, Jaume Riba. Walking. (In my opinion, Riba is Andorra’s premier photographer. To date I have five of his books of photographs and can recognise his work pretty much anywhere. CA) At the inauguration, the Minister of Culture, Sílvia Riva said, “After years of photographing landscapes, people, rivers, flowers, valleys and mountains, customs, experiences, territories and spaces, today we have the privilege of exhibiting in the Government Exhibition Hall the best and most representative of the work of

Jaume Riba, in an exhibition that exudes the irreducible love for the country, nature and people.”

The hall is open from all day Tuesday to Sunday mornings, from 10h – 13h and from 15h30 – 20h. v Until Saturday, 8th July in the Comic Museum, La Massana. Fragments of the Pyrenees’ collects some comic pages of the Bulgarian artist, resident in Andorra, Spaska Peeva. The artist tells us his journey from Kyrgyzstan with fictitious stories, inspired by his own experiences along the way and the stories of the places he has visited, especially related to the areas of the Pyrenees.

v Until Sunday, 27th August, 2023 at the Casa d’Areny-Plandolit Museum, Ordino. (Admission: €2.50. Free on September 25th and 26th. The last access to the room will be 30 mins. before closing.) Abracadabra: Illusionism and magic in Cal Plandolit. Discover one of the least known facets of the iconic Areny-Plandolit family – the connection between some of its members within the world of magic, where they stood out prominently on the Spanish and international scene during the first half of the twentieth century. v Until Saturday, 30th September, at the Bike Lab Andorra. Andorra Bicycle Museum, Andorra la Vella.

The woman and the bicycle’ Temporary exhibition of the Bici Lab Andorra museum. The temporary exhibition with which the museum opens, The woman and the bicycle’ explains how this invention was a symbol and also a battlefield to fight first for female emancipation and, nowadays, towards equality between women and men. Thirteen stories of women cyclists from all time illustrate small big moments of women’s relationship with two wheels from the end of the 19th century to the present day. And from using the bike as a tool to escape the control of husbands and fathers, to fight for equality in professional cycling. v Until Sunday, 7th January, 2024 at the Thyssen Museum, Escaldes-Engordany (Rates – with audio-guide included: General admission: €9. Reduced rate: from 18 to 30 years, +65 years and Crèdit Andorrà customers: €5 Free admission for those under 18 years) Khroma. The emotional universe of colour’. The Carmen Thyssen Andorra Museum hosts its seventh exhibition, an exhibition that aims to delve into the particular importance of each colour and how this appreciation can vary from one person to another.

Colours have historically been associated with moods, as well as very specific situations. Beyond the purely artistic aspect, Khroma concentrates on the study of sensations and invites each visitor to become the key element of the emotional message that will be transmitted throughout the visit.

This chromatic journey, illustrating 34 works by 35 artists ranging from the 19th century to pop and contemporary art, focuses on six colour groups, each of which recreates a monochrome story, ultimately resulting in an overall polychrome that embodies the links between all the presented works. This year, the public will be able to admire one of the works of the famous Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky and, alongside him, many other creators from all over the world.

Opening hours; From Tuesday to Friday, from 10h – 18h. Saturdays from 10h – 19h. Sundays from 10h –14h. Mondays, closed NOTE: Last access to exhibition 30 min. before closing.

v Until 9th January, 2024 at Cal Pal, La Cortinada. Refugees. Andorra, host country”. Cal Pal presents a new exhibition that, under the title of Refugees. Andorra, host country, takes a tour through the history of refugees and those who offered refuge in our country, through an exhibition of archival and photographic material, war material and audio-visuals, and with proposals for various itinerant activities.

We discover how Andorra experienced the arrival of these thousands of refugees during the wars of the 20th century, especially during the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. Many of them took root in the country, having great importance in the economic evolution of Andorra. This human capital also caused a great social, political and cultural change, forever marking Andorran identity and character.

Refugees Andorra, host country also focuses on the current displaced people, inviting the visitor to reflect on the relationship we should have in the future towards those who are forced to leave their territory.

Opening hours:

Saturdays: 10h – 14h & 15h – 19h

Sundays: 10h – 14h