The 'Avui' celebrates 50 years of history with an exhibition at the Palau Robert

BarcelonaThe newspaper "Avui" has reached half a century of history and commemorates it with an exhibition at the Palau Robert that can be visited from this Tuesday until May 24. "Avui 50+. Since 1976, news, language and country" chronicles the 50 years of history of the first Catalan newspaper after the Franco dictatorship and has been organized by the Hermes Comunicació group and the Directorate General of Dissemination, and curated by Toni Brosa, Carles Sabaté and Jordi Panyella. The exhibition features photographs, audiovisual material, historical documents, emblematic covers, and even works by artists such as Joan Miró and Antoni Tàpies, among many others. The exhibition is a journey through time that reaches up to 2026, when it is already "El Punt Avui".

The exhibition at the Palau Robert begins with a comparative analysis between 2026, when we live in a "complex society" with more than 460 media outlets in Catalonia, and 1976, when the newspaper "Avui" was founded, when there were 34. In fact, the fifty-year-old newspaper was the first in Catalan after the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. An important part of the exhibition focuses on the launch of the newspaper itself, with images of people in the streets of Barcelona, in front of kiosks, waiting for the new Catalan publication to be released. In addition, it recreates what the newsroom was like in those seventies, with period objects.

The founding of the newspaper, which took place on Sant Jordi's Day in 1976, was not easy or simple, and it took more than a decade for it to become a reality. The exhibition includes historical documents, such as reports from Manuel Fraga's Ministry of Information, which denied permission for publication, initially as a weekly.

The exhibition also highlights the involvement of civil society in making the dream of a Catalan newspaper a reality after years of repression. Famous people, but also anonymous ones –34,000 citizens–, contributed financially.

At the Palau exhibition, a part of the original works from the art collection of "Avui" can also be seen, which are part of the Museum of Art of Girona and the Museum of History of Catalonia. Works by Salvador Dalí, Antoni Tàpies, and Joan Miró, among many others, are included.