If you arrive at the Ateneu Barcelonès and are greeted by a large head with the wrinkled face of Josep Carner, it is the unmistakable sign that only good, different, and exciting things can happen that evening. "Today we will be guided by the most important and one of the most overlooked institutions in our lives: chance," proclaimed the poet and rapper Oriol Sauleda at the beginning of the show The square root, a production by La Clota Cooperativa that is a heterogeneous collage of artistic actions that included readings by Enric Casasses, Maria Sevilla, and Júlia Bacardit, a fencing duel between Modernists and Novecentists, sonic actions by Xavi Lloses, and even a small session of choral gymnastics to the rhythm of a violinist from the Riba Orquestra.

"The revolution will come disorganized or it will not come at all," he writes. Enric Casasses (Barcelona, ​​​​1951) in his new book, The police will be in force (Documentos Documenta, 2025). The volume, with drawings by Tura Sanglas and a "blue-collar" cover, takes the reader on a roller coaster of emotions following the referendum of October 1, 2017. Casasses, recently recognized with the Jaume Fuster Award for his lifetime achievement, welcomes us on a corner of the Eixample district to talk about his spirit of protest and the sense of humor that permeates much of his work. He grew up in post-war Barcelona, the son of chemists Enric Casassas and Simó and Pepita Figueras i Cros, who instilled a love of literature in both him and his sisters, Anna and Maria, who have dedicated themselves to translation and graphic design, respectively.

Enric Casasses (Barcelona, ​​​​1951) has just been proclaimed winner of the 25th Jaume Fuster Prize, voted annually by the members of the Association of Writers in Catalan Language, and which has distinguished in previous editions the work of Jesús Moncada, Joan Margarit, Narcís Comadira, Antonia Vicens and Antonina Canyelles, among others. The literary work of Casasses, poet, translator, columnist and narrator, has expanded into more than thirty books and records – among which those he has made with Pascal Comelade– and in hundreds of recitals.