For a generation of young, creative people, craving inspiration, aiming to realise their dreams and eager to lead an artistic life, Barcelona is the answer. A bustling city of opportunities…Text by Dom Philips

ANIA MAJCHRZAK

Chris Caldwell has a face-to-face meeting with his boss every day—via a camera on top of his computer. The 32-year-old British web designer lives and works in Barcelona but his boss is in South London. Ania Majchrzak, 26, from Poznan, in Poland, loves Barcelona because she can rollerblade every day. “It’s perfect. I wake up and cannot believe how pretty this place is. And the attitude is so different.”

But a freewheeling, freelance portfolio that combines radio and internet production with repping a Spanish promo director and writing poetry means Ania spends half of every month in London. While Swedish fashion designer Lisa Wixell, 33, designs and makes all her clothes in Barcelona— but sells mostly in Scandinavia.

CHRIS CALDWELL AND FAMILYMeet Europe’s new bohemians, a generation who’ve grown up with the idea of Europe as a united concept, something to strive for and move towards. People in general, and artists in particular, are feeling freed up by the wealth of possibility, offered both by the internet and cheap flights and are discovering that you don’t have to earn your living in the same country you live in. Now that commuting is so easy, the decision to move abroad isn’t such a tough one, and Barcelona seems the obvious choice; one of Europe’s most vibrant, cosmopolitan cities—a place of winding city-centre streets, vast avenues, surreally beautiful architecture, and cool, arty cafés.
LISA WIXELL

“It’s brilliant, I’m so happy,” says Caldwell, who moved here three years ago with his French photographer wife. “It’s got the sea and the mountains. It’s a multicultural city, which is a lot cheaper to live in than London.”

Like Caldwell, these new bohemians—songwriters, photographers, poets, film-makers and fashion designers— enjoy the benefits of living in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities without having to break into the country’s own, very particular and closed job market or

DEBBY BESFORD

try to infiltrate Spain’s traditional industries. In doing so, they’ve found a new kind of freedom. “To me it’s a place to live the life that you want to live,” says Killian McDermott, an Irish accountant who moved here three years ago, and now runs a successful multi-cultural website.

The city is full of inspirational people. “It is a creative place to be, you meet a lot of poets and photographers and you get ideas,” says Diane Bell, 32, a script-writer and yoga teacher.

BERNARD RUDDEN AND DIANE BELLTechnology, particularly the Internet, has made this migration possible. “My boss can actually come into my computer and look at what I’m doing on the screen,” says Chris Caldwell. “Because flights are so cheap, if I need to come over—and I often do—I just pop on the plane. It’s almost like getting on a bus to go and see a client.”

Ania Majchrzak argues that Barcelona is the perfect location for creatively minded, new media entrepreneurs. “Barcelona is a city of fast love, fat food and romantic media,” she enthuses. “It’s the right place to be—especially for arts, design, and the movie industry. People in London are more goal and money orientated. People in Barcelona are more interested in the ideas.”

DIANE BELL AND BERNARD RUDDEN’S WORLD OF FOUND PROJECT; LISA WIXELL’S FASHION PROMOTION

Many of Barcelona’s bohemian ex-pats came for a short visit, fell in love with the city—then impulsively emigrated months later. “We came for a long weekend and it just offered us everything we weren’t getting back in the UK. We enjoyed the buzz and felt really inspired by it,” says Debby Besford (40), a freelance photographer (www.debbybesford.com) who moved from London with her husband Judd and their two small children two and a half years ago. Judd runs an online hotel business dealing with clients all over Europe; Debby is a photography l ecturer at two British art colleges and commutes every few months.

“The first year and a half was really tough, being in the heart of the city, sleepless nights, young children, trying to learn a new language,” she says. Her six-year-old son now speaks fluent Catalan—but his mother and father don’t. And the noise of Mediterranean city streets can be a shock to the system. “If you’re not used to city life it can be a shock to the system,” she says. “We have a mad crazy old woman who lives above us and throws her dog shit out the window,” adds Chris Caldwell.

Lisa Wixell (www.lisawixell.com) has been in Barcelona three and a half years and has found a perfect trans-European balance with design talent in Barcelona and customers in Scandinavia. She works from the city centre apartment/studio she shares with Chilean photographer partner Rodrigo, but deals with customers via a small distribution office her mother runs in Sweden.

“It’s a big city, but at the same time it’s small,” Lisa says. “It’s international. It’s an easy lifestyle—the Mediterranean lifestyle. It’s easy to find a flat, easy to find friends, easy to find things to do. It’s not complicated.”

Killian McDermott (36) came to Barcelona looking for a better life-work balance. “I believe in living your dreams,” he says. “I came here to set up my own business, to live a different life, to have a more balanced lifestyle, to learn another language, to live in a different climate.”

