Mobile World Capital Barcelona combines art, technology and innovation to help understand the impact of digital transformation

• This new initiative includes 10 dialogues, 10 artistic creations and 10 inspiring routes that will take the impact of digital transformation to Barcelona’s 10 districts
• Marc Vidal, Josep Ramoneda, Francesca Bria and Josep A. Planell are among the 60 speakers that will take part in the first edition of Mobile Week Barcelona

January 24, 2017

Mobile World Capital Barcelona launches Mobile Week Barcelona, a new initiative to encourage open reflection on the impact of digital transformation and mobile technology. The event will take place between 20 – 26 February and will include activities in all 10 of Barcelona’s districts that will be carried out in more than 60 cultural and scientific facilities, centres for innovation or investigation and universities, among others.

As a city project, Mobile Week Barcelona has been conceived to address the challenges, limits and opportunities that stem from the digital revolution we are immersed in from a civic point of view. For this reason, it will gather artists, scientists, thinkers, engineers, entrepreneurs and professionals from the cultural sector in a wide-ranging event that is open to the public and free of charge.

According to Aleix Valls, CEO of Mobile World Capital Barcelona, “For the first time, we are bringing together entrepreneurship, the tech industry and culture in a programme of activities that will fill the city of Barcelona and allow the general public to see how digitisation is changing our everyday lives.” It is, therefore, a transgressive project that fuses the latest technological advances with artistic insights in emblematic places throughout the city. Jaume Collboni, Barcelona’s Deputy Mayor for Business, Culture and Innovation, explains that, “This initiative is the first step towards holding a city-wide congress on mobile technology involving the general public, entrepreneurs and artists.” Collboni also points out that this event seeks to make the most of Barcelona’s position as the fifth most important tech hub in Europe and, “aims to reach out to the entire city, to all ten districts and focus on ten subjects in order to bring mobile technology closer to the general population and showcase Barcelona’s first-class cultural and scientific facilities.” 

The programme: 10 dialogues, 10 creations, 10 routes

Mobile Week Barcelona will offer 3 types of activity that will be carried out in parallel in each of the city’s districts.

Firstly, dialogues: 10 conversations that will take place twice daily between 20 – 24 February (13:00 – 14:30 and 19:00 to 21:00), featuring entrepreneurs, artists, scholars, thinkers, creators and scientists. Some of the nearly 60 speakers whose presence has already been confirmed include Marc Vidal, a digital transformation consultant; Josep Ramoneda, a journalist, philosopher and writer; Francesca Bria, Chief Technology and Digital Innovation Officer at Barcelona City Hall; and Josep A. Planell, Dean of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, among others. Together with Mobile World Capital Barcelona representatives, they will all address the social, cultural and economic impact of digital transformation.

These round table sessions will generate a total of 15 hours’ worth of content and will tackle subjects ranging from “The future of cities” (20 February at 19:00, Disseny Hub), to “Education and technology” (22 February at 13:00, Institut Escola del Treball), “Artificial Intelligence and the human mind” (23 February at 13:00, La Salle, Universitat Ramón Llull) to “The new collaborative society” (24 February at 13:00, Parc Tecnològic de Nou Barris), among others.

Secondly, Mobile Week Barcelona will include 10 artistic creations inspired in digital transformation. The pieces, selected by means of a public competition launched last December, will illustrate each artist’s perspective on digitisation and the impact of technology on different areas of society.

These artworks have been created using different artistic disciplines such as letters, video art, cinema, painting, sculpture, music, photography, urban art, etc. and will be exhibited in institutions and facilities in the city’s 10 districts.

Lastly, the planned programme also includes 10 inspiring routes through Barcelona’s 10 districts which aim to rediscover the city’s most important spaces for creation, innovation, digital culture, technology and thinking. These tours are free and will have a duration of 3 hours. Places are limited and must be reserved by registering at www.mobileweekbcn.com.

The programme for the event, promoted by Mobile World Capital Barcelona in partnership with Barcelona City Hall, has had the support of an Advisory Board formed by Artur Serra, Deputy Director of the i2cat Foundation; Cecilia Tham, founder of Makers of Barcelona; Francesc Pedró, Education Policy Advisor at UNESCO; Itziar de Lecuona, Assistant Director of the Bioethics and Law Observatory at the University of Barcelona; Jordi Sellas, CSO at Minoria Absoluta; Josep Ramoneda, journalist, philosopher and writer; Marisol López, Director of the Digital Culture Department at ICEC (Catalan Institute of Cultural Companies); Montserrat Vendrell, partner at Alta Life Sciences; Ramón López de Mántaras, Director of the IIIA (Artificial Intelligence and Research Institute) at the CSIC (Spanish Council for Scientific Research) and Tomás Díez of Fab City Research Laboratory at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC). 

A civic project

Mobile World Capital Barcelona also offers a parallel programme within the framework of Mobile Week Barcelona which will group together activities held by entities and institutions linked to technology, education, entrepreneurship, science, art and culture. These activities will be framed within Off Week which, in this first edition, will include 50 additional proposals to complement the official programme.

Mobile World Capital Barcelona will also promote 2 of its own activities that will take place within the Off Week programme at the Mobile World Centre. Both are free and open to the public. The first is “A Mobile Story, Virtual Escape Room”, an exhibition that highlights the impact of mobile technology on our everyday lives; the second, “A window on the Mobile World Congress”, an activity that, for the fourth year running, will offer a special programme to bring the public closer to the latest technological advances that will be shown at the GMSA Mobile World Congress.