"Black bread"Manel and Pep Guardiola," Carles Capdevila said in the early months of ARA. As the newspaper's director, he was trying to adjust his perspective. Black bread, the film by Agustí VillarongaIt had premiered on October 15, 2010, thirteen days before the birth of the ARA. The group Manel released their second album, 10 miles to see some good armorIn March 2011. And Pep Guardiola was coaching FC Barcelona, ​​which won the Champions League on May 28, 2011, in London, with goals from Pedro, Messi, and Villa. Fifteen years later, the director of the ARA, Esther Vera, could say: "Rosalía, Carla Simón, and Lamine Yamal." Leaving aside football, which permeates everything but isn't the material with which the Culture pages are written, between Capdevila's words and those Vera might endorse, there's a whole shift in the mainstream Catalan culture, in cultural manifestations that transcend the sectoral sphere. mainstream It's not necessarily the best-selling or most popular product, but rather everything that forms part of a broader social debate and can impact society. At its best, it can have added artistic value and generate contexts that enrich the country's culture.

Xantal Rodríguez and Irene Solà share a generation and a landscape. The former is from Arbúcies and is the singer of Remedy of Ca la Fresca, which has songs like Mountain pain, included on the disc The hook of the question (BankRobber), One of the best albums of 2024 according to the ARAThe second, the writer, is from Malla, and has made the mountain an omnipresent character in the novels I sing and the mountain dances (2019) and I gave you eyes and you looked into the darkness (2023), both published by Anagrama. This second book is the one recommended by Xantal Rodríguez, who closely experiences the colors, smells, and rapture of nature inherent in Irene Solà's literature.

This year he has read a lot and he hates recommending just one book, but there was one that left its mark on him: I gave you eyes and you looked into the darkness, by Irene Solà. "It has a completely different style than what I have been reading lately," explains Vicenç Calafell, one of the three members of the musical group HadasThe novel tells the story of a lineage of women who live in a farmhouse and explores a world made of myths, superstitions, and fables.