• From 17 May to 12 June, Milan will be in the spotlight at Guest Cities, a conference in collaboration with the Italian General Consulate in Barcelona and its “Futura” project
• Participants will include institutional representatives such as the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, the Mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, and the General Consul of Italy in Barcelona, Gaia Danese
• Experts such as Valentí Oviedo (Liceu), the architect Andrea Caputo and Isabel García Frontera (FREE NOW) will debate design, culture, mobility and sustainability
• The agenda will be completed with concerts, a masterclass by Speranza Scapucci, a meeting with the translator of Umberto Eco’s work and gastronomy by the Colombo brothers

Barcelona, 13 May 2021. This month CASA SEAT kicks off the conference Guest Cities: Milano (17 May – 12 June), which will gather experts, institutional representatives and artists from Milan in Barcelona in order to boost relations between the two cities and establish alliances. The program is supported by the Italian Consulate, as part of the “Futura” initiative, a comprehensive promotion event of Sistema Italia dedicated to the cultural future of cities, and the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Barcelona.

For more than three weeks, more than twenty local and Italian participants are meeting at CASA SEAT to discuss mobility, urban design and cultural industries, and there will also be a full musical agenda with the aim of contributing to the exchange of ideas and reactivating various industries after more than one year of the pandemic.

The main event of the conference will take place on 27 May and will be attended by the Mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau, the Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala and the General Consul of Italy in Barcelona Gaia Danese, who will meet to exchange the visions of the future of these cities and build bridges between two creative, innovative and leading cities in new models of mobility. The event will be rounded off with a round table discussion between representatives of different cultural bodies from Milan to learn about strategic plans for the reactivation of the cultural industries including Umberto Angelini, artistic director of the Triennale di Milano.

Expert opinions from all sectors

Guest Cities: Milano at CASA SEAT will also host prestigious guests representing the trends and movements that will shape the future of cities. In the field of mobility and business, Inmaculada Riera, General Director of The Spanish Chamber of Commerce, Isabel García Frontera, Director of Operations at FREE NOW, and Igor Garzesi, President of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Barcelona and CEO of Banco Mediolanum, will take part in a round table discussion on 19 May about the customer centric to people centric shift in mobility services.

In the field of cultural industries, names such as Valentí Oviedo, director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Juan Carlos Martel, director of Teatre Lliure, and Helena Lozano Miralles, translator into Spanish of Umberto Eco and winner of the Italian Republic’s Premio Nazionale per la Traduzione in 2006 stand out. Finally, to highlight the excellence in design and architecture for which Barcelona and Milan are known worldwide, Benedetta Tagliabue, a renowned architect based in Barcelona, will engage in a dialogue with Ana Bassat, who led the architectural project for the Spanish pavilion at Expo2015 in Milan. In addition, will also be attending the architect Andrea Caputo, winner of the competition for the urban renewal of Piazzale Loreto in Milan with the LOC. Loreto Open Community project.

A musical journey: from the 18th century to the present day

In the field of music, Guest Cities: Milano will offer citizens a journey from the eighteenth century to the present day. On June 2, pianist Eudald Buch is giving a concert at CASA SEAT to reflect the musical evolution up to the modern piano thanks to the relationship between Italy and Spain, performing pieces by Domenico Scarlatti, Giovanni Battista Sammartini, Ludwig Van Beethoven and Ferruccio Busoni. 

In turn, orchestra conductor Speranza Scapucci, distinguished with the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government and who has recently successfully conducted La Traviata at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, will offer a masterclass on Puccini’s La bohème on May 26. Finally, on 12 June there will be a double session of CASA SEAT’s BCN Z Sessions by Wannabe Z Music, focused on promoting emerging artists, which will bring together the cities of Barcelona and Milan through the Italian singer-songwriter Effenberg, the melodies of the Barcelona-based composer Giancarlo Arena and the fast-paced pop of the Catalan group The Crab Apples.

Italian gastronomy served up by the Colombo brothers

During the three weeks of Guest Cities: Milano, the menu of CASA SEAT’s café-restaurant Ametller Origen Mercat d’Autors will also include two iconic dishes from Milan courtesy of Max Colombo, chef and co-owner alongside his brother Stefano of the well-known Italian restaurant Xemei, serving up veal Milanese and sautéed rice.

The complete Guest Cities: Milano program will be available at www.casa.seat/en/guest-cities-milano.html, as well as free tickets for the various activities.