Five years have passed since the publication of Torno a casa (Proa) and it has been a time of great changes and revelations for Joan Carreras (Barcelona, 1962), after a chaotic and sad personal phase, with two traumatic breakups. "For the first time in my life I did something I had never done: asked for help," he confesses. The psychologist diagnosed him with ADHD with high abilities, a condition he had controlled over the years but suffering its consequences, such as obsessive behaviors and depression. "The diagnosis was a brutal shock, but as I got to know the symptomatology, everything started to fit. It's as if I had always been hitting myself in the face, in the body, in the knee, and suddenly someone turned on the light in the room and I could see that there was an open drawer, or the closet door, and that's why it hurt. I wish I had been diagnosed at 30, or at 20 years old; not only for myself, but for them, and for the journalists I've related to and who found me a bit strange," he reflects.

The birth of Francesc Serés's (Saidí, Baix Cinca, 1972) first child is the central theme of his new non-fiction book. The first year (Bow). If to The inner world The writer, who once gazed from Berlin across Europe to connect three wars, now takes on a more existential and, at the same time, domestic tone, from his new home in Graz, Austria: Why do we have children? And what kind of world will we leave them? Through the everyday testimonies of those around him, Serés weaves a chronicle that touches on the major themes that permeate our world: identity, family, progress, the far right, and hope.

Another war. Four years after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the US attacks on Iran have once again brought economic uncertainty to the Arco art fair, whose new edition began this Wednesday for collectors and professionals. Wars scare off money, and according to gallery owner Marc Domènech, the attack on Iran will affect sales "until after the Art Basel fair," that is, in June. After that, who knows what might happen?

A frenzy of fingers and lips, in what will be one of the most talked-about works of the new edition of Arco, the art fair held in Madrid. The artist and performer Afghan artist Kubra Khademi (1989) presents a political statement with a painting of an orgy featuring a dozen world leaders, including Angela Merkel, Kamala Harris, Ursula von der Leyen, Margaret Thatcher, Hillary Clinton, and Benazir Bhutto. With this scene, Khademi proposes dismantling, through "love," a patriarchy based on "hatred, destruction, bombs, and the exercise of absolute power over others," as the artist herself states. Khademi sought refuge in France when international forces withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban returned to power. "The orgy scene is both utopian and dystopian, but what I want to show is that love is everywhere. To imagine another world, it must be based on love," emphasizes the artist, whose work is currently on display at the Eric Mouchet Gallery. The scene is set in a bathhouse, the only place where Afghan women can have any privacy.

In a gallery anywhere in Spain, or at the ARCO art fair, a painting by Miquel Barceló can cost up to 16% more than in other parts of Europe. While in Spain the VAT applied to galleries is 21%, some countries adopted European Union Directive 2022/542 and reduced it to 5.5% (France), 5% (Italy), 7% (Germany), 6% (Belgium), and 6% (Portugal). Spanish gallery owners have been demanding a similar reduction ever since, but without success, and this Monday they began a week-long strike "in response to the paralysis and lack of action from the Spanish government." Ernest Urtasun promised in 2024 that he would lower this tax on art, but the measure never materialized. According to sources at the Consortium of Contemporary Art Galleries, some 200 galleries, almost all those in the country, are supporting the strike. The work stoppage not only means that the galleries will close their doors to the public, but also "a three-month cessation of all free collaboration with public and private institutions." This includes the loans of artworks that galleries often make to museums, taking charge of all the management and prior documentation related to the works' state of conservation. However, sources at the Ministry of Finance, which is responsible for the tax cut, explain that they are not considering modifying it because "it is not a priority." At the Ministry of Culture, on the other hand, they continue to express the same good intentions that Minister Ernest Urtasun has stated on several occasions. "We are aware of and share the sector's demands, with whom we maintain an open dialogue," ministry sources told ARA. "This situation puts them at a disadvantage in the market, and we believe it's a fair demand. That's why we've raised it with the Ministry of Finance on more than one occasion," the same sources indicate.

Gemma Ruiz (Sabadell, 1975) returns to bookstores two years after the successful novel Our mothers, with which he received the Sant Jordi award. And he does so with A woman your age (Proa), a story about family, sex, art, friendship, and touristification in which artist Kate Gold decides to break away from everything and take back control of her life, her vocation, her independence, and her self-love.

Audiovisual producers expressed their displeasure this Friday over what they consider unfair treatment by the Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation (CCMA). The CCMA has made progress after 15 months of negotiations, but at the same time flatly rejects having to cede broadcasting rights for projects filmed for the CCMA for a period of 20 years, when they believe European regulations stipulate a maximum of 7 or 10 years. The CCMA claimed that it was "born out of dialogue with the sector" and would lead to "an improvement in the industrial profit of production companies, a greater commitment to creativity, and a step forward in process transparency." Among the approved measures was an increase in the industrial profit for second or subsequent seasons from 8% to 10%, which had not been agreed upon by both parties. Cera also called for "the depoliticization of the governing council of the CCMA," arguing that "only in this way can a strong audiovisual industry be built," according to PROA in its statement. Another point of contention is the ownership of the rights, which, according to PROA, means that producers who film in Catalan are at a competitive disadvantage compared to those who do so in Spanish, since the latter have an easier time incorporating other public television channels into the project. proposes that this 50% be transformed into performance rights (that is, that everything generated by the work could represent a return for the CCMA, but without blocking part of the ownership)

Augusta Hall, the first of the two poems – moving and shocking – contained in the new book of Sebastián Alzamora (Llucmajor, 1972), begins with a movie screen projecting the image of a ship moored in the port of Palma. The beam of light takes us on a journey back to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The reader soon learns that this ship, the James I, was converted by the Falangists into a prison for a few weeks in 1936. The cinema where the film is shown had also been, during the war, "a prison for locking up the Reds", known as Can Mir, because it was owned by a Falangist family with that surname.

Wars shake the art market, but the market resists. While Donald Trump shakes the world order, the 44th edition of the Arco fair started in Madrid on Wednesday, with a surprisingly low presence of protest art. It is true that the objectives at Arco are to buy and sell works of art, and that many of the 214 participating galleries closed the selection of works months ago, but, even so, it is striking not to find more political art. As Francesc Torres wrote about the paintings he exhibits at the T20 gallery, art offers "a small space of freedom, even if it is small, fragile and in many cases fictitious, but it serves to survive." He also warns in the motto of one of the works that The politician is not what makes political art art, and in another that Don't make art unless you have a very good reason.

The studios are the home par excellence of artists, the silent testimonies of their concerns and their efforts. Of the moments of euphoria for achievements and discoveries and of the frustration when the work does not meet expectations and they have to start again. Six artists represented by some of the sixteen Catalan galleries that will participate in the next edition of Arco between March 5 and 9 have opened the doors of their studios at the ARA a few weeks before the start of the fair. Each of them is a world: some make the most of every last minute to finish their work, others have already delivered the works weeks ago.