He set up Café Diverso (www.cafediverso.com), a bilingual website where correspondents from all over the world submit stories and artworks. “We’re using stories and photos to explain differences in culture around the world,” he explains. He plans to expand into publishing and exhibitions and employs a multi-national freelance staff.

Scottish songwriter Jerry Burns still works regularly in London but finds she writes better in Barcelona. She’s composed for artists as diverse as Bryan Ferry and reggae singer Horace Andy, and collaborated with soundtrack composers like Craig Armstrong and film-makers like Luc Besson. “I fell in love with the city,” she says. “When I came here it was slightly mythical and slightly magical and I had stories in my head. It’s a place that lets you dream again.”

Diane Bell and her partner Bernard Rudden 40, a film-maker and designer, moved to Barcelona from Edinburgh three years ago, after completing a feature film. Both have since completed separate movie scripts. “Because it’s warmer, more relaxed, that frees up the mind for thinking creatively,” says Bernard. Diane began teaching yoga to foreigners—and now they live in a beautiful, vast city centre apartment that is big enough to house her own yoga studio (www.yogaspacebarcelona.com), and which has become an informal gathering place for creative ex-pats.

“A lot of people come to Barcelona looking for a new way of life, and often yoga figures in that. They’re looking for a healthier lifestyle. Loads of people make connections here,” Diane says. “And the lifestyle that I’ve created here for myself means I have enough time to do other things.”

But Barcelona’s unique atmosphere has sent the couple spinning off in a new creative direction: World Of Found (www.worldoffound.com) is an innovative arts/fashion project. After raising finance locally, World Of Found was launched at Sónar—Barcelona’s international music and multimedia arts festival—in June with a line of cool T-shirts that were soon being snapped up. Based on a photograph the couple found in Kobe, Japan of a young girl and a rabbit, and the legend By Chance Not Design, it’s founded on the idea that the world is full of creative possibilities. “Anyone can submit their own work that would be used in exhibitions, used on T-shirts, it can be used in any way,” explains Diane.

It’s the kind of idea that could only have fermented in a city like this, with its curved Gaudí architecture, sleekly modern Museum of Modern Art and walls of graffiti art. “The merging of fashion and art does seem to me to be really Barcelona,” says Diane. “You get inspired and end up creating something like this.”

FIRSTLY, YOU SHOULD RELAX. IF YOU WANT TO LOOK FOR A JOB, GO AND TALK TO PEOPLE. INSTEAD OF TRYING TO FIND A JOB IN A COMPANY, START A BUSINESS YOURSELF OR TRY TO SET YOURSELF UP AS A FREELANCER. THE COMPANIES ARE SMALL IN BARCELONA, IT’S INTERESTING TO TRY WORKING FOR A VARIETY OF THEM.

ANIA MAJCHRZAK,
MULTI-MEDIA/RADIO PRODUCER

How to work it:
Expert advice on Barcelona living

“Research what kinds of job you’d be likely to get. It’s not so easy to get involved and work unless you’ve got something set up. Be prepared for a lot more noise at night-time and a lot more dog shit on the pavement.” Chris Caldwell, web designer

“To work with Spanish people is very different. Things don’t come as easily. Spoken word in Scandinavia is very valuable, you say something, it happens. Here it’s not like that. It’s a different culture. If you want something from somebody here, you have to ask him or her ten times.” Lisa Wixell, fashion designer

“In terms of contacts and friends, try to mix with both Spanish and international people. It’s a pretty interesting and rich culture here. Certainly learn the language, even a bit of Catalan: Catalunya is a country within a country. Don’t expect people to work with the same efficiency as you would in your own country. Business is done in a different way here than it’s done in the UK.”
Killian McDermott, website/publishing entrepreneur

“Don’t come expecting it to be like any other part of Spain. Don’t be frightened if people don’t smile at you immediately. It is friendly, but it’s not as open as you might imagine it might be. It’s got an identity completely of its own. You have to work a little bit harder to become a part of that.”
Jerry Burns, songwriter

“The whole school thing is very different to the UK.
It depends on whether you want your child to have a Catalan education or a private education. A lot of families put their babies into nurseries, which are chaotic, crazy rooms full of babies and young children and not much individual attention. From three-years-old, they go to school from 9am to 5pm, which is quite hardcore. My six-year-old is shattered when I pick him up.”
Debby Besford, photographer

“Don’t depend on finding a job here. But if you’re creative and entrepreneurial then you have a good chance of getting your idea off the ground because it’s a city that’s developing really fast.”
Bernard Rudden, designer/film-maker

“You have to be committed to making it work, which might mean doing stuff you would never do before. Like being an immigrant anywhere, it’s about finding your own niche. It might be about working in an industry that serves other foreigners in this country or freelancing. If you want it to work, it will.”
Diane Bell, script-writer/yoga teacher