The César Manrique Foundation has denounced on social networks the overcrowding suffered by the island of Lanzarote. With a video made by Sebastián Puiggrós, you can first see the phrase of the conejero artist: "Trembling with fear when observing how they destroy and overcrowd us".
At the beginning of the video, the volcanic landscape of Lanzarote is captured, intact, like the one that can still be enjoyed in some areas of the island, such as the Timanfaya National Park. In the brief audiovisual work, the environment begins to shrink to become blocks of buildings and attached houses, with shovels and tractors, advertising signs and construction cranes.
The phrase of the conejero artist dates from 1986, but has been recovered 38 years later to expose the situation in which the island finds itself. Two days ago, the César Manrique Foundation decided to take a position on the changes announced by the Government of the Canary Islands and on the debate of recovering rustic land to build public housing and asked the population to save the rustic land, with the cry of: "Let's save what we have left!".
The international artist César Manrique was a great environmental activist. Already in 1965 he expressed his concern about the "tourist avalanche" that was coming to the island and 2023 closed with more than three million visitors. On its website, the Foundation collects a reflection by César Manrique under the title Lanzarote is dying.
“The prevailing insensitivity combined with the absolute lack of enthusiasm are annihilating the love that existed in the beginning. The only thing valid for them is the success of selling in masses and earning millions, without taking into account everything done in the beginning. It is outrageous that this clumsy ease of wholesale sales is based on all the great attractions that we have created in Lanzarote, since, if these did not exist, they would not sell even a small coin. This is truly demoralizing, it is throwing stones on your own roof,” Manrique said.
