Back Julio Manrique: “The University and the theatre have a lot in common: they are both good places for questions”

Julio Manrique: “The University and the theatre have a lot in common: they are both good places for questions”

The actor, director, theatre producer and former Law student at UPF delivered the inaugural lecture of the UPF 2020-2021 academic year. The event, held online, included speeches by UPF rector, Jaume Casals, Ramon Tremosa, minister of Enterprise and Knowledge; Ada Colau, mayor of Barcelona, and Montserrat Vendrell, chair of the UPF Board of Trustees.

20.10.2020

Imatge inicial

Julio Manrique, actor, director, theatre producer and former Law student at the University, delivered the inaugural lecture which opened the UPF 2020-2021 academic year, this year held online due to the coronavirus pandemic. Some thousand people watched the live broadcast of the event via the UPF website, and it was also covered by social networks (#inauguracioUPF).

The official opening ceremony of the new academic year, which took place 20 October at 1 pm, included a welcome and a closing speech by the UPF rector, Jaume Casals, live from the auditorium on the Ciutadella campus, which also featured Catalan sign language interpretation; video-recorded interventions by Ramon Tremosa, minister of Enterprise and Knowledge of the Generalitat (Government) of Catalonia; Ada Colau, mayor of Barcelona, and Montserrat Vendrell, chair of the UPF Board of Trustees, as well as the performance by the UPF Choir of the piece Gaudeamus igitur to close.

An audiovisual montage based on the 2020-2021 academic year inaugural poster, the work of Albert Serra, film director and multifaceted artist, presented for the first time, served to open the proceedings. The work conveys nonconformity, the desire not to falter, and confronts us with the fascinating question of the enigma. An invitation to audacity, an open itinerary towards new horizons.

Following a brief welcome by Jaume Casals, the videoreport of the 2019-2020 UPF academic year UPF was screened. It included the sections Community; Teaching; Research; Environment and outreach; Internationalization; Funding and campus; Social commitment, and the Return to the University for the 2020-2021 academic year. This year’s 125th anniversary of the first screening of film by the Lumière brothers served as the thematic thread for an overview of the main activities of an academic year heavily marked by covid-19.

>Videoreport of 2019-2020 academic year

Inaugural lecture by Julio Manrique

The central part of the event featured Julio Manrique i Vicuña, actor, director and theatre producer, and former Law student at Pompeu Fabra University (class of 1995), who gave the 2020-2021 academic year inaugural lecture, recorded in the Reflection Room on the Ciutadella campus. In his speech, he drew a parallel between the University and the world of theatre, where he took his first steps during his time at university, as a member of the UPF Theatre Workshop.

Complete inaugural lecture by Julio Manrique (pdf document, 5 pages.) 

Video of the complete inaugural lecture (11:45 min)


Excerpts from the lecture:

Rarely in my career as an actor have I enjoyed myself as much as when playing Hamlet, every day, for several hours (...). And, why am I talking about Hamlet? Because I think that essentially, Hamlet is a young, intelligent person who asks himself questions. About death, of course, but also, and above all, about life. About how to fill our lives with meaning assuming the inescapable fact that life is finite and that sooner or later, we all die”.

When you think about it, the university and the theatre have a lot in common. Both, by nature, are social spaces, meeting places. And they are also two good places for questions. To examine ourselves, to question ourselves, to stop and try to understand the increasingly fast-paced, complex world in which we live”.

The pandemic might temporarily limit and condition the social aspect, how we meet, both in the classroom and in the theatres. It already has, undeniably. But instead, despite all the adversity, I think we should fight to keep the flame of curiosity, emotion and knowledge burning”.

Covid-19 is, undoubtedly, a real bastard in many ways. But sometimes, once the necessary and healthy phase of anger and complaint has passed, a space opens up for thought, for reflection, for seeing things in a new light, through perhaps disenchanted, but perhaps wider-open eyes, eyes that can focus better”.

I wholeheartedly wish for your time at university, despite the difficulties, to be full of passionate questions, research and discoveries that bring about new questions that you can share and exchange. Like Hamlet, may you rebel against injustice and unmask traitors”.

The second part of the proceedings started with the screening of the institutional video “Pregunta” (Question), a piece that encourages never ceasing to ask questions, because “without questions, above all, there is no tireless, sometimes sterile search for the answer”.

