"Is it okay to cheat on someone? I don't know anymore, because if you cheat on them, you betray your partner, but if you don't, you betray yourself and maybe end up destroying the relationship. So, if you have an open relationship, it stops being a relationship and starts being the Solutions Forum because you'll have to talk about and manage sex," said Oye Sherman in the closing monologue of Enfoquem: the Solutions Forum held at the CCCB for ARA's 15th anniversary. Faced with the complexity of relationships, the comedian ended up choosing to talk about housing, the main concern of Catalans according to the CEO (we'd have to see what would happen if we asked about relationships!): "My love life makes the housing crisis seem like a pleasant topic." And this was confirmed by the round table discussion dedicated to the topic: "We are in a moment of searching where many ways of connecting converge. We have banished the references of romantic love and are still building new ones," points out sociologist and specialist in digital social innovation Liliana Arroyo. It seems that everything is yet to be done and that everything is possible, butthe do it yourself"It can become a double-edged sword.

When a loved one dies, in addition to facing the loss, we must make decisions about which we often lack sufficient information. What options and rights do we have when preparing a funeral? If death is the only inevitable and universal fact, why don't we have this sovereignty? "Death used to be part of everyday life. You used to see obituaries on the street, and now it no longer occupies a public space. Because it's taboo, we've lost all knowledge, and a distancing has occurred," points out Alba Calvo, from the Som Provisionals cooperative, which advocates precisely for this pairing of sovereignty and death. Núria Puigdevall, another of its members, attributes it to urgency. "Death is seen as a problem for capitalism because it's an unproductive situation," and therefore, "the faster it happens, the sooner we can go back to work." They argue that, nevertheless, we can adapt by taking care of the moment of dying, and this involves making prior plans and including death within life. So, beyond cremation or burial, what can we decide and what can't we?

The most special summer of architect Josep Miàs's life is a profoundly sad one. It was the summer that Enric Miralles died twenty-five years ago, from a brain tumor at the age of 45. He had been his professional mentor and life reference for a decade: first, as a professor; then, as a colleague, and finally, as a friend. "The summer of my life had a very sad part: the loss of a reference. It was a very hard blow, but I believe that hard blows are learning opportunities to begin a new phase," says Miàs.

"For me, the best summer memories are sharing the mountains with my children." Trail runner Núria Picas has passed on her passion to her fourteen-year-old twins, especially during the summer months when they take advantage of the opportunity to go to the mountains. "Collecting three-thousanders is what we love most about summer," she says. They've achieved quite a few goals: "We've done the Aneto crossing, the Pica de Estados, the Monte Perdido, the Cavalls del Vent..." In fact, they didn't finish the last one—she clarifies—because one of the children suffered an injury, not from riding, but from playing basketball. "Sometimes, indoor sports are worse than high-altitude mountain sports," Picas assures.

Whether at the beach, on a hike in the mountains, or just out of town: in summer, it's nice to eat out with the kids to escape the heat and the routine. However, sometimes kids get restless, get tired of the adults' after-dinner conversation, or simply need a more suitable space. We suggest five restaurants where you can go with the kids and enjoy a meal together.

"The best summers were those during the European Championships for the national team, because of the teammates I shared them with and what was achieved. They were times of great excitement, of reconnecting with friends, of fighting for medals," explains Ainhoa ​​López, a player for Spar Girona. López spent the period from age 17 to 20 training with her teammates before taking on a European or world competition.

Grandma Dolors opens the door to her street-level apartment in Mataró. Then, from the adjacent apartment, Bintou Jarju and her children, Arlet and Sam, ages 12 and 10 respectively, appear, looking as if they've gone to bed late. It's Santa Fe, and the city is celebrating. Sam is in the band Diablos, and Arlet enjoys the concerts more, I'm told. During the photo shoot for our report, diverse physical features compose the images: Dolors is rather short and pale, while her daughter Bintou and the children—who are Catalan-Negalesan—have dark skin and are on the tall side. How is it that even now so many prejudices are placed on such naturalized differences in this family?

"I saw a boy staring at the ground, completely focused, and when I asked him what he was looking at, he said, 'There are ants.'" In the summer of 1993, Piarist and educator Enric Canet arrived at the Casal dels Infants in Raval with a broad background in Scouting, but always with middle-class children. There, he encountered boys and girls with different needs than those he had met until then. "They were kids who were very resilient to pain, but they found life outside the city a mountain to be reckoned with," he explains. His work then included such basic tasks as finding sleeping bags for summer camps with minimal conditions: "Twelve or fourteen teenagers slept in tents with newspaper as insulation. Some had never left Barcelona. One slept on the street with his father, and another had just arrived." Those first summers at the Casal would mark him forever: "It was a very significant shock. They didn't have the opportunity for recreation or a listening group. They didn't have the materials they needed. Nor any vision of the mountains. Everything seemed very bizarre to them," Canet explains.

The pools of the Merlès stream are currently overcrowded, and even access has been restricted. "Now you can only park in certain places, and people have to walk a long way to get there. It's the only way to preserve these spaces," laments Imma Puigcorbé, one of the prominent faces of Revolta Pagesa. This is the setting of her fondest summer memories, but it's no longer what it used to be: "Now it's hard for me to go because I know what I'll find. Before, these spaces were largely owned by the people who lived there, and with social media, they've lost their charm."

