Espelt winery aims at conquering Chinese market

From http://www.diaridegirona.cat/comarques/2013/08/31/celler-espelt-vol-conquerir-mercat/632967.html

[caption id="attachment_2549" align="alignleft" width="330"] Logo of Celler Espelt[/caption]

Celler Espelt, a Vilajuïga-based winery in Alt Empordà (Girona province) has started the harvest two weeks later than usual due to the rainy and rather fresh summer of 2013. They have started hand-harvesting their vineyards in Rabós d'Empordà, where they have the "lledoner roig" vineyards (Grenache pink, a local variety of Alt Empordà region), a grape that is mostly used in the local sweet wines.

However, this time things are going to be different. Celler Espelt is going to use this grape to make a new kind of wine. "This year we have decided to produce a white wine with this grape. Because of this year's late harvest, we have started picking up the lledoner roig instead of other grapes", explained the winery's enologist Anna Espelt, that later added that "lledoner roig is scattered among the carignan vines and its harvest requires a slow and pacient work". She also added that Celler Espelt wants to recover this local grape, that was almost forgotten, not only for the production of white wines but also for other kinds of wine. With this goal in mind, the Celler Espelt is starting a research project on how to recover the use of lledoner roig and how to use it in other kinds of wine apart from the garnatxa dolça de l'Empordà, the local sweet wine.

Apart from these new projects, Celler Espelt is also aiming at selling their wines in new markets. They are already exporting 60% of their bottles (around 480,000 out of 800,000 units) to countries like United States, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom and Norway. According to Anna Espelt, for next year they are aiming at some new markets like Germany, China and Latin America.

[caption id="attachment_2550" align="aligncenter" width="415"] Different products from the Celler Espelt, in their winery shop[/caption]

 

A visit to the Joan Miró exhibition in Taipei

[caption id="attachment_2506" align="alignleft" width="158"] Catalog of the Joan MIró exhibition in Taiwan[/caption]

On June 26th, 2013 we had the pleasure to visit the first exhibition ever organized in Taiwan of the works of Catalan painter Joan Miró (胡安·米羅), on display until September 25th, 2013 at the National Museum of History in Taipei (台北). The exhibition, entitled "Women, Birds, Stars" and curated by Jordi Joan Clavero, compiles 86 artworks from the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona and from the Miró family collection, that mostly reveal Miró’s mature style of the 60s and 70s, when women, birds and stars became the major motifs of his artistic expression. "Women, Birds, Stars" is scheduled to travel later to Kaohsiung (高雄) and Taichung (台中).

We arrived at the National Museum of History around 3 pm, 30 minutes before the start of the guided tour. We were already impressed from the start by the colourful banners in the surrounding streets announcing the exhibition and, as we got closer to the museum, we were also delighted by the beautiful decoration around it, something that would immediately grab the people's attention and invite them to get in. During this 30-minute wait, were able to roam free around the different rooms and have a preview of the whole exhibition. We were wondering which would be the degree of interest of the local residents to see the paintings of such a distant artist and when it was time for the guided tour we got the final answer: packed. Between 3:30 pm and 4:45 pm at least 4 simultaneous guided groups of 20 people each were circulating around the different rooms and receiving very accurate and illustrative explanations -in Chinese- by the museum guides about Joan Miró, his art and the meaning of his paintings.

We really enjoyed the exhibition and its atmosphere. We were deeply moved by the care, respect and passion that the organizers and the guides put into it and into spreading the word about the art of Joan Miró and its meaning and legacy in such a faraway country as Taiwan.

