Next Wednesday, June 5, World Environment Day, César Manrique will be honored by the Instituto Cervantes in Madrid. The event, which will begin at 7:00 p.m. with the presentation of Martín López Vega, director of Culture of the entity, will be held in the assembly hall of the headquarters, located at Calle Alcalá, 49. Admission will be free until full capacity is reached.
The tribute, which has been organized in collaboration with the César Manrique Foundation (FCM), will consist of the screening of the feature film 'Taro. The echo of Manrique', by filmmaker Miguel G. Morales, and a subsequent round table on the binomial César Manrique-Lanzarote, in which Joaquín Araújo (naturalist), Juan Cruz (journalist and writer), Fernando Prats (urban planner), Miguel G. Morales (film director), and Fernando Gómez Aguilera (director of the FCM) will participate. The table will be moderated by the journalist Saúl García.
'Taro. The echo of Manrique' is a 60-minute film, directed by filmmaker Miguel G. Morales, which addresses the environmentalist and activist side of César Manrique. The film shows archive recordings that include statements by the artist himself and incorporates testimonies from personalities such as Joaquín Araújo or Frey Otto, who value the artist's contributions.
César Manrique, activism and ecological awareness
The round table entitled 'César Manrique in the creative perspective of Lanzarote' will address the artist's public work in Lanzarote, his tourism model for the island, as well as his contribution to sustainable development and the creation of environmental awareness. The more social profile of the artist, actively committed to the defense of the natural heritage of the Canary Islands, and, in particular, of his native island, will be valued by the speakers
From the FCM it is highlighted that "the integration of the arts in large natural spaces that the artist practiced gave rise to great works of environmental art such as the Jameos del Agua, the Mirador del Río or, later, the Cactus Garden." "Manrique practiced a total art in which gently modeled nature acquired an unusual prominence in creative practice. The poetic Art-Nature/Nature-Art, as he himself called it, provided Lanzarote with a new contemporary cultural heritage that qualified and singularized the island's tourist offer, contributing decisively to changing the lives of its inhabitants," it is added.
Likewise, it is recalled that, from the mid-eighties, César Manrique became involved "in the fight against real estate speculation and urban growth that threatened to distort the original tourism project that he promoted in Lanzarote". "The warnings about the risks of degradation of the territory of the Canary Islands began in the sixties, and, already in the seventies, he censored the tourist excesses committed in Lanzarote, Tenerife and Gran Canaria - in 1979 he published in the press "Cry for help for the islands", where he reviews the tourist development of the Canary Islands?", it is pointed out.
However, it was in the eighties when he devoted himself "to an intense activism that gives him a dimension of unusual social icon in Spanish culture." "He goes to the media to raise his critical voice, writes environmental manifestos, confronts political and economic power, accumulates enmities and leads in Lanzarote and in the Canary Islands the renewing attitudes of the culture of limits. Manrique becomes an intuitive pioneer of sustainability, the great social reference for the defense of the landscape, nature and territory of the Canary Islands," highlights the FCM.
The speakers of the conference
Joaquín Araújo is the founder of forests, writer, journalist, screenwriter and director of documentary and editorial films, farmer and rancher. In addition, he is a speaker and disseminator of ecological, geographical, philosophical and agronomic topics on television, press, radio and public events.
Juan Cruz is an editor and journalist, linked to the newspaper El País since its foundation in 1976 where he has worked in different sections of culture and opinion. He has published several books. He was director of the Alfaguara publishing house between 1992 and 1998; and later he was in charge of the Author's Office of the Prisa Group. Among other awards, he has obtained the Canary Islands Literature Prize, the Benito Pérez Armas Prize and the Azorín Novel Prize.
Fernando Prats is an urban planning architect, and has an extensive career in the fields of local development, environment, territorial planning, tourism and transport and infrastructure planning, analysis of urban operations, building and urban design. He has been coordinator in the preparation of different reports and plans. Among other works, he directed the Island Plan of Lanzarote and the Lanzarote Strategy in the Biosphere. He is a member of the Scientific Council of Biosphere Reserves in Spain and consultant to the World Tourism Organization.
Miguel G. Morales is a filmmaker. His work is located on the periphery of non-fiction with a strong documentary, investigative and essayistic character. His first works, focused on artistic research, combine audiovisual intervention in exhibitions, work with found footage and the recording of the creative process of various creators. He alternates these cinematographic works with video creations and collaborations with plastic or stage artists. His latest cinematographic project, "De los nombres de las cabras", has just received the grand prize for feature films at the Indie Lisboa 2019 Festival.
