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After the refreshing Xmas- and New Years holidays the team of THEMUROLAB gathered for its first meeting this year in our fab communications- and pr agency, Gablons, in Barcelona, where we could state the fact that our new decoration concept, MURO, made a flying start during its two first months on line with huge success in the prestigeous fair, CASA DECOR, that lead to a lot of interesting openings in hotels and stores now in the pipeline! Lots of great critics in Spanish media such as famous magazines like HOLA, blogs, tv (all the documentation can be found on MURO fanpage in Facebook), and a constant increase of on-line sales!

Just before Xmas the price awarded and world famous chef, Sergi Arola, opened his second bar/restaurant in Barcelona which is called 3 ,”food, people & music”, which refers to his main passions in life! For its entrance a huge special sized “muro” boasting 4×2 meters is welcoming the guests with the three coloured logo of the new gastrobar! We are very proud to be represented in such an up-scale environment and on top of it all it happens to be one of our favorite chefs! For everyone who loves Arola in the Arts, and for those who still havent tried it, we warmly recommend both his places in Barcelona! Here follow some comments in a blog about the new restaurant 3!

THEMUROLAB also contributed as sponsor to a high prestige Xmas lottery who was organized by the Swedish-Spanish Chambers of Comers in the yearly Xmas party at IKEA! A MURO from the collection “SPLASH” was one of the attractive awards offered together in good company with other grand sponsors such as SPANAIR, SAS, IKEA, CITY AIRLINE, BODEGAS MIGUEL TORRES, H&M, KANEBO, TEA SHOP, HOLEBROOK SWEDEN, ESTILO NORDICO, NORDISKA DESIGN, J.ISERN PATENTES & MARCAS, SUECOS, TEPE, PAPPA SVEN, PGA CATALUNYA RESORT, HOTEL LE MEREDIEN, JENSEN STORE, to mention a few!

The new year has started in positive vibes and good energy! Yesterday we signed the contract for our new awesome local in the very “new yorkish” district of Poble Nou with industrial style buildings, graffiti signs for the addresses, very “Meatpacking” and, of course, very “MURO”!!

As from the beginning of February you are welcome to visit our new showroom, studio and office in Calle Ramon Turro 104, 4th floor with views over the twin towers on the beach!

In the pipeline, apart from negotiating with some hotels and stores at the moment, we are planning an upcoming mega event with three weeks of expo in the city centre of Barcelona together with some other very comercial brands which we are very thrilled for!

We will keep you posted about dates and locations! More info coming soon!

Meanwhile if you are curious and want to come and check out the “muros” at close please contact us for a visit in February on our new address in Poble Nou! (Contact directly with Claudio Maiorano, General Manager, tel: +34 655 581 985)

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In the parade street of Passeig de Gracia all the shops were open until midnight the other evening, and the wintery night (to be Barcelona) was filled with happy people drinking bubbles while mingling up and down the wide pavements! Glam party tents, dj’s and bars was also filling up the trottoars and you could even get a full make over in one of the many stands!

469 sparkling chandalers is lighting up Passeig de Gracia until Xmas and into the new year!

The gourmet tapas restaurant, Tapas 24, was one of the many cool places you could stop for a mouth full of something tasty

Out of the many vip invitations that had been sent out for this evening, Custo party in Casa Batllo to mention one etc,  the crowd was wringling up outside eager to get in everywhere, here outside the Hotel Mandarin who was celebrating the opening of their new very exlusive shop hosted by the famous TIFFANYS & CO! Happy that the city has added some 5th Avenue spice to the atmosphere, me and my friends will return for a fab breakfast here soon!

The highlight of the evening though was the launchement of a new concept of some friends, USAME objects with a second life, that you can find in the lovely showroom of famous designer Julie Sohn situated off the beaten track on Calle Diputación 299! The creative furniture and decorations of USAME blend into a great harmony together with the creations of Julie Sohn that brings an air from any fashion/art gallery in Meatpacking District or Soho to Barcelona!

