A performance by the Catalan group Comediants was the star event of the closing ceremony of the 28th Expolangues 2010, with the Catalan language as the guest of honour. The Comediants moved around the fair as they gave a show based on Ramon Llull’s El llibre de les bèsties (The Book of the Beasts), performing passages from the book combined with poems by Miquel Martí i Pol, among other Catalan authors.
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Comediants - Yvan Gherman
The Comediants’ route finished at the Catalan language stand, where a performance by the Majorcan group TIU began. The band is made up of Anibal Ferrer on percussion, Jaume Llodrà on bass, Jordi Tugores on guitar and Tiu Herrer on vocals. To accompany the concert there was a tasting session with cuisine from the Balearic Islands, including sobrassada (paprika sausage paste) and wine, and flaó (cheesecake) from Ibiza.
OTHER ACTIVITIES THROUGHOUT THE DAY
Throughout the day, various activities related to knowledge and promotion of the Catalan language took place. People attending the fair were able to attend the presentation of Six people in Search of their Home, a live performance that invited the public to discover the historic centre of Alghero and its language with the help of a large map of the city and actors interpreting the history of the city from the Middle Ages to the present day. The Mayor of Alghero, Marco Tedde, was present at the performance. Also on offer was the conference “Catalan, a language of science”, given by Martí Domínguez, the editor of the magazine Mètode at the University of Valencia. The talk was chaired by Enric Aloy i Bosch, Secretary General for Innovation, Universities and Enterprise for the Catalan Government.
The opportunities to study Catalan at French universities was one of the central topics of a round table discussion in the morning entitled “Catalan studies in France”. Taking part were three academics: Monique Güell, the Director of the Centre for Catalan Studies at the University of Paris-Sorbonne; Michel Bourret, the President of the French Association of Catalan Scholars; and Denise Boyer, winner of the 2009 Ramon Llull International Prize, and a former director of the Centre for Catalan Studies at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. The debate was chaired by the Head of the Department of Languages and Universities at the Institut Ramon Llull. A total of nineteen French universities offer Catalan Studies courses, 13 of which are support by the IRL.
At 2.30 p.m., the Catalan language stand was the scene for the presentation of Michel Bourret’s book La Catalogne, une Nation Millénaire (Catalonia, a Thousand-year Old Nation) by the author and Emilie Nief, representing the prestigious French publishing house Autrement, which published the work in October 2009 with the support of the Institut Ramon Llull. Bourret explained that the aim of the book, which is included in the Junior History collection, is to “allow students to get to know a reality and get them interested in fundamental questions such as identity”.
