Photos: Sergio Betancort
The Minister of Culture and Sports, José Guirao Cabrera, has highlighted the "magnificent work" of the César Manrique Foundation in the visit he made this Wednesday to the Taro de Tahíche headquarters. "And César Manrique is a world-renowned artist whose legacy must be maintained," he said.
"We come to celebrate the centenary of César Manrique who, as you know very well, was a wonderful artist, who integrated the landscape, the environment, architecture and gardening into his work, and was a visionary who is looked at all over the world, an international benchmark", highlighted the Minister of Culture, who also visited the César Manrique House-Museum in Haría this Wednesday.
"So we come to celebrate the artist, the visionary and his legacy, which is absolutely alive", continued José Guirao, who believes that "thanks to the fact that his work was ahead of its time, it is fully in force". "And above all I want to highlight the magnificent work that the César Manrique Foundation does to spread that work and the ideas that supported his work", he added.
He has given "all the support" of the Government to the figure of Manrique and the FCM
In this way, the Minister of Culture has assured that his presence on the island "is to show all the support of the Government of Spain to the figure of Manrique and the work carried out by the FCM", which he considers "fundamental".
"And it is very important that the public administration supports public or private foundations that work and make an effort to keep alive the work, the legacy, the ideas and the message of great creators", added José Guirao who, in this sense, wanted to take the opportunity to announce that the Ministry of Culture, together with the National Library and the General Directorate of Books, is working to commemorate the centenary of Benito Pérez Galdós, within which "a great exhibition" will be inaugurated in November.
Likewise, the Minister of Culture and Sports has pointed out that the Government of Spain wanted to "leave the figure of Manrique out of the electoral vicissitudes" and that, therefore, his visit has taken place now and not when the acts of the centenary began. "Because we were already in the electoral campaign and so that one thing would not be confused with the other", he specified.
"We come to learn"
In addition to visiting the César Manrique House-Museum in Haría and the FCM headquarters in Taro de Tahíche accompanied by the president of the institution that manages the artist's legacy, José Juan Ramírez, and by the director of the same, Fernando Gómez Aguilera, the Minister of Culture and Sports will officially inaugurate this Wednesday, at 7:00 p.m., the centenary of César Manrique and open the cycle 'Four conversations of the future' directed by Iñaki Gabilondo, who today will talk with the political scientist Sami Naïr about Europe, geostrategy and migrations, as well as the exhibition 'César Manrique. Lanzarote', which contains the mural painted by the artist in 1953 for the passenger terminal of the island's first airport, a piece that has not been exhibited for almost fifty years.
The Minister of Culture and Sports also visited this Tuesday the exhibition 'César Manrique, word and commitment: The power is disturbed' in the José Saramago Hall of La Plazuela and attended the magisterial conference of the anthropologist Eudald Carbonell, Prince of Asturias Award, entitled 'Human evolution and operative conscience, which he has described as "very interesting and wonderful". "We come to learn", concluded José Guirao, who also revealed that it was not the first time he had visited the César Manrique Foundation, as well as the island, where he has stated that he had been on vacation twice in Famara.
