The Ateneu Popular 9 Barris is a socialcultural centre under the authority of the Nou Barris District and is self-governed by the El Bidó de Nou Barris association. The centres activity develops in three areas: the artistic area, with special attention paid to the paratheatrical and neocircensian disciplines; the sociocultural area, in wich the spotlight is on the geographical sphere of Nou Barris; and the organisational area, featuring participative management of the centre. This is the most important cultural centre of the Nou Barris area, as well as one of the most active in Barcelona and its entire hinterland. Its creation is the result of the will and battles of the district's citizens and small towns, following the removal, by the citizens themselves, in 1977, of the asphalt surface that covered this land at that time. It is therefore an action that rose and developed in virtue of and following the civil initiative of the residents. And this fact, i.e. the autonomous management, has been a decisive factor in the unique evolution of the product, and constitutes one of its main features. In order to spread the execution process of the project that is nowadays embodied in the Ateneu, some years ago the El Bidó de Nou Barris association was established to manage the Ateneu and be the organisational heir of the first spontaneous pro Ateneu movements. As its administrator, together with other associations and collectives located in the Ateneu, it is in charge of the project configuration made up today by the Ateneu Popular.