Last Saturday (20. Feb), all the hard work of organising a Pecha Kucha Night in Barcelona in less than 4 weeks paid of. Pecha Kucha Vol.8 was a very special night with speakers that made us think, made us laugh or triggered curiosity, moved us and even taught us how to be sexy! The most beautiful thing about the event though, is the participation of many people towards one goal: raise money for Architecture for Humanity (AFH) and the reconstruction in Haiti. In Barcelona alone, we raised over 2.300€, yay! Within the next days, we should know how much the over 150 cities raised together in PechaKucha for Haiti this month! If you haven’t yet or feel generous again, please donate here:
http://www.pecha-kucha.org/night/barcelona/ .
It all started on Saturday around 15h Mark and Astrid (the incredible founders of PechaKucha) kicked of the global 24h WAVEcast via Ustream. At 18.30h the Barcelona PechaKucha took place at La Sedeta, who offered us the space for free so that all the money from the entrance tickets could go towards AFH.
Giovanna Carnevali, an architect from Barcelona-based Architecture for Humanity Spain, kicked of the night with her presentation about the work AFH does in Haiti, as well as some projects the local chapter is working on. Next up was Chené Gómez, who spoke about his NGO Creart, and how it feels to be teaching art to kids in difficult situations (Palestina, India, Thailand after the Tsunami …). Martí Guixé, ex-designer, presented his business models, such as “pfic bar”, a frozen public fountain that turns into a bar chilling drinks, or the “Liquid Menu Restaurant”, where as you might guess, all the dishes are liquid, and inspired by the Spanish gazpacho.
When our stomach muscles were already hurting from so much laughter, Michelle Felip showed us her project “Pixing” (pronounce ‘pishing’), which campaigns for decent public toilets in Barcelona, also for girls! Xavi Padrós showed beautiful photographs called “anonyms”. The photos were of clever, funny and ingenious bothed jobs Padrós collected over the year in Barcelona. To finish of the first part of the night, Lily introduced us to the art of striptease and even taught us a few moves!
After the beer break (Thanks to Estrella Damm we had all our costs such as cleaning and security covered!), Gerard Sanmartí from La Granja design Studio, showed a ‘real’ project he did some years ago, of an exhibition design with floating pieces of art. Then, Jessica Leung took us on her personal journey from making movies in LA and quitting Hollywood in order to start Dos Velas with her partner Paco, to make documentaries in close contact with people of different cultures and ethics around the world. Architect Toni Solana presented his project of the Fábrica del Sol, an 8-year-long project of a eco-friendly renovation of an old gas factory, respecting the four elements of water, fire, earth and wind.
Dress for Success, shown by Stephany Baskin, DfS Austin founder, is the story of how a woman gained back her self-esteem and changed her life by being given a dress along with a few tips for a job interview. A big dose of Catalan humour was handed to us by designer Marcel Fernández, and his curious story of how Amanito was born. To finish of the night, Ricardo Fernández, organiser of Pecha Kucha in Panamá, explained why his country is the country of steroids, and why the Panamanians wear a lot of clothes in winter (even if winter in Panama doesn’t exists!). Last but not least, Maximilian Kamenar from Pecha Kucha Vienna who also happened to be in town, greeted the very lively and cheerful audience.
All through the last presentations, Doris and Victor from On i On, together with Aniol and Leonor from Ecogent, were waiting to join the live-streaming WAVEcast via PechaKucha Tokio, but unfortunately we missed each other. We were however, connected by spirit and want to give kudos to Mark and Astrid, Tomoko and Jean and their team in Tokyo for organising this international Pecha Kucha x Haiti with so much enthusiasm and energy! Barcelona enjoys being part of the big picture!
Thank you to everyone who donated to AFH and made it to our eighth Pecha Kucha in Barcelona, to the speakers who did an amazing job, to La Sedeta and Estrella Damm and to Tree-Nation for planting a tree for each speaker in order to reduce our event’s ecological footprint and to all our friends who helped out. We hope to see you in April for Vol.9!
And hey! It’s never too late to donate to AFH and the reconstruction of Haiti, click here:
http://www.pecha-kucha.org/night/barcelona/