[caption id="attachment_2505" align="aligncenter" width="470"] The Sinalunya team while visiting the Joan Miró exhibition in Taipei[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2507" align="aligncenter" width="458"] The tickets for the Joan Miró exhibition in Taipei[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2508" align="aligncenter" width="517"] The National Museum of History in Taipei that holds the exhibition on the art of Joan Miró[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2556" align="aligncenter" width="517"] The Sinalunya team and our friend 徐小潭 at the Joan Miró exhibition in Taipei[/caption]

Catalan e-commerce company Trilogi succeeds in China

From http://www.viaempresa.cat/ca/notices/2013/08/trilogi-botigues-virtuals-amb-segell-catala-1984.php (in Catalan)

Trilogi is a company created in Igualada (Barcelona province) in 1999 that settled in China two years ago and that it is offering e-commerce solutions for Chinese companies. Màrius Rossell, founder of Trilogi, had a vision about the power of internet and he and his company specialized in creating virtual shops. Fourteen years later, Trilogi is expected to reach a total sales of 1.2 million euro in 2013 and among its clients there are some big companies like Media Markt, Muebles La Fábrica, Roche and the sports shoe company Munich.

After a failure in trying to internationalize TLG (Trilogi's international brand) in European Union markets, where they were not able to sell a single on-line shop, Màrius Rossell decided to give China a try. He realized that Spanish companies did not have a negative perception in China as they had in some European markets, so they decided to follow the same strategy in China with Baidu that they had previously followed in Spain with Google, aiming at a having a good SEO. With a team of 5 people, 4 of them from China, TLG's Beijing office has already been able to sell 20 on-line shops, having an average of 3-4 new clients every month.

Apart from the shop itself, TLG also offers additional services to their Chinese customers, such as the online promotion of their brands or managing their presence in the social networks Weibo and Renren, the equivalents of Twitter and Facebook in the Asian giant. TLG's strategy to keep on growing on the Chinese markets is to find local partners in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

According to Màrius Rossell, there are several reasons to think that in the next few years online shops will grow in China: i) it's a country with a high percentage of young people who are used to buy online products; ii) in some cities it is difficult to find some products, so the internet is an easy and effective solution; iii) many Chinese small and medium companies are in the growing phase and they need an online shop. However, there are other reasons that may cause this growth to be slower than expected, like: i) some Chinese people do not invest in e-commerce because they think it is not profitable enough; ii) opposite to the customers, a high percentage of Chinese businessmen are not into the world of internet and social networks; iii) the cost for an European company to land in China is quite high due to the language and cultural barriers, which cause extra expenses.

Impressions del festival Nits de Cinema Oriental

A primers de juliol de 2013 a Vic (Osona) es va celebrar la desena edició del Festival Nits de Cinema Oriental. Qui hi va assistir en representació de Sinalunya va ser la nostra amiga osonenca Núria Sellarès, qui ens ha deixat una impressió del que va ser la seva primera experiència amb aquest festival:

Vic, segona setmana de Juliol, any 2013.

Una colla d'energúmens amb ulleres i etiquetes penjades al coll entren a un local on hi ha una pantalla gegant disposats a quedar amb la vista cansada durant una setmana. Comença el Festival Nits de Cinema Oriental de Vic. Un festival on s'hi projecten pel·lícules d'arreu dels països asiàtics i que enguany té Taiwan de país convidat. Bona part de les pel·lícules projectades són d'aquest país.

El festival de cinema oriental de Vic està pensat per ser vist des de molts punts de vista diferents. Hi ha sessions matinals de pel·lícules adreçades a nens i joves, un espai on es projecten pel·lícules retrospectives, un espai on les pel·lícules entren a concurs i finalment un espai obert al gran públic on hi ha també sopar temàtic amb gastronomia oriental (cada dia d'un país diferent).  Aquest festival arriba a molta gent diferent: els malalts de cinema oriental i fanàtics d'alguna tipologia de pel·lícula concreta, als joves, a la gent que, senzillament, li agrada passar una estona divertida veient una pel·lícula en una nit d'estiu o als tastaolletes que els agrada descobrir nous estils cinematogràfics i/o noves cultures. Aquest any ha arribat a la seva desena edició, no m'estranya gens i que per molts anys!

Finalment dir que és un festival molt recomanable per a tothom que tingui un mínim interès en el cinema i, ja no dir, pels cineastes tastaolletes. L'any vinent repetirem, no en tingueu cap mena de dubte!

