"These days I am rereading the first attempt at a biography of Josep Maria de Sagarra (1894-1961). Unfortunately, our country still does not have a proper biography of the writer," explains the theater director Xavier Albertí. The book that has him captivated and that he recommends is Sagarra, seen by his intimates (Edhasa, 1982), which the journalist Lluís Permanyer (1939-2025) published four decades ago based on testimonies from people in the writer's closest circle. "Lluís Permanyer passed away recently, and I think we need to re-evaluate the work of documenting his personal relationship with Sagarra and everything he tells us about it. It is an essential book for understanding Sagarra's figure and work, and at the same time, for dispelling a great number of prejudices that this man carries with him," claims Albertí, who this summer has presented two shows at the Dansàneu festival.

Defeatism with the language gets us nowhere. Catalan is alive. Life is always unstable. It serves almost everything: literature, cinema, journalism, education, science, politics... Presenting both service and battle. Rapid foreign demographic growth has weakened its relative position, but in absolute terms there are more speakers than ever. Pessimism, therefore, is only relatively justified. Optimism as a method is more effective than the dramatic fatalism that is eating away at us, that paralyzes us. It's not about denying the complex reality or the glaring weaknesses (justice, business, the street), but about looking at it with different eyes. About shedding the heavy burden of victimizing, not to say catastrophic, negativity that, in effect, is leading us to catastrophe.