A book that explores curiosity as an engine of progress
We often read in the media, like this one, articles and reports that reveal the curiosities of Barcelona, referring to that building that endures despite the passing of the years, that beloved character that receives the recognition of the neighbors or that hidden museum that keeps treasures in their enclosures. But it is not so common to turn the concept around and instead of delving into the curiosities of the city, appeal to the curiosity of the city itself and its inhabitants, and this is what the authors Carlota Rubio and Alfons Cornella in the work Barcelona is curiosity (Barcelona City Council, 2023), which reflects on how curiosity is the engine of Barcelona’s progress.
A choral and multidisciplinary portrait of the city
Through about fifty personal interviews with the most diverse characters who are part of the city, from the clown Angie Rosales to the musician Josep Ponsà, through the programmer Ruben Aparicio, the psychologist Alba Cardalda, the baker Anna Bellsolà and the bookseller Xavier Vidal and complemented with articles of civic aspects such as the existence of the Friqui Triangle – Passeig de Sant Joan, Arc de Triomf and Ronda de Sant Pere -, the cooperative housing La Borda, the Sónar music festival or the multi-award winning Gabriel García Márquez Library, the work questions the city’s ability to move forward by appealing, precisely, to curiosity and how this is the key to its progress.
Thus, the authors build a collective and multidisciplinary portrait of Barcelona, which covers everything from neuroscience to the arts, through education, entrepreneurship, innovation, social actions, food, culture and architecture with a common goal, that of looking for projects – some personal and others collective – designed for people and for a better future. As Rubio explains in the introductory text, asking what curiosity is about the inhabitants of Barcelona, obtains answers in two basic axes, that of “the importance of a conducive environment as a necessary condition to develop curiosity” and “the importance of referents and education”.
A tribute to the curious people who drive the city’s engine
“Our hypothesis is that the city has been lucky throughout its history to count on curious people in multiple disciplines (art, science, music, business, entrepreneurship, education, etc.) and that it has been, and is, this curiosity of its people is what drives the engine of the city”, Cornella also states in the opening pages of the book. “Mark Twain said that a man is mad until he makes money with his ideas; then he is a visionary”, points out the inventor Pep Torres, one of the interviewees in the book, in a reflection that serves, precisely, to understand the objective of the book, to explain how Barcelona has gotten to where it is thanks to the imagination and entrepreneurship of the people, two qualities stimulated, obviously, by a curiosity that is becoming a very Barcelona attribute.