Lluís Puig i Gordi (

Terrassa Terrassa (, es, Tarrasa) is a city in the east central region of Catalonia, Spain, in the province of Barcelona, ''comarca'' of Vallès Occidental, of which it is the co-capital along with Sabadell. The name ''Terrassa'' derives from Latin ' ...

, 18 October 1959) is an

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

dancer Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoi ...

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

and Spanish politician from

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

. He was Minister of Culture of Catalonia, the department in charge of the libraries,

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

and heritage preservation, historical commemorations... He succeeded

Santi Vila Santiago "Santi" Vila i Vicente (born 15 March 1973) is a Catalan historian and politician from Granollers, Spain. He was a member of the Catalan European Democratic Party, and was a councillor at Figueres from 1999 before becoming mayor from 20 ...

on 5 July 2017.

Biography

Born in Terrassa in 1959 he studied music, dance, audiovisual production and

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

from the

Open University of Catalonia The Open University of Catalonia ( ca, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, UOC; ) is a private open university based in Barcelona, Spain. The UOC offers graduate and postgraduate programs in Catalan, Spanish and English in fields such as Psycholog ...

. Immediately after finishing his studies he devoted himself to the study, promotion and practice of

Catalan traditions There are quite a number of festivals and traditions in Catalonia (Spain). While most are of ancient origin, certain traditions are of relatively recent introduction. There are also some that are common to the whole Catalan society, but others are ...

. He has been a sardanist in the group ''Minyons d'en Serrat, Asert''. He was also a dancer and director of several traditional dancing clubs from different cities: Terrassa, Catalunya Dansa, Igualada,

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, and Rubí. Additionally, he was part of the folk group ''Ministrils del Raval'', and founder of several cultural associations from Terrassa. As a recognition to his efforts the Government of Catalonia granted him the National Dance Award in 1984. From 1998 to 2000 he was the head of resources of the Center for the Promotion of Popular and Traditional Catalan Culture. From 1999 to 2010 he was the director of the Fira Mediterrania in Manresa. In 2001 he was a cofounder of the company VESC (Vèrtex Empresarial de Serveis Culturals, SL) dedicated to popularize Catalan songs, music and dance and other traditional Mediterranean cultures. In 2005 he promoted the project Casa de la Música in Terrassa,

Salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

Mataró Mataró () is the capital and largest town of the ''comarca'' of the Maresme, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia Autonomous Community, Spain. It is located on the Costa del Maresme, to the south of Costa Brava, between Cabrera de Mar and Sa ...

, l'

Hospitalet de Llobregat L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (; es, Hospitalet de Llobregat), often shortened to L'Hospitalet or just L'H, is a municipality of Spain, located to the immediate southwest of Barcelona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. It is part of the Bar ...

, and

Manresa Manresa () is the capital of the Comarca of Bages, located in the geographical centre of Catalonia, Spain, and crossed by the river Cardener. It is an industrial area with textile, metallurgical, and glass industries. The houses of Manresa are ...

. This project aimed to encourage the general public to study, create and play all kinds of

live music A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety an ...

. Starting in 2008, Puig would be the director of the during three editions. During this period he managed to invite popular groups and artists like:

Mishima Mishima may refer to: Places * Mishima, Fukushima, a town in Fukushima Prefecture * Mishima, Kagoshima, a village in Kagoshima Prefecture * Mishima, Niigata, a town in Niigata Prefecture * Mishima, Shizuoka, a city in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan ...

Santiago Auserón Santiago Auserón, also known as Juan Perro (July 25, 1954 in Zaragoza, Aragon) is a Spanish singer and lyricist. He was songwriter and vocalist of Spanish rock's Radio Futura. Auserón has been recognized with the Aragón Music Prize for Career Tr ...

, Roger Mas,

Omar Sosa Omar Sosa (born April 10, 1965) is a jazz pianist from Cuba. Biography A native of Camagüey, Cuba, Sosa studied percussion at the Escuela Nacional de Musica and Instituto Superior de Arte. In the 1980s he started the band Tributo, recording alb ...

, La Gossa Sorda, At Versaris, Els Surfing Sirles... During the first mandate of Artur Mas i Gavarro, Puig joined the political party Convergence and Union and assumed the position of general director of Popular Culture in 2011, until he was designated Minister of Culture of Catalonia on 5 July 2017. After the

2017 Catalan independence referendum An independence referendum was held on 1 October 2017 in the Autonomous communities of Spain, Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, passed by the Parliament of Catalonia as the Law on the Referendum on Self-determination of Catalonia and cal ...

, the Spanish authorities brought

criminal charges A criminal charge is a formal accusation made by a governmental authority (usually a public prosecutor or the police) asserting that somebody has committed a crime. A charging document, which contains one or more criminal charges or counts, can ...

against a number of members of the Catalan government, including Puig. Together with some of the other Catalan politicians who were prosecuted, he fled to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

at the end of 2017. In August 2020, a court in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, Belgium ruled that a European Arrest Warrant, issued against Puig by Spanish authorities, could not be executed.

Bibliography

In addition to his career as cultural promoter, he has also written or cowritten several books about traditional culture, especially dance: * Terregada. Apunts sobre folklore de Terrassa (1991) * Crònica i calendari de dansa tradicional (1994) * Danses de la Terra de la Biblioteca Joan Amades (1998) * Calendari de danses tradicionals catalanes (1998) * Les festes a Catalunya (1999)

References

External links

Youtube video of the Government of Catalonia: Lluís Puig takeover as a new Minister of Culture of Catalonia

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puig, Lluís Living people People from Terrassa Convergence and Union politicians Spanish art directors 1959 births Exiled politicians from Catalonia Culture ministers of Catalonia Members of the 12th Parliament of Catalonia People barred from public office

Biography

Bibliography

See also

References

External links