Figueres, 1947 – Torroella de Montgrí, 2016
He was the first director of the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, between 1988 and 1989. He has been a philosophy lecturer at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (1972-1979), editor of Transición and El Viejo Topo magazines (1979-1982), visiting lecturer at the University of Glasgow (1975) and the New York University (1983), coordinator of the Barcelona-New York Chair (1983-1985), co-editor of Saber magazine (1984-1986), President of the col·legi de Filosofia (1984-1986) and guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC (1996).
Between 1985 and 1995 he worked as Cultural Coordinator for Barcelona City Council, chief executive of Olimpíada Cultural S.A. and mayoral advisor for Cultural Affairs in Barcelona. During this period he promoted, coordinated and, in some cases, personally directed the following projects, among others: the exhibition “Homage to Barcelona”, presented in London (Hayward Gallery, 1985), Barcelona (Palau de la Virreina, 1986) and Kobe (Museum of Modern Art, 1987); the commissioning of the dome of the Mercat de les Flors to Miquel Barceló; the organization and co-direction, with Anthony Caro, of the Triangle workshop (1987); founding of the Institut d’Humanitats de Barcelona (1987), in collaboration with Xavier Rubert de Ventós and Josep Ramoneda; constitution of the Consorci del Centre de Cultura de Contemporània de la Casa de la Caritat (1988), which he directed from 1988 to 1989, and the Consorci del Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (1988); direction, together with Josep Acebillo, of the exhibitions “Barcelona, la ciutat i el 92” (1988 and 1990) and “Barcelona, la ciutat i la gent” (1995). He has been responsible for the curatorship of, among other exhibitions, “Miquel Barceló, 1987-1997”, at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (1998); “Oteiza”, at the Espacio Kutxa-Kursaal, San Sebastian (1999); “Leading Lights of the 20th Century: Le Corbusier, Man of Letters” (2000), “Africas: the Artist and the City” (2001), “Bamako’03” (2004) ,”Bamako’05” (2006) and “Bamako’07” (2009), and “Apartheid, the South African Mirror” (2007) all at the CCCB; as well as “Jane Alexandre. On being human” (2009), at Durham’s cathedral, and “Johannesburg: Emerging/Diverging Metropolis”, at the Accademia di Architettura de Mendrisio (2007).
He was the author of the books Mites i raons de la modernitat (Ed. 62, 1984), Full de dames (Ed. Destino, 1992), L’esquerra i la qüestió nacional i altres paradoxes (Ed. 62, 1992), La rosa del desert (Ed. Destino, 1993), El vol de la fletxa. Barcelona’92: Crònica de la reinvenció de la ciutat (Ed. Electa-Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, 1994), Cita a Tombuctú (Premi Josep Pla 1996, Ed. Destino, 1996), Miquel Barceló, 1987-1997 (Ed. Actar/Macba, 1998), Ciutat ideal, ciutat real. Significat i funció a l’espai urbà contemporani (CCCB, Barcelona 1998), Breu història del Futur (Ed. Destino, 1998), Àfriques: l’artista i la ciutat (Ed. Actar/CCCB, 2001), Sobre la felicitat i altres neguits, o de com totes les aigües es comuniquen (Ed. Destino, 2003), Ara sé que és ella (Ed. 62, 2006) and Ser immigrant a Catalunya (Ed. 62, 2010) result of the research and documentation study commissioned by the CCCB.