Making a mistake when buying a plane ticket can become your best summer memory. This is the experience of the music teacher and YouTuber Neus Rossell, who took a flight to Gran Canaria during Easter to visit a friend who actually lived in Tenerife. When she wanted to change her mind, the only available dates to go to her friend's house were in the summer, and on a few days when the friend wasn't there. Rossell, who had worked nonstop since she was 16—"first as a waitress, in a bakery, in a tobacco shop, and then as a teacher, and in the summer, as a summer camp instructor"—felt she should take a break that summer and understand what a real vacation was like. So, encouraged by her friends, she decided to go anyway and embark on what she considers her first solo trip, although she had lived in other places, but always with the shelter of school. "I woke up. I learned that we can do many things alone, a fact that society doesn't really understand. Everyone says you have to have someone. What the hell? Why not make a living?" she exclaims.

"Ball, beach and tatano". The former head of infectious diseases at Taulí Park, Manel Cervantes, who helped us understand the pandemic through television talk shows and also in the pages of ARA, lists the summer games of his childhood in the 1950s. The eldest brother of a more than large family, La Sagrera or Virrei Amat, both presided over by a huge radio.

At the edge of the village of Moià (Moianès), next to Santa Maria de Oló, lies the Molí del Perer, a farmhouse and old mill built by the maternal ancestors of artist Marcelino Antúnez Roca, co-founder of La Fura dels Baus. In fact, he spent several summers there during his childhood, the first in 1967, which would leave a lasting impression on him.

Where are we going today? If you have a few days off and haven't decided on plans or destinations yet, we suggest five short, accessible hikes that are ideal for children if you're keen to hike and explore the diverse natural landscapes close to home.

Three couples and nine children spent summers together, filled with bunk beds, swimming, cooking, TV3 soap operas, and choreography. Alba Riera's parents found a summer apartment in Cantonigròs (Osona) to share with two other families. There was no political rhetoric behind it. "We didn't even know what co-parenting meant. We just picked each other's brains," says the communicator. She continues: "I think it was intuitive. It came from not wanting to let go of vitality and having a good time sharing with friends within the framework of raising children." She is clear that it was a gift and an experience she wants to repeat with her friends elsewhere, although during her childhood she was embarrassed about not following the norm. "Everyone had their own house. Why should we share it?" she wondered. To the nine non-blood siblings of Cantonigròs –whose hair was cut the same and, later, they were confused around the village– this taught them to share very early on and to "understand that families are very diverse and they don't have to be blood relatives": "We always went together in packAnd now that the first baby of the third generation has arrived, the young people are thinking about looking for another apartment in the village to continue the tradition. For her, summers in Cantonigròs are "a feeling of home" that brings back many fond memories.

"I was your student!" In the course of about five minutes, two people stop Marifé Arroyo on the street with gestures of gratitude and emotion. The teacher, expelled during the Transition from the school in Barx, a small town in La Safor, raises her hand and covers the faces of her former students, leaving only their eyes exposed, trying to remember what they looked like when they were children. "I don't recognize you this old and with a beard," she exclaims sarcastically.

Between Four Walls, Animal Architects, Human Scale...Núria Moliner has brought architecture to television with a relatable, everyday perspective. But she hadn't planned to dedicate herself to communications, which was a skill more expected of her sister, actress Anna Moliner, who studied audiovisual communication. "I'm excited because in a way, I predicted I'd end up dedicating myself to it, even though I studied architecture," she says, referring to the childhood photography she shares with the ARA. Now she even has a production company, into which she puts a lot of dedication alongside the team, with the intention of creating "truly beautiful and interesting" productions.

— Mom, is today when we put on the dress?

"I just got back from Menorca." Playwright Marta Buchaca spent a week on vacation with her children and her sister, the journalist Imma Sust. The photo she shared with ARA shows a summer scene between sisters, but without children, on the beach in Tossa de Mar, forty years earlier. Until she was fifteen, the playwright spent her summers there because her parents rented an apartment next to her grandparents', near her aunt's apartment, and also near her uncle's family's. The routine was always crowded: "There was all the family and friends; there were thirty of us on the beach every morning." She remembers, amused, going from one apartment to another and collecting good food, complaining every time they hadn't given her a snack. She also remembers the weekly family appointment of going to the phone center to call her grandparents.

There are millions of fun and educational board games to spend time with the family. Whether at the beach, in the mountains, or after dinner: any time is a good time to engage your brain, stimulate your imagination, and bond through play. We have five diverse suggestions for different ages.

After reviewing her travels around the world, editor and writer Iolanda Batallé discarded the earliest summer memories that came to mind and settled on a seemingly simple, yet magical one: a summer spent at the beach with her son Teo and visiting several friends in the Netherlands, who appear in the photograph. "We didn't realize it, but it was paradise. There was a connection between son, mother, friends, and the sea that I don't think has ever been so profound." That's why she goes back to this memory from 2005: "It was magical. The summer of discovering ourselves. That summer made us who we are."