The provisional programme of the 5th coupDefouet International Congress on Art Nouveau has been published. The event will take place in Barcelona from 5 to 8 November 2026. Organised by the University of Barcelona and the Barcelona City Council, the coupDefouet Congress is the only stable and periodic international congress devoted to Art Nouveau heritage.

The Congress sessions will begin on Thursday, 5 November and run until Sunday, 8 November 2026. Even so, as is customary at a coupDefouet congress, in the period from 1 to 15 November, a wide range of cultural activities related to Art Nouveau will be running, all of which are free for those enrolled in the Congress. We recommend you bear this in mind when planning your participation.

The registration price covers attendance at all the Congress sessions, including refreshment breaks, as well as the official meals and the activities organised and programmed around the Congress. It also gives you access to the written versions of the speeches and papers, most of which will be available before the Congress.
For more information, please go to https://artnouveau.eu/en/5th_congress.php

Provisional Programme of the 5th coupDefouet International Congress on Art Nouveau

This is the provisional programme with papers and keynotes approved by the Congress Scientific Committee. The definitive programme will be published in early October 2026.

Thursday, 5 November, at the University of Barcelona, Faculty of Geography and History (Montalegre Street, 6, 4th floor)
At 11:00h
Official Opening
By the authorities of the City of Barcelona and the University of Barcelona
Opening Conference
Paul GREENHALGH – The Architecture of Empathy: Art Nouveau and the Urban Landscape

Thematic strand 1. Art Nouveau: New or Modern Architecture?
Keynote
Maribel ROSSELLÓ – The Path to Modernity: 19th-Century Debates and Fin-de-siécle Architecture
Papers
María BELTRÁN-RODRÍGUEZ / Chloe SHARPE – More than a Trend: The Wellbeing Benefits of Art Nouveau Architecture Through the Lens of Neuroscience
Tatia GVINERIA – Edmund Frick in Georgia: Art Nouveau as a European Architectural Language
Diletta HABERL – Modernity and Metamorphosis: The Coppedè Quarter and the Casina delle Civette in Rome as Italian Interpretations of Art Nouveau
Flora HAGEDORN – Art Nouveau’s Production Aesthetics: A Heuristic for Contemporary Architecture
Olga HARMSEN – From Ornament to Organisation: Art Nouveau and the Emergence of the Kitchen as a Functional Concept
Rosalva LORETO – On Modern Architecture and its Function in a Mexican City: La Victoria Market in Puebla (1870‒1913)
Tatiana RIMBAUD – Architectural Breakthroughs in Consumption: Montevideo’s Department Store Buildings at the Beginning of the 20th Century
Majda SIKOŠEK – Emergence of the Modern Belgrade
Marikit TAYLOR – Burn What You Loved and Worship What You Burned. From Le Corbusier to Eliel Saarinen: How Art Nouveau Architects Fired up the Modern Style
Jos VANDENBREEDEN – The Spectacular Revival of Art Nouveau in the 1960s
Ends at 16:30h
 

Friday, 6 November, at the Barcelona Municipal Conservatory 8 (Bruc Street 110-112)
At 09:00h
Thematic strand 2. Gaudí Beyond Gaudí
Keynote
Alberto ESTÉVEZ – Learning from Gaudí in the 21st Century
Papers
Luisa AMENÓS – Gaudí, Coppersmith: Radiograph of a Heritage Project
Ricard BRU / F. Xavier JOVÉ – Gaudí and the Vilardell and Gibert Pharmacies: New Evidence
José Ignacio CARRILLO – The Gaudí House Museum Within the Heritage Constellation of Park Güell: Intimacy and Heritage in the Times of Modernisme
Rossend CASANOVA – Hoyos, Esteva y Cía., or How Gaudí is Not All That It SeemsCreators
Núria GIL / Jordi BONET – Gaudí’s Trichromatic Stained-Glass Windows: Genesis, Materials and Other Contemporary Creators
Daniel PIFARRÉ – Architectural Connections and Divergences: Gaudí-Rubió
Elena RAMAZZA – Gaudí and Viollet-le-Duc: The Story of an Evolution

