Mondiacult 2025 kicks off in Barcelona with the presence of more than 160 representatives from countries all over the world

The Minister for Culture, Ernest Urtasun, during his speech at the Mondiacult 2025 opening ceremony

From today and for three days, Barcelona becomes the capital of culture with the celebration of Mondiacult 2025, UNESCO's World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development, organised jointly with the Government of Spain through the Ministry of Culture.

More than 160 ministerial delegations from all over the world gathered this morning at the Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB) to kick off this World Conference, inaugurated by the Minister for Culture, Ernest Urtasun, together with the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez; the Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares; the Secretary of Culture of Mexico, Claudia Curiel de Icaza; the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Salvador Illa, and the Assistant Director General for Culture of UNESCO, Ernesto Ottone.

Mondiacult 2025 has as one of its main aims to promote the inclusion of culture as a Sustainable Development Goal in the post-2030 global agenda. The participating countries will work together over these three days to define cultural policies for the coming years, under the consideration of culture as a global public good, based on human rights, inclusion and sustainable development.

The first World Report on the State of Culture will also be presented in the presence of policy makers and influential people in the cultural field.

The Minister for Culture, Ernest Urtasun, stressed in his speech during the opening ceremony that "we are here because we believe that culture is, and must be, a transforming force that defends sustainability, cohesion and peace. This shared conviction is part of our commitment to our future, to the children and young people of our countries".

Furthermore, Urtasun stressed that "culture must be a substratum upon which to restart the global conversation, looking reality and everything that is happening to us in the eye: the devastation of natural resources, the climate crisis, the threat to biodiversity in all its expressions, inequality, poverty, fear, domination, wars and genocide".

The thematic axes to be addressed in Mondiacult 2025 will be cultural rights, culture in the digital era, the integration of culture in education, the economy of culture, the cultural dimensions of climate change, and the defence of heritage in crisis and emergency situations. Two topical issues of great interest to the culture sector, AI and the culture of peace, have also been included at Spain's request.

Both the ministerial thematic sessions and the parallel events, which comprise around a hundred activities, will revolve around these thematic axes, and will be attended by ministers for culture and government delegations from all over the world, as well as cultural professionals, artists, academics, researchers and representatives of civil society and the private sector.

In this edition, and at the request of the Ministry of Culture, Mondiacult 2025 opens for the first time to civil society with the holding of the citizens' forum Civic Agora, to the autonomous communities, and to young people with Mondiayouth, a conference made up of young people from all over the world.

Mondiayouth: young Mondiacult

Mondiayouth has been designed as a parallel space to the plenary sessions, where young people aged between 18 and 25 years from different countries will debate and contribute their views on the major challenges of global cultural policy. The aim of Mondiayouth is for its participants to formulate concrete proposals and conclusions, which will be presented at the closing of the conference on Wednesday 1 October.

Cultural programme

Mondiacult will also offer attendees of the conference a series of artistic and cultural events. The programme kicked off with artistic interventions by Frederic Amat, Maria Arnal, Tarta Relena and Miguel Poveda with Yerbabuena at the opening ceremony.

Tomorrow, Tuesday 30 September, at Palau de la Música, a concert for peace and dialogue will be given by the conductor Jordi Savall, in which he will present a diverse repertoire in terms of origin and period, and for which Savall will be accompanied by musicians from all over the world.

In addition, throughout the three days of the conference, the CCIB will host exhibitions of Spain's intangible heritage, with performances of jotas, tamborradas and castells.

Non official translation