Barcelona’s Anecdotary could be explained as a collection of moments and places form the city of Barcelona that no one knows. It is a book that can be found in any bookshop and its authors: Roser Messa, writer and Pep Brocal, illustrator, decided to “rescue some improbable events that normally pass unnoticed for us” and that are happening in our city, as they explain in their prologue.
As you already know “Live as a native” is one of our goals at Yurbban, discover the real Barcelona, the one lived by the natives, but even for us, Barcelona hides a lot of secrets. This book gives us some interesting clues.
The Brocal’s illustrations are timeless with an agile line and the book is perfectly edited by Comanegra which has been a seal of quality for eleven years.
n relation to the contents, Roser Messa does a selection of anecdotes that seem incredible. They have done a lot of research, we can tell. They have looked up in district archives, newspaper and periodicals libraries and done interviews and investigations.
They explain in a different way how the god Hercules was, who according to the Greek legend found Barcelona. Or it also explains how Keith Haring in 1989 painted a mural in Raval’s neighbourhood. The place was a run-down wall between the Sant Pau and Robador streets. They even explain the music that the artist listened to during his creative process.
Also it is explained how in Sant Pau street, between Paralel and Rambla del Raval we can find a Romanic church perfectly preserved. They also reveal some interesting information about the church like one of the cloisters’ capital was the one that inspired Picasso to do “Las señoritas de Aviñon”. No sooner said than done! We went there to verify it because this book is a real treasure map.
Another of the unlikely stories told in the book is the love story of a Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo with Josep Bartolí, a draughtsman from Barcelona with whom she exchanged 25 epistolary love letters. Who could read them!
Get ready to go on a trip by the hand of this authors, go over their 30 stories. Barcelona is immense, beautiful, Mediterranean and with history. From Yurbban, we invite you to enjoy it in a different way.
Copyright Comanegra
Illustrator: Pep Brocal