Presentation of the II Gaudí Prizes of Poetry
and Short Narrative 2004

Presentation of the prizes
Wednesday, 19th of May 2004
Ceremony Hall of the “Círculo del Liceu”

Intervention of Mr. Bergós

Before presenting the prizes, I would like to say some words about the Gaudí & Barcelona Internet Club. It’s the association’s ambition to stimulate the culture and share with the world the life and work of Antoni Gaudí. That’s why the Sagrada Familia Temple Building Committee, as Gaudí’s testamentary heirs, we must support them as much as we can. I believe the Gaudí & Barcelona Internet Club is the only association in history of architecture which has one single architect as its reason of existence; the only organisation whose members have a high regard for one single architect. This is just amazing! The association has 14.061 internet members all over the world. This is out of the ordinary. And what's more, they publish the “Gaudí News”, a magazine about Gaudí and everything related to his person, edited in both Spanish and English.

Besides, every day the website presents news about Gaudí, Modernism and Barcelona. The importance of its site is proven by the 1.200 visits a day. This is also out of the ordinary. Everything related to Gaudí is singular and everyone who approaches him is involved in his work and genius.

As you would expect, there is a high amount of architects, designers and historians of art from all over the world, universities and art centres collaborating with the association.

I would like to talk about the prizes now. Given the universal impact of the first convocation of last year, the association’s board thought it was opportune to convoke a second edition. This second convocation has exceeded the first one, not only in number of participants who have presented works of poetry or short narrative, but also in quality, which has made it difficult for the jury to choose the winners.

Participants included the United Kingdom, France, Argentina, Australia, Vietnam, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, México, Peru, the States. As for Spain was not only Catalonia represented, but also Andalusia, Valencia, Castilla and Galicia. In other words, the competition couldn’t be more universal.

As expected, the works were presented in Spanish, Catalan and English, making it even more challenging for the jury to decide the winners.

Now I would like to mention the names of the members of the jury:

• Josep M. Garrut, Director of the Gaudí Museum of Park Güell
• Joan Bassegoda, Conservator of the Real Cátedra Gaudí
• Ana María Férrin, journalist and biographer of Gaudí
• Juan Miguel Muñoz Corbalán, professor of the Department of History of Art of the UB
• Juan Francisco Jiménez, poet and Deputy Director of the magazine “Lateral”
• Eduard Solé, President of the Gaudí & Barcelona Club
• J. Calvo, President of the Cercle del Liceu
• Teresa Martínez, member of the Sagrada Familia
• Fabià Matas, Director of the “Área de Relaciones Externas” of the Sagrada Familia
• And myself, as the President of the Sagrada Familia Temple Building Committee

As I told you, it has been extremely difficult to choose the winners, so we are very satisfied we have accomplished our task. And being 10 members has been really helpful in the process as we all shared our decisions.

The winners were:

First prize of Short Narrative:
"Más allá de los sueños", by Esther Simón Ayuso, from Madrid

Second Prize of Short Narrative:
"Geometria reglada", by Montserrat Escartín i Gual, from Barcelona

Third Prize of Short Narrative:
"La història de l’Ernest", by Marc Carol Fontcuberta

The jury decided to present a honourable mention, as many works were worthy of prizes. Finally it has been presented to "Gaudí the Gardener", by Steve W. Coffin, from the United Kingdom.

As for Poetry, the first prize has been for: "La tortuga", by Maria Rosa Andorrà i Llargués, from Sant Boi de Llobregat

The second prize: "Memorial del gran Gaudí", by Eumelia Sanz Vaca, from Valladolid

The third prize: "Oda al gran arquitecte Antoni Gaudí", by Lluís Gassó i Carbonell, from Barcelona.

And the honourable mention of the category of poetry for: "Antoni Gaudí, el arquitecto de la Gloria", by Álvaro Morales Rodríguez, from Córdoba.

I would like to allow Mr. Bassegoda to speak about Gaudí and the Liceo now.