Georgia Taglietti in Spain | British Council

‘Right now is a moment of unity, of collaboration, of mutual support.’

The British Council in Spain caught up with Georgia Taglietti. Georgia is Head of Communication, International Media and PR Department for Advanced Music (Sónar Festival and Sónar+D) and board member/Local Manager Barcelona of shesaid.so.

Tell us about your work and practice

I am the head of comms and the international PR manager at Advanced Music, the company behind Sónar festival and the Sónar+D congress. I am also part of the shesaid.so women in music network and I am their representative in Barcelona. I regularly teach digital communication on several masters programmes and schools and occasionally mentor for shesaid.so too. I love to be involved in education and mentoring at the same time as working actively in the music industry.

How has Covid-19 affected your daily working routine?

The fact that I am a very digital person, and that I am a woman with no kids and with a loving partner, has helped me to live with confinement and work in a different way from most of my friends around the globe. Many people have been facing the extremely difficult balance between motherhood or fatherhood and work during these dystopian times, or have been furloughed or dismissed from their jobs. I have worked at a very high pace without major issues. Working from home by myself has been a good exercise. I love to have time to concentrate and to review, though I am less a fan of video calls.

What has been most surprising?

Resilience does not come with ‘surprises’, I think. Everything about Covid-19 is about the unexpected. You just need to live day by day expecting to adapt to situations no one has faced before.

What innovative ways have you seen artists and arts organisations adapt the way they work to cope with the pandemic in your country?

The arts have been gravely battered by this health crisis. Priorities of governments all over the world have left the arts in a very grey area, even a dark area, where people and venues have found themselves barely able to survive. The economic crisis derived from this situation is like a tsunami, and we are still waiting for the worst to come. It is in times like these – times when the arts are responsible for emotional support and for lifting people up, when the arts create food for thought that can help us all come out of this situation – that major support is needed. It is a shame.

On the other hand, the arts have all the creative and intellectual resources to create new scenarios, as creativity and thinking outside the box is part of the DNA of the arts. In the near future there will be more and more intersections of artistic scenes from different spheres. One area that I am most interested in is collaboration between gaming and music online, as well as the evolution (finally) of less expensive immersive proposals.

Have you learnt anything new about yourself and your country during this time?

I would have liked to have seen much more consideration towards the work we do as promoters. I would have liked to have seen much more empathy towards the step back this crisis has created for working women. I would have loved to have seen more political unity.

The EU has been quite ambiguous in their approach. I am very much pro-European, and I felt that I really did not like the lack of European unity and association in actions.

Could you recommend three artists in your country that we should check out?

Yes, of course. Alba G Corral, Mans O and Cora Novoa. Three different approaches and amazing artists.

What one piece of advice would you give other artists in this difficult and uncertain time?

Networking is essential – and this is something that some artists forget to do. Right now is a moment of unity, of collaboration, of mutual support. This is the time to open up to fellow artists of all disciplines to create a much more integrated artistic eco-system. And of course, we should improve our digital skills and open up to all digital technologies available. There is a tech path for everyone.

When everything returns to normal what will be the first cultural experience you will seek out?

At Sónar we are producing an event for September, to take place both online and offline in Barcelona. It will be a spin-off of our congress Sónar+D. I guess this will be my first cultural experience since lockdown began, and I am very much looking forward to it

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