Thematic strand 3. Art Nouveau and Music
Keynote
Xosé AVIÑOA – From Plastic Arts to Music: Graphic, Literary, Aesthetic, Technical and Referential Connections
Papers
Mario BAECK – Designed to Seduce: Illustrated Belgian Music Sheets in Art Nouveau Style 1890–1914 – Between Book Cover and Poster Design
Juan Carlos BEJARANO / Irene GRAS – Painted Music. Correspondences Between Painting and Music at the Fin-de-siècle in the Work of Weiss, Čiurlionis and Kupka
Sílvia CARBONELL – Dressing Music: Label Codes and Scenic Extravagance in Catalan Modernisme
Joan CUSCÓ – Joan Maragall: Transfiguration Poet
Omar Ricardo GUZMÁN – Musical Iconography of the Mansana de la Discòrdia: The Sculptures of Eusebi Arnau for Casa Amatller and Casa Lleó i Morera
Fàtima LÓPEZ – The Floral Apotheosis of Modernisme: Symbolism and Ornament in the Palau de la Música Catalana
Balint NIKOVITZ – Exploring the Art Nouveau Features of Conxita Badia’s Singing
Marc RENAU – Antoni Botey: Life and Work of a Modernista Musician
Cristina RODRÍGUEZ-SAMANIEGO – Musical Experience and Symbolist Sculpture in Josep Clarà’s Èxtasi (1903)
Julio VIVES CHILLIDA – Bentwood Furniture for Music Rooms
Ends at 16:30h

Concert
Songs from the Times of Art Nouveau
With Olga Miracle, soprano, and Jordi Tomàs, piano
Ends at 18:00h

Saturday, 7 November, at the Barcelona Municipal Conservatory (Bruc Street 110-112)
At 09:00h
Thematic strand 4. Research and Doctoral Theses in Progress
Papers
Viktorija ALADŽIĆ / Vladimir DŽAMIĆ – Art Nouveau Architecture in Vojvodina: Rediscovering the Familiar
Jessi Elizabeth ALPERIN – Intimate Adornment: Art Nouveau Jewellery as Sculptural Encounter
Esther ALSINA GALOFRÉ – The Bastion of Artworks and Techniques: Societies and Groups in Favour of Artistic Procedures in the 19th–20th Centuries
Núria ARAGONÉS – Floral Artifice and Modernisme: Women’s Millinery in Fin- de-siècle Barcelona
Eszter BALDAVARI / Zsolt VIRAG – Art Nouveau Architecture in the Carpathian Basin: Results of an International Research Project
Febé BUYSSE – Art Nouveau Sgraffito in Belgium: The Case Study of Ghent
Ya’Ara GIL-GLAZER – Underground Art Nouveau: Fin-de-siècle Sexual Typologies Revised in Suck Magazine
Isabella HOFMANN – Between Female “Hobby” and Transcultural Entanglement: European Batik Between 1890 and 1920
F. Xavier JOVÉ – Discovery and Positive Identification of an Unpublished Drawing, Attributable to Gaudí as a Student
Hee Sook LEE-NIINIOJA – Revival of the Cultural Spirits in Helsinki’s Jugend Architecture and Ornamentation Within the Global European Art Nouveau Routes
Juan LOVECCHIO – Buenos Aires’s Art Nouveau Architecture: a Melting Pot of Cultures and Art Nouveau Styles
Pau MEDRANO – Alphonse Mucha’s Fake Participation in the Cigarrillos París Poster Competition of 1902
Xavier ROURA – Collection of Originals for Cigarrillos París Modernista Posters 1900–1901
José RIBAS – The Modernisme of José Ribas Anguera, 1896–1909
Carles RIUS – The New Church of Santa Anna by Camil Oliveras Gensana: a Reinterpretation of Gothic within the Framework of Catalan Modernisme
Xavier SOLER – Josep Maria Barnadas i Mestres (1867–1939) and Sculpture Applied to Modernista Architecture: the Works in Granollers and Casa Trinxet in Barcelona (1902–1904)
Agnese TAMBAKA – Playing with Materials in the Façades of Riga’s Art Nouveau Buildings
Judith URBANO – “Académie Julian: renseignements utiles aux artistes”
Ends at 17:00h

Sunday, 8 November, at Colònia Güell, Santa Coloma de Cervelló
At 11:00h
Welcome by the authorities
The Mayor of Santa Coloma de Cervelló, a representative of the Barcelona City Council and the vice-rector of the University of Barcelona
Closing Conference
Teresa-M. SALA – Art Nouveau (In)Visibles
Art Nouveau Visit to Colònia Güell and the Gaudí Crypt
Followed by a farewell buffet lunch offered by the organisation.
Ends at 15:00h