Speeches by the authorities

Then followed a series of speeches (in this order) by Montserrat Vendrell, chair of the UPF Board of Trustees; Ramon Tremosa, minister of Enterprise and Knowledge of the Generalitat (Government) of Catalonia, and Ada Colau, mayor of Barcelona.

Video with the three complete speeches (6:06 min)

Speech by Montserrat Vendrell

Excerpts from the speech:

We inaugurate a new academic year in a year, 2020, that has forced us all to become aware of a new way of life, to adapt to situations never previously experienced, and long for everything we took for granted”.

Also, the University, its researchers and students have contributed their expertise more than ever, from Medicine to Biology, from Law to Communication, to the management of the emergency enforced by the pandemic”.

We at the Board of Trustees, the body that represents society within the University, have supported all these tasks and have promoted projects in the fields of innovation, knowledge transfer, equality and solidarity”.

Speech by Ramon Tremosa

Excerpts from the speech:

The extraordinary nature of this academic year has forced us to prepare a blended model of face-to-face and online classes against the clock and especially to make education feasible, but also research and investigation, which are key to beating this health, political and social crisis”.

UPF is a major player in this context of success, a context in which we must invest more because it is our future: digitization, sustainability, all in all, ultimately, progress and wellbeing”.

Thus, by 2024 the Catalan government expects to reach overall spending on R&D&I equivalent to 2.12% of Catalan GDP in order to match the average for the European Union”.

In this regard, I implore the Government of Catalonia, Barcelona City Council and your University to continue working together to make the Ciutadella of Knowledge project possible, building a leading knowledge hub in Europe with 7,000 square metres dedicated to research”.

Speech by Ada Colau

Excerpts from the speech:

of them is that we, the city of Barcelona, need our universities and our research centres more than ever. We need thought, critical thinking to tackle the major challenges we are facing”.

We face global challenges such as climate emergency, the growth of inequalities and a pandemic that has further highlighted the major shortcomings of our system”.

So, we must reinvent ourselves, we must rethink many things and you must be the key players of such reflection”.

Speech by de rector Jaume Casals

The last speech was given by the UPF rector, who gave it live from one of the auditoria on the empty Ciutadella campus. Jaume Casals focused his speech on issues such as the freedom of expression, the adaptation of the University to the pandemic, the model of funding, the political and legislative context and the university system, and gave an overview of the main milestones achieved and challenges ahead facing the institution.

Speech by the UPF rector, Jaume Casals (17.46 min)


Excerps from the speech

This latest attack in France was particularly cruel because it affects the educational community (...). I wear this sign in front of me: ‘I am a teacher’”.

Ignorance is a serious danger against which we must all fight, especially the representatives of the people of Catalonia”.

UPF is a fast horse absurdly pulling the cart of an interesting, awkward national system that will never resolutely forge ahead until a president decides it’s worth making universities and research a priority”.

I have never said we should have any preference or privilege. On the contrary, I have always focused on funding based on merit and effort and, above all, freedom of movements”.

Each of us is, in some way, part of the commitment of all. I believe that we have failed to express and communicate this commitment properly until now”.

Public funding, free for students, for example, does not seem bad to me. But the public part must respond and not attempt to achieve top-tier universities at bargain prices”.

I would like to invite you with all my strength to broach this academic year and accept any changes we’ll probably have to make from time to time without getting discouraged. The problems of covid-19 will be overcome and we must take strength from it for the coming academic year”.

After the rector declared the UPF 2020-2021 academic year open, the traditional university hymn Gaudeamus igitur, sung by the UPF Choir members online from their homes, brought an end to the ceremony.

Julio Manrique, from the discovery of the theatre at UPF to performing, directing and producing

Julio Manrique i Vicuña (Barcelona, 1973) was a Law student at Pompeu Fabra University (class of 1995). During his time at UPF, he was a member of the Theatre Workshop, where he discovered his vocation for the art.

At the Theatre Workshop, he met Josep Maria Mestres, then the head of the university workshops: the theatre director gave him the opportunity to participate in the play Enemic de classe, which marked the Julio Manrique’s debut as a professional actor.

After completing his training at the Institut del Teatre, in 1998 he received a grant from the Union of European Theatres, representing the Teatre Lliure (where he was later to become a resident actor) to participate in an international research workshop on the works of Shakespeare.

