In a truly Mediterranean ceremony, Palma presented the Ciutat Awards at a gala that took place at the Teatro Principal and awarded ten prizes for a total of 105,000 euros. The direction of the gala this year was in charge of La Perifèrica Produccions.

The journalist Mar Puigserver has acted as presenter and the guitarist and composer Jaume Tugores, accompanied by the saxophonist David González, have accompanied the awards ceremony with live music. The writer Antoni Arencón Arias (El Prat de Llobregat, 1963) has won the Llorenç Villalonga novel award with a prize of 26,000 euros, the highest, for the work “Of all the poisons, I will give you their secret”.

This year, the sea has been the axis around which the awards ceremony has revolved. And it has been a sea with four colors, each of which has represented a different area: green (ecology, nature and also the impact of the climate emergency); blue (the sea of artists, with special reference to the painter Antoni Gelabert), yellow (the patrimonial and ethnographic sea and the one that reflects the perpetual relationship with the island) and red (the one of the humanitarian crisis and the thousands of people who are launched each year in search of a decent life).

The mayor of Palma, José Hila, closed the event and during his speech remarked that “culture, in many of its forms, is the best form of combat for those of us who want to transform society, make it more equitable, and that this , through knowledge, serve as a lever for change to transform us into a better world”. “The world of artistic creation and knowledge must go hand in hand with civil society to weave shared strategies. Appreciation for books, artistic creation and dissemination must be opposed to false news networks, distrust in science or the spread of slander, which seem to be so fashionable today”, he remarked.

Hila has valued the fact that culture reaches the entire city. “The objective is clear: to ensure that all possible benefits are reverted to the neighborhoods and that the maximum population participates in an approach to culture.” In addition, he recalled that “cultural industries must be a new engine of growth and of what we call shared prosperity”.

Los ganadores de los Premios Ciutat posan en el escenario del Teatre Principal de Palma. Foto: Ajuntament de Palma.

all winners

Llorenç Villalonga de Novel (26,000 euros)

Antoni Arencón Arias (El Prat de Llobregat, 1963) for Of all the poisons, I will give you their secret. The jury has unanimously awarded this historical novel and has highlighted the use of neat language in the context of the 19th century. Above all, it highlights the enhancement of the figure of the Minorcan Mateu Orfila as one of the important characters in our common history.

Joan Alcover of Poetry (12,000 euros)

Elm Puig Mir (Sant Feliu de Guíxols, 1978) for Latent Planet. It is an elegant collection of poems, expository subtlety and suggestive capacity, of which the jury has highlighted its aesthetic and human depth, as well as the attempt to capture the elusive.

Bonet de Sant Pere de Música (6,000 euros)

K12 (Gori Matas, Marko Lohikari and Teo Salvá), for Two years in K12. This work is the continuation of the sound universe that began with the group’s first album, First Route to K12 (2019). The jury has highlighted the creativity, performance quality and originality of this album.

Margaluz for Performing Arts (6,000 euros)

El Sueño Producciones for Paraíso (with a special mention for La Mecánica for The Little Things). Paraíso is a work told in four voices that revolve around a plan, and the jury has underlined its interpretive quality and the balance of the scenographic resources used.

Maria Forteza of Audiovisuals (6,000 euros)

Silvia Ventayol (Palma, 1977) for Mr Death, a piece that reflects on death and the sensations it provokes in us, such as fear and confusion. The jury has valued the courage and treatment of this new and risky proposal on the taboo of death.

Comic (10,000 euros)

Daniel Piqueras Fisk (Barcelona, 1972) for The Little Man of the Pack, a work that deals with the difficulty of moving in this world when you are different. The jury has decided to award it for being a luminous story full of vitality, wonderfully narrated and illustrated. Montserrat Research Houses (6,000 euros) Alberto López and Fernanda Caro for Palma and the invisible citizenship, a project that reflects the conditions of vulnerability of a part of the inhabitants of Palma and whose jury has valued the interest of the subject and its look towards a reality that the bulk of the citizens ignore .

Miquel de los Santos Oliver of Journalism (6,000 euros)

Joan Cabot for Sa Porta, a podcast about a piece of Palma’s history and about some streets that no longer exist. The jury has valued its original way of narrating the evolution of an emblematic neighborhood of the City, with several witnesses, and the quality of the sound montage.

Guillermo Sagrera of Architecture (15,000 euros)

Carles Oliver Barceló (Felanitx, 1979), for eight public housing promoted by the IBAVI. The jury has highlighted the interest of a proposal that makes a radical commitment to recovering the efficiency and values of traditional construction systems, for the use of local materials and for recycling.

Antoni Gelabert of Visual Arts (12,000 euros)

Juan Carlos Brancho for Imitación a la vida, a video performance of which the jury has highlighted the visual and conceptual treatment of the landscape and the creation of a game of superpositions that involves not only the artist himself, but also the show.