"If a current and new space is desired, this proposal can be materialized in other places and properties that do not involve negative intervention in the house of Fermín Rodríguez". That is what the former head of Heritage of the Cabildo and former director of the island archaeological museum project, María Antonia (Nona) Perera, warned shortly before being removed from that position. In a report that had not seen the light until now, Perera questioned the project to hold a temporary exhibition in the house acquired by the Cabildo on Fajardo Street, pending its conversion into an archeology museum. "It moves away from the concept of restoration, approaching more the criterion of obtaining a new work that hides its heritage values, those that contributed to justifying its acquisition for this purpose", Perera concluded.
For this controversial purchase, the Cabildo allocated 1.65 million euros (117,000 euros more than even what the owner initially requested). To that amount must be added the works that are already being carried out in two rooms, worth 420,000 euros, within the project analyzed by Perera in her report. In addition, the rehabilitation and adaptation of the entire house must still be carried out, for which there is still no project or budget, despite the fact that the house was acquired in 2013. Until now, a report on the state of the property has not been made public either or if it presents any type of pathology, despite the fact that the Cabildo commissioned one for 17,000 euros shortly after the purchase, more than a year and a half ago, and the opposition has been demanding it for months.
Precisely, regarding the state of the construction, Perera warned in her report that the structure is "in danger", since the water evacuation system "drags the foundation of the building". In this regard, she stressed that "a new system must be installed, and" the current one "must be inoperative as soon as possible." However, she pointed out that the project presented by Tragsa did not include this work so that "the water to be evacuated runs to the municipal network."
In addition, among other things, she questioned that "the scarcity of plans and the lack of a legend in them does not allow knowing if thermal insulation will be installed in ceilings and pavement, nor if the overweight of the ceilings is removed." Nor, according to Perera, "are actions taken on the wood of the ceilings", nor does the project clarify "if the walkway to connect the two rooms is the result of the reflection in which other alternatives, more economical and more in line with the building, have had to be discarded."
"Philosophy" of "removal and lifting"
"The very language used, removal, lifting, etcetera, reflects the philosophy with which the intervention has been approached and its relationship with the values that the space to be intervened holds", Nona Perera underlined in that report registered in the Cabildo on December 26, 2014. Less than a month and a half after presenting her report, on February 9, Perera was removed from her position as director of the museum.
"She is the most prepared person in the Cabildo on the archaeological issue," they said at the time from the government group to explain why it was decided that Perera would leave the head of Heritage to become the director of the museum. When, seven months after appointing her, she was dismissed, the official did not recover her old position either, but had to return to the Heritage area "as just another worker."
In her report, Perera warned that the project entrusted to Tragsa for that temporary exhibition "moves away from the restoration criteria, disguising determining parts." For example, she questioned that "the high heritage value of the ceilings is masked with false ceilings", that "the new pavement to be installed moves away from the traditional character that an old winery and wine shop had" and that, "even, the walls are completely stripped of what is identified as plaster (probably lime mortar), losing its texture, materials and color, to cover them with laminated sheets, or the use of cement mortars."
In addition, Perera warned of another "danger". According to she underlined, the project "leaves actions unfinished", pending deciding the intervention "in the course of the work". "This worries me in case it is possible that the person who is not specialized or trained is the one who decides to throw away, hide or value a certain element", she stated in her report, which until now had not been made public.
Without signature, with lack of plans and spelling mistakes
In her analysis of the project, Nona Perera also questioned other formal aspects of it. Among them, that it was "a set of photocopies", many of them "unnumbered", and that the author of the proposal did not appear, which in her opinion was expressed with "lack of sensitivity and respect for the building."
Regarding the budget annex, Perera underlined that it was also not paginated, dated, or signed. In total, the budget for the work only in those two warehouses amounts to 420,000 euros. Regarding what was paid for the drafting of the project itself, the Heritage Councilor, Juan Antonio de la Hoz, declared in June 2014 that the drafting had been commissioned to Tragsa for 250,000 euros, although he was not talking about that of these two rooms, but of the global project. At that time, he put the total investment of the work at around "500,000 or 600,000 euros." However, that figure has already been reached only with the work in the first two rooms, which will house a "temporary exhibition."
Regarding the project presented for this first intervention, in addition to pointing out that it also implies "altering the new heritage values discovered in the property", Perera even pointed to the existence of "spelling mistakes" and "text errors" that "make it difficult to read". "And the use of sexist writing is expressly prohibited by various legal bodies applied to this island," she also warned.
The content of the museum "is diametrically opposed to the line of work"
The then director of the museum also questioned the part of the project referring to the contents that will temporarily house those two rooms of the museum. "It is diametrically opposed to the line of work developed to date with the team formed for the purpose for the museum project," she stated.
In short, Perera questioned that the project had moved away from the original idea, focused on the aboriginal population of Lanzarote, and that it did not start from the true "archaeological panorama on the island." She even pointed out that they intended to include pieces that have nothing to do with that history of the island that they intended to recover. For this, an "enclave outside the administrative scope of Lanzarote was introduced in order to try to sustain said proposal".
In the opinion of the then director of the museum, the text that was presented within that project was "biased and unreal", prioritizing elements unrelated to the true aboriginal culture of the island, and addressing, for example, the Roman or Phoenician presence on the island, giving it as a fact, when it is "something that is questioned and rejected by different archeology professionals." For these and other aspects, she concluded that the project, far from its initial approach, "is more like a repeated history museum or to treat all human occupation in Lanzarote to the present day."
