Torrelavega hosted this Friday the screening of the feature-length documentary 'Taro, the echo of Manrique', by director Miguel Morales, an event that is part of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Society.
The event was attended by Alfredo Díaz, director of the Pedagogical Department of the César Manrique Foundation, who explained in great detail to the public the phases of César's life, the beginnings of the first works directed by César Manrique in collaboration with the Cabildo of Lanzarote and its workers, and Lanzarote, the artist's dream of creating a utopian island in terms of human and tourist development model.
Alfredo Díaz explained that Miguel Morales has alternated his career between documentary film and television, making incursions into video-creation. In his works, he has performed functions as a screenwriter, director, filmmaker, cameraman, editor and executive producer, where many of his works have participated in national and international festivals for which he has received awards and special mentions.
The documentary reflects the activist side that is fundamental to understanding the figure of Manrique and his projection as a social artist, with public roots and a strong iconic character. His involvement, the work of denunciation that he openly exercised, his direct confrontation with authorities and promoters, and his commitment to the cultural and landscape values of the island, made him a symbol, adding to his creative personality an unprecedented socio-political dimension in the Spanish artistic scene. The proactive attitude and the denunciation coexist in a complex and multifaceted artist profile.
The documentary also includes the opinions of the Cabildo workers, who worked side by side with Manrique, whom they always treated as Don César, saying that he infected them with the strength and enthusiasm with which he arrived every day at the workplaces, telling them that the real artists were them and that he was a dreamer who only wanted the best for his island Lanzarote.
At the end of the screening, Alfredo Díaz and the public began an interesting discussion where some of those present were with César in some of the demonstrations carried out motivated by the occupation of some areas of the island's coastline.
César also left another 30 works of art built with words and that reflect his way of interpreting reality, life in general and his artistic vision in particular called "the Commandments of César".
These are some of the 30 works that Manrique left written:
-"Art is something much more important, much deeper so as not to fall into the elementary and poor vulgarity of human ordinariness, which is increasingly accentuated, when a deployment of the so-called civic and cultural education has not been intelligently planned".
-"The people of the Canary Islands have never had an exact awareness of the great luxury of living here".
-"Such clumsiness and barbarity can be understood, that for the sole fact of the scams of speculation, with the sole purpose of that excessive desire for urgent profit, is capable of abolishing forever, and this is serious, the entire future of a country".
-"I am sorry that in these islands, after having performed miracles such as that of Lanzarote, where a utopia was created out of nothing, the Government and the authorities have not had enough vision of the future to realize, at this moment, that it was necessary to stop and program to promote an intelligent tourism industry and thus end the chaotic speculation that extends throughout the Canary Islands".
-"I have repeatedly said how careful we should be in urban planning, but the myopia of the rulers and the desire for wealth of the speculators is irretrievably collapsing the future".
-"Death seems wonderful to me, because I don't have the responsibility of continuing to exist".
The next appointment will be on Thursday, October 19 at 8:00 p.m. with the conference discussion "May the trees not prevent you from seeing the forest" Paths of Artificial Intelligence".
