Nau Ivanow is a space of welcome, accompaniment, trial and error, research and investigation; a haven where companies will find the warmth they need to work unhurriedly, in good conditions, feeling like natural inhabitants rather than mere users.
Nau Ivanow’s projects are underpinned by three major working axes with one common denominator, namely internationalization, which permeates each and every one of our projects. In a few words, we are committed to:
Creation, by providing coverage to all the stages involved in the creative process and the entire value chain of a performing arts project. We offer the peace and quiet and the resources needed to investigate and work without the pressure of coming up with “products” that often fail to mirror companies’ true spirit.
Accompaniment, to help companies to grow and to provide exposure for what they do. Nau Ivanow is steadfastly committed to accompanying the user without any type of meddling in artistic matters, because each company must be free to choose its own path. Nau will accompany you, helping you to become more professional and enjoy decent working conditions, both now and in the future.
Work with the territory, as we are a space where communities can experience their creative processes and where, through the participation of these communities, a direct dialogue is established with companies, ultimately helping everyone to grow. This coexistence must act as an impetus to generate critical and cohesive societies and companies that are committed to their immediate communities.
For this reason, residencies are the main focus of what we do. Our aim is to provide decent working conditions while companies are being created, accompanying them at all times and providing them with the resources they need and which are available to us.
Images: ©Nora Baylach
Mission
Nau Ivanow’s mission is to facilitate project creation, mobility and internationalisation, as well as to train culture professionals, particularly up-and-coming performing arts companies.
Vision
Our goal is to become an international reference point in all matters related to making performing arts more professional, improving mobility and residences, enhancing their status, while also being a space where the communities in the different territories can coexist with companies and be part of the creative processes.
VALUES
Professionalization. Nau is permanently committed to the professionalization of companies. Besides being a place of exchange between groups and of ideas, the space must also serve to set up a national and international network for developing proposals. In this regard, the facility seeks to offer a high level of education and training to make sure that this degree of professionality is accomplished through the tools provided by Nau.
Trust. The aim is to provide the performing arts value chain with tools to produce potentially different and unique products, which can only be done by breaking down barriers and generating trust and confidence for companies to experiment.
Adaptation. Nau offers the capacity to generate a space that is not unlike a laboratory, where companies can experiment with any point in their creative process. Furthermore, and just like any laboratory, we want to equip it with all the necessary tools to be able to take risks and to experiment with the utmost reassurance and flexibility, in terms of time and spaces, asking nothing in exchange, simply the possibility of capturing the process and offering the experience of this research or investigation to audiences.
Self-criticism. Working with this value allows us to obtain the credibility that we need in the eyes of Nau’s users, as well as society’s. Our aim is to explain what has gone well and not so well and to be self-critical in the event of failure, since this provides food for thought and enables us to learn; we also seek to provide exposure for the processes generated in Nau as a way of demonstrating that our doors are always open to everyone and everything.
Proximity. This value aims to express one of the facility’s driving forces: the effort to make all the processes that are conducted inside Nau closer and visible to everyone. This is a value that seeks to bring the content generated in Nau closer to citizens, offering them, to the extent possible, tools and spaces to hone their expressive capabilities while also guaranteeing social cohesion. This coexistence should help to promote critical and cohesive societies.
Quality. This value is indispensable and is intended to continue to demonstrate offer the high-quality level delivered by Nau. The pursuit of quality is intended to afford culture meaning, to demonstrate the quality of our work and bring it greater prestige, albeit never in an elitist way, while maintaining our offer and the possibility of accessing it as a way of achieving this degree of excellence.
Cooperation. Nau is committed to collaborative work: we take this philosophy on board as a full part of our learning process in order to stay ahead of our competitors and also to begin to talk about cooperation.
Commitment. Nau’s team has demonstrated its steadfast commitment to the facility over the years. The overall trust and confidence generated, beyond specific projects, is a cohesive and integrating value that delivers peace of mind, in terms of space and in time, to be able to continue to generate content without any barriers. That said, commitment is also about providing companies with meeting points to ensure that their work will permeate the territory, never losing sight of its social and economic reality.
Social return. Creation cannot exist outside the territory where it takes place. This value must be further developed in order to create new bonds with citizens to generate unique synergies that are useful to creators and targets alike. This involves exhibiting, but also interacting, generating a common ground where creation is the nexus. This does not mean that we want to take over everything, but rather simply break down possible barriers and plot lines that bring concepts, ideas and people together.
Participation. Nau must be an open and organic facility that enables all its users and the people from the immediate surrounds to participate actively and readily in the development and creation of projects.
You can consult an spanish version here. If you need any clarification you can email us.
Images: Jordi Buxó
At the end of the 1960s, the entrepreneur Victor Ivanow Bauer built the head offices of his paint company, Ivanow, SA, in the district of la Sagrera, where it remained until the 80s. The building, designed by the architect Jordi Figueres Anmella, was officially opened in 1968. The growth of the business and the urban development of the city of Barcelona obliged the company to relocate to the Zona Franca. The original building was subsequently owned by different textile companies until it was abandoned towards the end of the 1990s. At this point, in 1997, it was purchased by the architect Xavier Basiana, thus giving birth to Nau Ivanow as a multidisciplinary space. Since 2006 it has been managed by the Fundació Sagrera, which took over from the Associació Cultural La Nau Ivanow.
In the year 2010, the facility embraced the performing arts, and the Institute of Culture of the Barcelona City Council purchased the building to afford the project continuity within the framework of the Fàbriques de Creació [Creation Factories] programme.
In 2015, Nau Ivanow embarked upon a process of internationalization to generate links all over the world, becoming a two-way gateway for numerous initiatives and companies.
With the support of:
We are of:
You can consult an spanish version here. If you need any clarification you can email us.
