Casa Asia has decided to make the most of its new location, in the heart of Raval. With neighbors such as the MACBA, the CCCB, the Institut Confunci, the CIDOB, the Liceu, the Ateneu Barcelonès or La Central, the entity is weaving its programming with new proposals and collaborations after years of certain instability and forced changes. “Being in the center of the city opens up many possibilities for us, here we open a new stage, although always with the objective set in what should be our final headquarters, in the Pedralbes palace”, maintains Javier Parrondo, director of Casa Àsia.
At the beginning of the summer, the entity left its office at 22@ to settle, provisionally, in the old chapel of the Infants Orfes, on Elisabets street. The transfer of this space by the City Council, in addition to financial relief for the entity, has meant the end of the journey of recent years, during which Casa Àsia has occupied three different spaces.
The one on Elisabets street is presented as the temporary headquarters of this diplomatic institution. The urgent objective is the two Pedralbes pavilions, as was endorsed at the last meeting of the Governing Council held last July. The City Council, the Generalitat and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs agreed and made public the transfer to Pedralbes in June 2021, during the celebration of the entity’s 20th anniversary.
Two years later, after resolving the competition to rehabilitate the future headquarters and obtaining the co-financing of 2.5 million with Next Generation funds, the City Council plans to tender the works in May 2024. “The objective is to be able to inaugurate the new headquarters in 2026 ; the City Council will guarantee the financing of the works because it is a strategic project for us”, assures Pau Solanilla, the new commissioner for City Promotion.
“Although initially there was talk of an investment of between 4 and 4.5 million, the final project will amount to between 6 and 6.5 million,” says Solanilla. Beyond the contribution of the Next Generation “the City Council will ensure that the investments are met within the established deadlines, but we also want to involve the Generalitat and give the project a new look by exploring public-private collaborations”, she adds.
“We hope that all the administrations continue collaborating and working to have the headquarters as soon as possible”, maintains the director of Casa Asia, Javier Parrondo, who at the same time is very satisfied with the current location, “which allows us to open lines of collaboration with many entities and greater integration and visibility in the heart of Barcelona”. So much so that, once the Pedralbes headquarters is operational, the option of maintaining the Infants Orfes chapel as a sub-headquarters or ‘antenna’ of Casa Asia is gaining weight, a central and emblematic space in which the entity can continue organizing events and activities.
The next collaboration that illustrates this new stage is the appointment on October 6 at the La Central bookstore. As part of the international literary residencies organized by the Barcelona Institute of Culture (ICUB) as part of the UNESCO Barcelona City of Literature programme, Singaporean writer Sharlene Teo will talk about her book Ponti with the director of Casa Asia, Javier Parrondo and Jordi Serrano. Other activities of the entity have already had the complicity of the Ateneu Barcelonès, scene of the dialogue between Òscar Pujol and Agustí Pàniker on La Bhagavagita, the most popular text of Hinduism.
On the table other initiatives, such as the promotion of the Asia Choir or activities that complement the programming of neighboring entities. For example, taking advantage of the Turandot program at the Liceu, a cycle to delve into this work set in Central Asia. In the same headquarters of the institution, which has three floors, it is also planned to organize small format events.
