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Juan Insua

Director del CCCB Lab

Director of CCCB Lab

Juan Insua has been linked since 1993 to the CCCB, where he has worked directing projects from a range of posts and responsibilities.

In the field of literature, he has been curator of the exhibitions: James Joyce’s Dublin (1995), The Lisbons of Pessoa (1997), The City of K. Kafka and Prague (1999), Cosmopolis. Borges and Buenos Aires (2002), Hyperiment. Hypertext Brought into Play (2004), Julio Cortázar (2004), The World of Gao (2004), Lector Mundi. Ten Thousand Ways to Read (2005), Kosmotica (2008) and Bolaño Archive. 1977-2003 (2013), and director of the biennial festival Kosmopolis. Amplified Literature Fest (2002 - present).

As director of cultural projects and programmes, he was head of the CCCB’s Cultural Activities Service from 2005 to 2010, where he worked in collaboration with groups and collectives of Barcelona and created projects for reflection on current affairs issues such as NOW. Meetings in the Present Continuous, I+C+i. Research and Innovation in the Cultural Sphere, Nano (children’s programme) and BCNmp7 (music programme).

Since 2010 he has directed the CCCB Lab, a department involved in cultural research and innovation which publishes a blog-magazine featuring articles by experts linked to the department’s themes and carries out activities and projects such as Virtual Global Screen, Internet Universe and Cultural Innovation International Prize.

His work has been awarded different prizes and plaudits, prominently including the Premi Ciutat de Barcelona 2003 for the exhibition Cosmopolis. Borges and Buenos Aires and the Medalla FAD 2008, a medal awarded each year by Foment de les Arts i el Disseny (Arts Promotion and Design - FAD).

His latest project is the exhibition Mars. The red mirror of which he was curator and which could be visited at the CCCB from February until July 2021.


Articles

Mars. The Red Mirror

Genesis of an Exhibition

Juan Insua

Publication date: 17/11/2021

Abstract


Why Mars? An exhibition on Mars could only make sense if it connected with the great dilemmas of a present-future that has become radically strange to the human species without forgetting the fascination that the fourth planet in the solar system has exerted over the centuries.

This article summarizes the work process and the vicissitudes of an exhibition that was fully affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The exhibition “Mars. The Red Mirror” has been a complex project, and ended up being one of the most visited exhibitions at the CCCB.

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