The Universal Forum of Cultures - Barcelona, Spain, 2004: an exciting event with ambitious ideals or an extravaganza with mission creep too broad to succeed?

I first started asking myself the questions in the column to the left when I volunteered during the summer of 2004 at the Universal Forum of Cultures held in Barcelona, Spain.  Sponsored by UNESCO, Spain’s Ministry of Culture, and both the Barcelona and Catalunya governments, the Forum was a summer-long, international affair comprised of exhibitions, lectures, symposia, and artistic performances.  It had three broad and very lofty aims: to promote sustainable development, explore conditions necessary for creating a more peaceful global society, and celebrate cultural diversity.  The Forum featured academics, intellectuals, and other experts in a series of “dialogues” around several themes; produced large exhibitions exploring language, cities, the environment and our relationship to it, and cultural differences; and presented performances from collectives around the globe, ranging from street performers to some of the best known theater and dance companies in the world. 

As a former theater major, the opportunity to see works by Peter Brook, Robert Wilson, and some of the best avant-garde companies in Europe all at once was too good to pass up.  I was also inspired by the sheer breadth of the Forum, not to mention its ideals and aims.  The thought of a huge festival devoted to culture, diversity, sustainability, and peace, with a multitude of events and exhibits, and a magnitude of scale, thrilled me.

I had made my way to Barcelona bright-eyed and excited.  Though not long before the Forum was set to open, I discovered there were strong factions of opposition to the Forum that existed.  The event was sponsored by huge, multi-national companies with questionable reputations in the developing world, at least one of which had investments that could be traced to contractors who produce military arms.  Not only that, but entrance into the Forum cost 20 euros.  Protesters claimed it wasn’t a truly “universal” forum if there was a price to participate.  As the Forum was developed, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and other NGOs eventually withdrew their participation in protest of how it was being planned. 

Despite the controversy (and I wasn’t privy to all of it until I returned to the States), I was still eager to volunteer.  I’d moved to Barcelona specifically to do so and I still wanted to experience the Forum to its fullest.  Quite honestly, the experience was amazing.  I was educated, inspired, and awed time and time again.  The exhibitions were fascinating.  Some were incredibly intriguing, and some simply brought me to tears.  Making my way through an interactive art installation that explored resources devoted to militaries and arms around the world (where I learned the amount spent on arms by the US alone is more than the entire worlds spends on education), I kept thinking to myself, people need to know this stuff!  Taking in street theater performances one afternoon, I would think, more people should get to see this!

(Image courtesy of barcelona2004.org)

Regardless of my personal experience, I can’t help but wonder, was the Forum successful in what it set out to do?  It had a $2.3 billion price tag – was it worth it?  The city and regional governments produced it largely to stimulate Barcelona’s tourism industry in the same way the 1992 Olympics had done.  It may have achieved some success in that regard: the Forum drew 3.5 million visitors, though they had originally projected 5 million.  But does that mean there were too many goals and not enough focus?  Were other visitors inspired the way I was?  What kind of ripple effects still last six or seven years later? 

Perhaps the Forum was bigger than it needed to be.  Someone had to front the $2.3 billion to produce it, so the presence of multi-national corporate sponsors is not surprising.(though sponsorship accounted for only 32% of funding for the event).  But did corporate interests drive the content and programming too much?  If they did, perhaps the organizers learned from their mistakes.  The Forum lives on, and if interest among the candidate cities that have pursued the opportunity to host  it in future  rounds is any indicator, its integrity has improved.  An organizing body, the Fundació Fòrum Universal de les Cultures, was founded as an independent foundation in July of '04 and is overseen by a board of trustees as well as the government bodies that founded the original Forum.  Its website lists no ties to the corporations mentioned above.  The foundation organized second and third forums in Monterrey, Mexico (2007), Valparaíso, Chile (2010) and is planning two more: in Naples, Italy (2013), and Amman, Jordan (2016).  The foundation also manages the Barcelona Center for the United Nations Global Compact and organizes a Peace Camp. 

So in fact, there are indeed lasting ripple effects.  Who knows how many.  But an event doesn't need to be as grandiose  as the Forum to make an impact.  Hundreds, if not thousands, of events are produced every year with similar ideals and like-minded goals.  More exploration of some of those to come on this blog soon.