Club 49, an open window to the discovery of Japanese Culture

Abstract

The Club 49 association emerged in Barcelona in the late 1940s, as the key element of reconstruction and promotion of the city's artistic and cultural scene, being a clear example of the Catalan culture circuit of dictatorship period. The main objective of this article will be to focus on a specific case study and show how Club 49 was like a small window to the outside, since thanks to Eudald Serra (1911-2001) some exhibitions and conferences on Japanese Art were organized in Barcelona of the 50s and 60s. The reconstruction of a microhistory that will allow us to value the figure of Serra as a true cultural mediator, connecting cultures, creating and organizing spaces of confluence. To carry out this research we have worked with unpublished material from personal files of various members of Club 49, which has allowed us to document the genesis of these activities, as well as the reception they had. This highlights the importance of ephemera material (invitations, brochures, etc.) as memory objects in the assessment and reconstruction of anonymous history, as well as cultural practice and processes.