0
Interview
13 January 2019 2.00 h

Iolanda Batallé

Head of the Ramon Llull Institute

Opening up the Llull Institute to the world

“I strive for more communication and to open up to the world” “Promoting Catalan around the world is a two-way street”

Writer and pub­lisher Iolanda Batallé was re­cently ap­pointed head of the Ramon Llull In­sti­tute, which pro­motes Cata­lan lan­guage and cul­ture abroad.

What are the in­sti­tute’s pri­or­i­ties?
A ques­tion I try to an­swer is: “What about the map?” The for­mer head of the Llull, Manel For­cano, put a lot of focus on the Mediter­ranean. But I think it should be all of Eu­rope and the map is not only ge­o­graph­i­cal, but also dig­i­tal. And it’s not just about send­ing a the­atre group or a dancer some­where. Ex­port­ing the lan­guage and cul­ture is not only about send­ing peo­ple abroad, it’s also about tak­ing ac­tion within. I strive for more com­mu­ni­ca­tion and to open up to the world. Ex­port­ing Cata­lan lan­guage and lit­er­a­ture is also about bring­ing cre­ators, teach­ers, trans­la­tors, stu­dents here, and for them to ex­pe­ri­ence the coun­try. That way they then take home the land­scape, the ter­ri­tory, and most im­por­tantly, the ex­pe­ri­ence.
One of the first things you did was ap­point Ari­adna Puiggené as the new head of the Uni­ver­si­ties sec­tion.
Hav­ing 150 uni­ver­si­ties where Cata­lan is taught and in which the in­sti­tute has a role is great for the lan­guage and the cul­ture; it al­lows a lot of peo­ple to learn Cata­lan abroad, who end up be­com­ing trans­la­tors or peo­ple in­volved with Cata­lan and Cat­alo­nia. That is very im­por­tant.
Is it the best way to spread Cata­lan?
It’s not the only way, we have to be aware that not only do peo­ple have ac­cess to lan­guages through aca­d­e­mic means, but also in the dig­i­tal sphere. I dis­cov­ered the Duolin­guo plat­form, on which there are 600,000 peo­ple with ac­cess to Cata­lan, through Span­ish. And the Llull is not on this, but should be. That is why we will soon start re­cruit­ment for a head of dig­i­tal strat­egy, who will be charged with ex­plor­ing this new area.
So, is it now eas­ier to get ac­cess to Cata­lan than be­fore?
What hap­pens these days is that peo­ple get to it in dif­fer­ent ways and not only through ed­u­ca­tion. At the Llull we have to be aware of that. Peo­ple reach Cata­lan be­cause they like Barça or be­cause they watch the Merlí TV se­ries on Net­flix.
What other areas need fill­ing?
We still need some­one for the Lon­don of­fice. The re­cruit­ment pe­riod for that is now closed. There are some 30 can­di­dates, all of them very well pre­pared. We will have com­pleted the se­lec­tion process by the end of Jan­u­ary. As al­ready men­tioned, we need to find some­one for dig­i­tal strat­egy. And we are work­ing on get­ting a del­e­gate in Rome, be­cause we think we should be there.
What’s the in­sti­tute’s re­la­tion­ship with the gov­ern­ment’s of­fices abroad?
The re­la­tion­ship is that they al­most al­ways share the same space, and they work to­gether when­ever pos­si­ble.
And with the Cer­vantes In­sti­tute [Spain’s ver­sion of the Ramon Llull In­sti­tute]?
We still haven’t sat down with the head of the Cer­vantes In­sti­tute, but it’s a meet­ing that will hap­pen. Some­one I have met is the head of the Cul­ture sec­tion of the Cer­vantes, Martín López Vega. When he was first ap­pointed he asked if the Llull’s spe­cial­ists in Cata­lan cin­ema, art and lit­er­a­ture could pro­vide ad­vice, and nat­u­rally we said yes.
Do all these mech­a­nisms work ac­cord­ing to a spe­cific phi­los­o­phy?
One of my mot­tos is: “Please, let’s join forces.” We have a sec­tion for lit­er­a­ture, one for thought, one for cre­ativ­ity, but when, for ex­am­ple, we send a writer to New York, where we have a del­e­gate and a uni­ver­sity, please, let’s bring those el­e­ments to­gether and be more ef­fi­cient. If we are work­ing with an in­di­vid­ual, we have to work with them in all areas. And that is some­thing I apply to my­self. Every time I go some­where, I try to do some­thing else, be­yond the thing that took me there. I went to Paris re­cently and I made time to get an ex­hi­bi­tion at the Pom­pi­dou cen­tre for the RCR ar­chi­tects, who we had at the Bi­en­nale. Apart from the main rea­son for the trip, I try to meet lec­tur­ers, or if we have a study cen­tre there, I try to meet its di­rec­tor. It is fun­da­men­tal that we in­cor­po­rate the idea of work­ing across fields. And this con­cept is key for every­one work­ing at the in­sti­tute, be­cause all areas are af­fected. The other el­e­ment to my phi­los­o­phy at the Llull is un­der­stand­ing that pro­mot­ing Cata­lan lan­guage and cul­ture around the world is a two-way street, as it’s not enough just to send peo­ple to places. There is no need for so much phys­i­cal re­lo­ca­tion. Per­sonal ex­pe­ri­ence is very im­por­tant, but there are other means.
In other words, there is no need for such large pro­jects as the Frank­furt fair?
No, on the con­trary. What you find if you look at what has been done in re­cent years, is that there have been lots of micro-ac­tions, but I think it is bet­ter to have two or three large things every year. It’s im­por­tant. We are now prepar­ing to go to Buenos Aires, be­cause I be­lieve there are not enough trans­la­tions be­tween Cat­alo­nia and Latin Amer­ica. And in 2020, the spot­light will be on us in Lon­don, not as a guest cul­ture per se, but one that is high­lighted.
Have you re­solved the con­tro­versy of Cata­lan writ­ers who write in Span­ish?
In this case we will go to Buenos Aires along with the Barcelona city coun­cil, with Barcelona as a lit­er­ary city, and that will ob­vi­ously in­volve both Cata­lan and Span­ish. And, as it will be in Latin Amer­ica, we have called on Cata­lan writ­ers who have pub­lished some­thing in Span­ish.

in­ter­view

Challenges, and learning

Appointed head of the Ramon Llull Institute at the end of last year, Iolanda Batallé Prats was born in Barcelona in 1971. She studied English philology and journalism at university, and also has a Master’s in Cultural Management. For over a decade she spent time in places such as the UK, the US, South Africa, Argentina and Morocco. She has spent her professional life working in the media, publishing and education. In all, her career has been ideal preparation for her current position in charge of one of Catalonia’s main cultural organisations. “What always motivate me are challenges, and learning,” says Iolanda.

And how does someone who spends their days in meetings, travelling around, giving presentations, reading reports, manage to relax? “With silence. I give my all in social situations, I love them, but it’s tiring and then I need silence and solitude. I lie in the hammock, read for pleasure or just watch the clouds passing overhead. And watering my plants. And drawing,” she says.

Sign in. Sign in if you are already a verified reader. I want to become verified reader. To leave comments on the website you must be a verified reader.
Note: To leave comments on the website you must be a verified reader and accept the conditions of use.

Published on

Most Viewed