What would Antoni Tàpies say today about the tragic and difficult moment that the world is going through? We don't know, but as Jordi Savall recalled “he always wanted his art to have a positive influence on human beings. He even said that if his art was not useful to society, he was not going to paint. The musician explained it through a screen to the many friends who gathered at the Fundació Tàpies to celebrate the painter's 100th birthday, which he would have turned this Wednesday. A small accident that made it difficult for him to walk prevented him, as was his wish, from performing a piece of Jewish and Arab tradition at his friend's birthday party to sing together a song for peace, the words that the artist wrote on the cover. -also designed by him- from the volume Pro Pacem: Texts, Art and Music for Peace.
His music was missing, yes, replaced at the last moment by the Barcelona singer and composer Vignesh Melwani, who performed an exciting El Cant de la Sibil·la, but not his cry against the war, which they shared with their former life partner. and great love of Tàpies, Teresa Barba, who was accompanied by her children Toni and Clara, and her grandchildren. “One of the keys that we have today, one of the last resources we have is that art is the vehicle to establish dialogue between souls, between different cultures, because art reaches us directly to the heart,” said Savall, who called for an end to war and barbarism in Gaza.
“Remember that no peace achieved through violence has ever been a definitive peace. This reflection made me think about the need to call to stop the massacre of innocents in Gaza. I express my solidarity and empathy with the victims, both with the hostages and victims of Israel and the innocent victims who are dying every day in Gaza. Peace does not exist by itself, peace is conquered, and we hope that art and our empathy help to achieve peace soon,” he wished.
The teacher's words came in the last part of an open day that began in the morning with young artists activating different biographical moments from the Personal Memory of Tàpies and that in the middle of the afternoon brought together representatives of all the institutions (the counselor Natàlia Garriga, Mayor Jaume Collboni, Minister of Culture Ernest Urtasun) united around the living, committed and more relevant than ever legacy of “a great thinker who became an artist”, as defined by the president of the Foundation, Ferran Rodés.
Imma Prieto, the director of the center, wanted the party to also be a celebration of friendship, hence the invitation to Savall, so that from that sensitive place that Tàpies shared he could talk to us about the present. The note from the past, the memory of the fight against the Franco dictatorship, was provided by Raimon, for whom Tàpies was an unbeatable traveling companion for his Per destroy that qui l'has desert, an album that would mark a before and after in his career. and included songs like De nit a casa, a song about the anguish of nighttime arrests during the dictatorship. The singer-songwriter explained that he came into contact with informalism for the first time thanks to the drawing teacher at the Xàtiva institute where he studied, where the “red, the punished” teachers ended up, and that much later he would arrive in Tàpies through Xavier Folch, Ariel's editor. Not only did he make the cover of his book Poemes i cançons, but he also gave him four drawings. And now what music would he listen to? Another answer impossible to answer, although the Foundation imagined that he would like the pianist Marina Herlop.
Surrounded by works of Zen inspiration, she was applauded in the middle of the exhibition hall by the directors of practically all the museums (Emmanuel Guigon, Marko Daniel, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Judit Carrera, Pepe Serra, Jordi Principal...), artists like Antoni Llena, Daniel G. Andújar, Frederic Amat, Gonzalo Elvira, Lúa Coderch, Martí Anson, Àngels Ribé...), the one who was the first director of the Manuel Borja-Villel Foundation or the previous president of the board Xavier Antich. Also the words of the director Imma Prieto, who quoting Ramon Llull (Love is born of memory; lives of intelligence and dies of oblivion), threw into the air a promise of the future: "Antoni Tàpies, we will not allow you forget".
