The César Manrique Foundation (FCM) will host the conference entitled "Unheard-of Islands. A Brief History of Environmental Utopias", which will be given by the architect and philosopher Eduardo Prieto, next Thursday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m., in the José Saramago room (La Plazuela, Arrecife). The event will be broadcast live through the FCM website.
Prieto's presentation is included within the space for reflection "Divergent Views". "A forum in which critics, historians and art professors have participated to review the concepts and assessments established in contemporary culture, on historical stages, trends, artistic movements, especially outstanding personalities or the connections between the different arts," acknowledges the Foundation. "Since its origins, this cycle has been attended by Estrella de Diego, Kosme de Barañano, Juan Manuel Bonet, Simón Marchán, Manuel Borja Villel or Luis Fernández-Galiano," among others.
"Nature has always been both a territory of human labor and an object of scientific exploration"
"Nature has always been both a territory of human labor and an object of scientific exploration," adds Prieto. He also clarifies that "this double condition is compatible with the fact that nature has also been a powerful object of reverie." "A scenario of the possible and the natural that has brought together the contradictions and anxieties of individuals and societies, and therefore "has been able to become a privileged scenario of the different, the alternative, even the disturbing," he says.
"A journey through some of the environmental utopias"
The philosopher will give an account of the "counterfactual sides of nature." To do this, "he will take a journey through some of the environmental utopias that have marked the history of the West, from Petrarch's volcanic gardens to César Manrique's "Lanzarote Project," they point out.
Prieto is the author of "more than fifty articles and book chapters, and several reference titles," including "Environmental History of Architecture" (Cátedra, 2019). "He currently works as an architecture critic" for "Arquitectura Viva", "El Mundo" and "Revista de Libros", among other publications. As a practicing architect, "he has been awarded, among others, the ICCL European Sustainable Architecture Award, the COAM Distinction and the Architecture and Urban Planning Award of the Madrid City Council," they add.