Julio Manrique has extensive experience as a theatre actor, which has led him to work with some of the country’s best directors, such as Àlex Rigola, Xavier Alberti, Sergi Belbel and Oriol Broggi. In television, he has participated in several series, mainly for TV3, such as La memòria dels cargols; Nissaga: l’herència, Porca Misèria, Temps de Silenci, Infidels, Cites, El Crac and Isabel, the latter for RTVE. He has also ventured into the world of cinema with roles in films like Soldados de Salamina, En la ciudad, Febrer and Caín.

In 2006, he delved into stage direction with the work Els boscos at Sala Beckett, and began to form his own theatre company. In 2010, he became artistic director of Teatre Romea, replacing Calixto Bieito, holding the position until 2013. In 2011 he founded the production company La Brutal together with the actors David Selvas and Cristina Genebat.

Some of the latest theatre productions he has directed are Jerusalem, by Jez Butterworth (Teatre Grec, 2019); La reina de la bellesa de Leenane, by Martin McDonagh (Library of Catalonia, 2019) and The next room (The Vibrator Play), by Sarah Ruhl (La Villarroel, 2018). Recently, he has written and directed the work Bouvetoya, which opened the Festival Temporada Alta on 7 October last. In December he will be putting on The Three Sisters by Chekhov at the Teatre Lliure.

He has won several Butaca awards for best direction, for La forma de les coses (2008), American Buffalo (2010), Coses que deiem avui (2011), El curiós incident del gos a mitjanit (2015), L’ànec salvatge (2017), in addition to the Butaca award for best actor for L’ordre del clan dels Zhao (2014).

Other awards received include the Theatre Critics Award for best performance for Titus Andronicus, Ànsia, Hamlet, L’ordre del clan dels Zhao and Timon of Athens, among others; the Theatre Critics Award 2018 for best direction for L’ànec salvatge, and the 2018 theatre Max Award for best actor.

Albert Serra, one of the most original on the European film scene

Albert Serra is the author of the poster for the UPF 2020-2021 academic year. Referring to this work in his speech, the rector, Jaume Casals, said “I can but show my enthusiasm when listening to Julio Manrique and admiring the work of Albert Serra. I believe there is no better invitation to destroy one of the vices the university fights against, or should fight against. The laziness of thought”.

Albert Serra i Juanola (Banyoles, 1975) is a Catalan film director and producer and multifaceted artist. Holding a bachelor’s degree in Hispanic Studies and Theory of Comparative Literature from the University of Barcelona, in which he also studied the first cycle of Art History, he is considered one of the most original on the recent European scene. Distanced from the more conventional circuits, he is a benchmark in contemporary European independent art cinema.

Distanced from the more conventional circuits, he is a benchmark in contemporary European independent art cinema.

His films have been screened at renowned international festivals such as Cannes (2006 and 2008), Toronto (2016), Locarno (2013), where he received the Golden Leopard for best film for Story of My Death; Marseille (2018), where he was awarded for the film Roi Soleil, a fusion of the performance and the installation, and Cannes (2019), where the film Liberté won the special jury “Un certain regard” prize. Other awards he has received are the Barcelona Film Award (2006) for best new direction for Honor de cavalleria, and the Gaudí Award (2009) for best film for El cant dels ocells.

He has been awarded retrospective awards by institutions such as Arts Santa Mònica de Barcelona (2010); the Pompidou Centre in Paris (2013), where Sierra presented The three little pigs; Brussels Cinematek (2013) and Tate Modern of London (2015). He has participated at distinguished international art events such as documenta in Kassel (2012) and the Venice Biennale (2015), where he represented Catalonia, with the installation Singularity. His work is found in collections like the MoMA in New York and the MACBA in Barcelona.

A unique style that shuns all traditional visual codes

Closer to performances than cinema, his films have great formal complexity. Markedly dilated in time and with great lentitude, mystery, ambiguity, the beauty of the images and a degree of the baroque prevail. Serra features the essay film often inspired by historical figures such as Louis XIV, literary ones like Don Quixote, or legendary ones, such as the Three Wise Men.

His style shuns all contemporary visual codes and all traditional genres: it prioritizes the visual atmosphere over the events or what is recounted, and never proposes a closed-ended story or a narration with one single interpretation. He tends not to work with professional actors or a tight script, and he leaves the development of the situations created by the actors to lead the scenes which he later reworks in a long and laborious production process.

Multimedia

Categories:

SDG - Sustainable Development Goals:

Els ODS a la UPF

Contact

For more information

News published by:

Communication Office