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="178"] Afro Tanaka, guanyadora de la desena edició del Festival Nits de Cinema Oriental de Vic[/caption]

En l'edició d'enguany i per votació popular, la comèdia japonesa Afro Tanaka es va endur el premi Gat de la Sort a la millor pel·lícula, tal com va anunciar el director del certamen, Quim Crusellas, durant la cerimònia de clausura. Afro Tanaka va ser la pel·lícula amb més espectadors als cinemes del Japó l'any 2012 i mostra les esbojarrades aventures d'un jove japonès que duu un pentinat afro en busca de la dona de la seva vida. El premi del festival, el Gat de la Sort, ha pres forma enguany gràcies a l’escultura dissenyada i creada per Jaume Sallés, qui ha impregnat el disseny de l’estatueta amb influències del folklore japonès.

La resta de posicions d'honor d'aquest festival han estat per a les pel·lícules Eega (Índia), que ha ocupat el segon lloc, i The Rocket (Austràlia, filmada a Laos i amb diàlegs en llengua lao), que ha ocupat el tercer.  Els octogenaris taiwanesos que van de ruta en moto per la illa de Go Grandriders! (Taiwan), van quedar quarts i When a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep (南方小羊牧場) (Taiwan), va quedar cinquena.

Aquí us deixem el tràiler de la guanyadora, Afro Tanaka:



Per estar informats de cara a properes edicions del festival podeu fer-ho a través de la pàgina web oficial, http://cinemaoriental.com.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="521"] Festival Nits de Cinema Oriental[/caption]

 

"Pure views: Transformations of Chinese Contemporary Art" exhibition in Barcelona

From http://www.artssantamonica.cat/EXP/EXPOSICIONS/tabid/128/any/201307/language/en-US/Default.aspx#exposicio87 (in English)

[caption id="attachment_2466" align="alignleft" width="324"] Pure Views. Transformations of Chinese Contemporary Art[/caption]

From July 3rd to September 28th, 2013, Barcelona's Arts Santa Mònica will host an attractive and comprehensive survey of Chinese contemporary art entitled "Pure Views. Transformations of Chinese Contemporary Art" and curated by Lü Peng (吕澎), the prestigious Chinese art historian and director of the Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art (成都当代美术馆). Back in 1995, under the title "From the Country of the Centre. Artistic Avant-gardes in China", this same art centre mounted a seminal display of key, innovative Chinese artworks of the day, one of the first exhibitions of its kind in Europe. Since then, Chinese art has evolved significantly. Pure Views corroborates the developments experienced by Chinese art in the last thirty years. Starting from the final days of Socialist Realism, it charts the trend towards a diversity of techniques and styles, responding to the expectations of a new society that, at the same time, is reflecting profoundly on its tradition.

The exhibition is also hosting a series of conferences related to Chinese art:

July 3rd - Trends and evolution of the contemporary Chinese art

July 5th - The market of Chinese Contemporary Art. ¿How to explain its exceptional evolution?

July 11th - New readings of the tradition in Chinese experimental art

 

The forthcoming ones are the following ones:

September 18th, 7 pm - The Chinese cultural tradition: instructions for its use

From September 25th to October 11th - Film series "Transformations of the Chinese cinema", on the Filmoteca de Catalunya, Plaça Salvador Seguí, Barcelona.

Curated by: Lü Peng, assisted by Xu Sheng

Organized by: Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art (成都当代美术馆) and Arts Santa Mònica - Departament of Cultura, Generalitat de Catalunya

Produced by: Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art (成都当代美术馆) and Arts Santa Mònica - Departament of Cultura, Generalitat de Catalunya

In conjunction with: Chinart, L-Art Gallery and ARTANTIDE.es - Josep Soler Casanellas

Partners: Casa Àsia, Esade China Europe Club, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Filmoteca de Catalunya

Media partners: Arteallimite, Artlink, Asian Art Newspaper, Global Asia Magazine

Partners: Bodegas Torres, Skyteam, NH Hoteles