Germán Rey + Alfons Martinell
Laboratory of daring.
A conversation about ways to use the tools of the craft of culture to transform the big and the small with levers for the local and the global. Germán Rey and Alfons Martinell’s experience has coincided with several disruptive projects that have helped change the role of culture in the daily lives of many communities.
Germán Rey, Trustee of the García Márquez Foundation and advisor to the Colombian Ministry of Culture on communication, culture, cultural management and cultural industries.
Alfons Martinell, Honorary Director of the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policies and Cooperation at the University of Girona.
Germán Rey
He studied Psychology at the National University of Colombia and in Madrid. He was a professor at the Pontifical Xavierian University where he directed the ATICO Centre for Creative Technologies and the MATRIX Communication Laboratory. He was part of the International Study Commission on Media, Religion and Culture as well as a reader’s ombudsman for the newspaper El Tiempo and on the Board of Directors of the newspaper El Espectador. Rey was a member of the Board of Directors of the Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa, the FotoMuseo, Fundalectura, the Corporación Galán, the Fundación VIST and the Fundación Gabo para el nuevo periodismo Iberoamericano. Advisor to the Colombian Ministry of Culture and the Secretaries of Culture of Bogotá and Medellín. His books include Balsas y medusas, Las tramas de la cultura, Los sentidos despiertos, Industrias culturales, creatividad y desarrollo, Oficio de equilibristas, Compendio de poíticas culturales.
Alfons Martinell
Currently a retired professor of the University of Girona he is an Honorary Director of the Unesco Chair: “Cultural Policies and Cooperation” and a Collaborator of the Red Española para el Desarrollo Sostenible (REDS) (Sustainable Development Solutions Network), SDSN where he leads the working group on Culture and Sustainable Development. He is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the Cercle de Cultura de Barcelona.
He is simply a university professor dedicated to education and culture. He is nobody in the arts, nor does he consider himself an intellectual, but he admires the people who dedicate themselves to creation, through any expressive language, giving life to it and thanks to them for their contributions that allow him to enjoy and stimulate his aesthetic tastes. He lives in a peripheral territory but tries to keep track of what goes on globally. He is a supporter of public service, international cooperation, of ideas committed to improving the community, rather than a particular political party.
