What would life be like without images, portraits, drawings or illustrations? You couldn’t imagine it, and neither could we or the speaker who is opening the Barcelona Annual Festival this year. We're talking about Carme Solé Vendrell, an illustrator, drawer, painter and sculptor who has also ventured into the world of dramaturgy. Even those unfamiliar with her name have seen her visual creations.

You’ll find Carme Solé i Vendrell in the Barcelona City Council’s Saló de Cent on Friday, 20 September, at 7 pm as the speaker kicking off the La Mercè festival (the speech will be broadcast on a large screen in the square, with sign-language translation), a true honour that is going to a Barcelona native born in 1944. She studied at the Escola Massana, where she specialised in painting. She has exhibited her works in Barcelona and Madrid, as well as in Paris and Taipei, among other cities around the world.

In the Catalan capital, she is particularly known for the style of her drawings, which have illustrated all sorts of books and are regularly featured in the pages of publications like Cavall Fort, among many others. Want to know more? Well, the fact that she also gave the Giantess Laia her shape and image (based on the drawing she made for the Santa Eulàlia festival poster in 1998) gives you an idea of her unique style.

She is a conference speaker, oversees illustration classes and contributes to publications like Pomme d’Api, Cricket and Ladybug. She has also been involved in humanitarian work with UNICEF. This artist has more dimensions than you can imagine because, in addition to working in the field of drawing and illustration, she has also ventured into the world of theatre as the playwright, director and set designer of the play Colors.

She has made sculptures like the ones entitled La més petita de totes (The Littlest One of All, 2019), Alícia (Alice, 2019) and Abraçada (Embrace, 2022). Since 2014, she has spearheaded an international campaign for children's rights, WHY?, recently shown as an exhibition at the Museu de Valls. Have you been to Madrid recently? If so, you may have visited the exhibition at the National Library, where she just participated.

If you want to find out Carme Solé i Vendrell's tips for the La Mercè festival in 2024, come to Plaça de Sant Jaume to hear her speech, but before coming, check the La Mercè website for more information on this year’s speaker.