Kiril, Laura and Martín in the entrance of the showroom, here infront of a very cool sink from USAME! The whole idea with the concept is to reinvent old things and give them new functions! Taken out of their old context the origin can give a new dimension of protagonism to the new object! We are not talking about recycling here, more a form of transformation into a new creation, to give already used items a second life!

A great context often brings a great crowd, just like this fab evening!

Me and the girls behing the concept USAME, Marisol and Esther!

Here follows a few of the professional photos from the USAME campaign and launchement;

The city of Barcelona is boiling of creative and driven people that also really do something to make things happen, who create themselves! That is one of the reasons why this city is so attractive to both visit and live in!

Im curious to see what Marisol and Esther will surprise us with further in the reinvention of funny and personal objects that will be born in USAME!

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What is Casa Decor? Casa Decor  is the most important decoration exhibition for the Spanish, Iberian and international markets! It is held annualy in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Lisboa, Porto, Algarve, Miami, Milan, London and Rome! It is a consolidated, internationallay recognized platform that brings the latest trends to consumers. And every Casa Decor exhibition is a unique opportunity that brings together the most influential names, products, proposals, and companies of the Spanish, Iberian and European spheres of interior decorating.

Our fab MURO-stand (nr 32) in Casa Decor, Avenida D’Esplugues 102, Barcelona !

Our MUROS come out in five lines; STICKY, SALSA, SPLASH, PAROLE and 360º, but of course you can also request your own special size muro in any kind of dimension or colour depending  on what you want to match it with! Sky is the limit!

A small selection of the many muros in themurolab!

Three of four in the MUROLAB, Claudio, me and Vicente!

The happy fourth part of  THEMUROLAB, Laura!

A frequent stream of enthusiastic people came to see our muros!

A relaxing moment when Jorge Fuentes came down from his stand to see us!

On Sunday we received great critics in El Mundo!!!

From travel agency entrepreneur to decorator! It’s true that you can do whatever you want if you are passionate and dedicated enough about it! Come and see us in Casa Decor!

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This is the story about  four best friends, four entrepreneurs with passion for art, design and decoration, who decided to start a project to take their busy minds off from stress!

It was during the new years celebration in Copenhagen, Denmark, 2009-2010, that me, Swedish owner of the travel agency Performance Barcelona,  Italian Laura Renzetti, partner in one of Spain’s leading marketing on-line companies eMascaro,  Spanish Vicente Suarez, owner of the number 1 PR-company Gablons,  and Italian art collector and gallerist Claudio Maiorano, had a lively discussion about that for many people who shares the passion for art, design and decoration,  art can be an unreachable luxory to fill up empty space due to the fact that few artists deliver decorative art to affordable prices. This is how the idea to the new high touch decoration concept MURO was born!

We returned to Barcelona filled with great enthusiasm for our new project and within no time we registered the new company, found ourselves a new studio to start to produce our “muros” in, and before we were knew it our first special size muro was placed in the very new airport of Barcelona in Iberia’s VIP Lounge, Terminal 1!

The word was spread without us even making much effort, and only a short time after our delivery to Terminal 1, a cool urban loft exhibition, Loft is in the air in Espai Sucre, located in Barcelona’s meatpacking district, Poble Nou, wanted our “muros” in one of their lofts decorated by the famous decorator Jorge Fuentes! And so we took a step into the established decoration world of Barcelona!

Here together with Jorge Fuentes infront of two of our STICKYS, a new form of collage, in this case by vintage comics on canvas with enamel paint text on top of it!

We launched our new web e-commerce on-line two weaks ago with an artistic image of the brand that we developed together with our friend, Christian Herrera, catalan famous fashion photographer here in Barcelona! I can assure we had lots of fun during the photoshoot with model Albert Fernandez Rodriguez who patiantly had to suffer for quite some time creating his own muro with his very own body! It was definitely worth the effort as the result came out spectacular!

