It is now thirty years since La Capella del carrer de l’Hospital became one of the great centres for the exhibition and promotion of contemporary creation. Do you want to celebrate with them? They are doing so with the exhibition Entre les pedres. 30 years of La Capella, which you can see between 28 November and 19 January and with a cycle of lectures on 28 and 30 November.

La Capella is part of the architectural complex of the former Hospital de la Santa Creu i de Sant Pau, a building that was once the city’s health centre. The Chapel, in particular, was built in 1444 for the purpose for which its name indicates. However, the modern history of the space probably began in 1968, when the building experienced a very special moment: a major retrospective exhibition of Joan Miró was presented there. It was from 1994 onwards, when the space opened with the aim of presenting the contemporary works of the city’s emerging talents (in the photo. Image: Jordi Calafell. Courtesy of the Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona).

The event is being celebrated with a series of talks entitled Una història oral. 30 anys de La Capella, which, between 28 and 30 November, will discuss precisely what effect this facility has had on Barcelona life and, specifically, on contemporary creation. On 26th January 1994, the first exhibition of the cycle La cambra daurada, curated by Manel Clot, was inaugurated, thus writing the first chapter of La Capella’s trajectory as a space for emerging creation. They will talk to you about this and many other things, in a series of talks led by Oriol Grau, who was the director of La Capella between 1994 and 2020 and who knows the history of the centre inside out.

Also taking part are talks on the beginnings of the venue, such as the one on the 28th, with the independent curator Luisa Ortínez, the critic Gloria Picazo and the artist Javier Peñafiel. The day ends with a DJ session by Carles Congost and Ari Cardozo. The activity continues on Saturday, 30th, with a debate in the morning on projects of collaboration and collaboration between La Capella and other similar spaces and projects and, in the afternoon, on production in the field of emerging visual arts in Barcelona. A popular paella will round off the activities on the 30th.

On the same day, the 28th, after Oriol Grau’s talk with Ortínez, Picazo and Peñafiel, the exhibition Entre les pedres. 30 anys de La Capella, will be open. The exhibition focuses on the publications that the centre has produced in its thirty years of life. The SSOP collective, dedicated to exhibition design and made up of Nerea de Lezana, Mateo Palazzi, Juan Ezcurra and Ignacio Ezcurra, has been commissioned to create an exhibition in which the different publications are in dialogue with each other.

Finally, and coinciding with the equipment’s thirtieth anniversary, the exhibition Difàcil will also be inaugurated at the Espai Rampa, the centre’s secondary exhibition space. From 28 November to 19 January, it shows the experience of collaboration between the students of the Aldana School and the artist Jaume Clotet. If you want to see works by younger artists, don’t miss it.

If you want to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of La Capella, come and visit the centre one of these days, but first check out the programme of exhibitions and activities on its website.