In an atmosphere full of nerves and emotion, the jury of the IV drawing and painting contest “Elisa Betancort Delgado”, organized by the Mararía association, announced its verdict this Friday: to recognize in the first place the work “Synergy”, by Lía Gutiérrez Luzardo; then “Silence”, by Susana Megyesi, and close the podium with “Birth of a Venus” by Raquel Plans.
The contest, which has been sponsored on this occasion by the Art, Culture and Tourism Centers (CACT) of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, includes financial endowments of 800, 500 and 300 euros for the three winners, in addition to commemorative plaques.
The secretary of the Jury and curator, Lana Corujo, highlighted the quality of the 28 works presented and the difficulties in agreeing on the winning trio, an election that seeks to promote visibility, creativity with a gender perspective and support for the new creation of the island. She also highlighted the need to protect and disseminate the pictorial legacy of Elisa Betancort and her memory.
The decision-making court included Rosa Vera, teacher and visual artist; Ildefonso Aguilar de la Rua, multidisciplinary artist; María José Alcántara Palop, Art Director of the CACT, Juan David Machado Gutiérrez, expert in Contemporary Culture; Esther Parrilla, graduate in Fine Arts and Museology and Adriana Sandec, photographer and visual artist.
In her speech, the president of Mararía, Nieves Rosa Hernández, congratulated the artists who have participated in this IV edition and thanked the collaboration of the Art, Culture and Tourism Centers, which gave the impressive space of the Islote de la Fermina for the inaugural evening.
The revolution through art
In addition to the three awards, there was a gift for all the people attending the inauguration: a bag printed with the phrase of the multifaceted Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama “I wanted to start a revolution, use art to build the kind of society that I myself imagined”, which brings together the essence of the transformative will of the feminist organization Mararía through culture.
From next Monday until September 28, you can visit the exhibition that includes the awarded pieces, along with 13 other works submitted to the contest, in the El Mirador room, of the Islote de la Fermina.
Susana Megyesi, Raquel Plans, Anubis Muñoz Orfa, Alessia Ramazotti, Darío Machín González, Ana Isabel Cabrera Pacheco, Planem Yordanov, Ana Ruiz Pérez, Zuca Farias Gola, Marina Lara Speer Martín, Ico Mosquera Escarria, Daniela Jordán Sicilia, Patricia Jiménez Carmona, Damián Rodríguez Pérez, Olena Kosenko and Lía Gutiérrez Luzardo sign this collective exhibition.
The exhibition is open to the public, from Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. In this edition, the contest incorporates guided tours by the cultural manager Juan David Machado, on the 13th and 20th of this month at 12 noon, upon registration through the telephone 928 804834. Attendance to the round table “Life and work of Elisa Betancort Delgado” must also be specified in this way, on Thursday the 21st at 7:00 p.m.
The artist's sister, Perla Betancort, the painters and friends Rosa Vera and Begoña Pérez, the architect Martin Martín and the cultural manager Humberto de León participate and Nieves Rosa Hernández moderates.
The initiative pays tribute to the Lanzarote creator and active collaborator of the Mararía volunteer, who died in November 2014 at the age of 48. Her disinterested technical and artistic advice was an unbeatable stimulus to Mararía's cultural work for many years.