We have promised ourselves that this project will grow in the rythm of its own, no stress, no pressure! Most happy we feel when we spend hours being creative in our “lab” in the city centre of Eixample, Barcelona!

Our good luck charm, Samantha!

It is incredible how much creativity that is in the flow when we come together there, and neither one of us could dream about  a year ago that we would be spending hours together with an artistic team creating “muros” that later would hang in wonderful spaces through out the world!

a SPLASH in a private home in Switzerland!

a STICKY in private house in Switzerland

two “360″ in the showroom of Manolo Rueda, interior designer and director of Bambu Luxory! Soon shown in a tv-reportage!

one “PAROLE” and one “SALSA” in private home in Barcelona

Enter in “MURO ON SPOT” where you can enjoy more spaces and ambiences where “muros” have been placed!

And remember, “this is not art..this is decoration”!

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One of my most important and big events this year took place in September when finally 700 persons from all over the world came together in Barcelona after over one year of planning! The main reason of the event was one of the most important medical conventions held here this year. We filled up one of my favorite hotels in the city, the 5-star Hotel Pullman Barcelona Skipper, which I try to send as many of my groups as I can as both the hotel and its staff are absolute top top class! I never have to worry for all the logistics of the conferences where so many details have to be exact from start to the end, everything is simply perfect when performed in the Skipper!

But I will not bore you with all the technical stuff and hotel logistics, I want to tell you about the highlight of the stay, the magical mega event held in the world’s most famous cava cellar, Codorniu! For anyone visiting Barcelona with the oppertunity to sneak out of the city for a couple hours should absolutely catch a train or a car and make a visit to this very special place! There are not many environments in the huge playground of Barcelona that can feel cosy, intimate and magical for big groups up to 1000 pax! But Codorniu has it all!

One of the reasons it’s also a pleasure to work with Codorniu is due to the fact that I have a great cooperation with the team of Codorniu that makes it so much more joyful to bring clients to the place! Here me together with my star Victoria from one of the many site inspections made before the event became live!

The welcome cocktail prepared for 700 pax infront of the old museum cellar in Codorniu!

The lovely gardens of Codorniu

A bonus that added a lot of charm to the event was the fact that the wine harvest was in full activity from morning to  night! It was happening all around us and made it clear to everyone that the wine cellar is not just a stage scenery, its a true and genuine place, unique of its kind!

Esther and me cheering us up with some fresh grapes in the nice September sun!

Early evening and the guests are filling up in the chill out area for welcome drinks and snacks!

The darkness is falling over Codorniu and the Catalan Tunas is playing up for party! The fiesta can begin!

Inside the Grand Cellar the dinner tables were all set up and the lighting magical!

A real and genuine flamenco show, flamenco puro y duro, at its best!

Last but not least I want to say a BIG THANK YOU EVER SO MUCH to my dear, dear Ida Lestander, the very first employee in Performance, who now lives in Sweden since two years, but who flew down to Barcelona to assist me in this important event! The Dream Team together again! I couldnt have made it through in such a perfect way if it wasnt for the professional support and lovely friendship of Ida!

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Without expecting it, just when you are rushing to your meeting, your lunch, your gym etc, suddenly an amazing photo expo hits your eyes and you just have to stop and suck it in! Just on the spot where you usually only see people walking up and down a pedestrian street or enjoying the many outdoor cafees, Rambla Catalunya became the perfect exhibition area!

This exhibition is called DESVELOS and is a collaboration between Casa Africa and Ayuntamiento de Barcelona in order to project a picture of a more contemporany and modern Africa!

The photographer, Angèle Etondi Essamba, want to express through the gestures, the expressions, the colours of these lovely Camerun women that Africa is alive – Africa Vive!

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As from now you can follow me on the blog called BARCELONA DIVINA, and also check out other cool travelblogs for a whole bunch of interesting destination!

This means that some of you must take an intense course in Swedish to be able to understand the cool stories and recommendations coming up in the blogs….

Cheers!

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