The time capsule of PEN Català 2025 / Activities / Visit us / Home

Next Wednesday, December 17, at 7:00 p.m., the 2025 edition of PEN Català’s “Time Capsule” project will take place in the Sala de la Caritat of the Library of Catalonia. During the event, the poet Biel Mesquida, ambassador of PEN 2025, will pass the baton to the writer Núria Cadenes, who will be the ambassador of PEN 2026.

The “Time capsule” project was born in April 2023, coinciding with the closing of the events to commemorate the centenary of the Catalan PEN and will end in 2047, when the organization’s 125th anniversary is celebrated.

During this period, the PEN will choose an author each year and commission an unpublished text that will be deposited in the Library of Catalonia and to which access will not be available until 2047. The chosen person will also become a PEN ambassador for one year, with the mission of promoting and making known the values ​​of this organization.

The event will begin with the institutional greeting of the director of the Library of Catalonia, Eugènia Serra, and the vice-president of PEN Català, Dani Vilaró. Then, Antoni Clapés will talk with Biel Mesquida and Núria Cadenes. Finally, the 2025 ambassador, Biel Mesquida, will enter his writing in the “time capsule” and pass the box with the blank papers to Núria Cadenes so that she can write her proposal for 2026.

PEN Català has been, since its foundation, a platform for the international projection of literature and writers from the Catalan-speaking territories, and which actively shares the objectives of PEN International, fundamentally the defense of freedom of expression and the fight for the liberation of persecuted writers.

“The capsule of time” is the result of the commission that the organization made to two partners from different generations: the poet and translator Antoni Clapés and the writer Alba Dalmau. The aim is to establish a dialogue between the present and the future through literature and to reflect on the challenges of our society and the expectations and wishes we project on the future.

Admission is free with limited capacity.

You must confirm attendance in this one form.