AI. For some time now, we have been encountering this acronym in countless places and situations. We almost feel it like an assailant who has slipped, without realizing it and with astonishing impudence, into our daily lives.
We feel obliged, then, to ask him: who are you?
This will be a ridiculous question for many, especially young people or those familiar with the subject or, simply, with regular users of the new, but also increasingly common, ChatGPT because it represents the paradigm of a practical application in our lives precisely the same. Artificial Intelligence, AI.
However, for others, many too, it is not a trivial question; Because even knowing the theoretical meaning of these acronyms, we do not stop wondering about their significance or meaning in our lives; especially when we have been warned that not everything that is announced to us is virtues (which too): if no one is perfect, even less will it be an artifice.
If we humans, on a regular basis, find ourselves surprisingly clumsy in emotional matters, since an infallible manual for life has not yet been published, how can we expect a skinless engineering device to give us answers and solutions that a human has not found precisely?
Have you ever tasted the sweetness of a first kiss or the passion of love? Have you felt the warmth of a child's embrace at birth? Have you perceived how it becomes insignificant before the sublimity of nature when contemplating an aurora borealis or an arctic glacier?
But, above all, have you cried heartbreakingly when you are clearly aware that there is no consolation for the loss of that essential someone on your path who will not return; but searching, nevertheless and incessantly, for a cure for that wound?
Perhaps, without being aware of it, we live with this cure from the moment we are born, since even before Antiquity, human beings created another prodigious artifice called art.
We owe this powerful idea to the French artist Georges Braque, who said that "art is a wound made light." However, perhaps we are not aware of this because, in order to encounter art, we are, in most cases, subject to the tedium of making a "prior appointment" with it which, in addition, will see us forced to travel to museums many times. sometimes located in places far from our desired itinerary.
And it is at this point where Benidorm stands exemplary, like its skyscrapers, as a champion defender of this cause, since it is art that comes to meet both the visitor, the regular citizen or the "accidental tourist".
Not in vain, the city has been earning the nickname "open-air museum" over the last few years. A perfect articulation and pleasant dialogue between the different visual arts and their plot, both urban and rural, generate artistic itineraries that attest to this: streets, bridges, squares, promenades, historical viewpoints, hills, cliffs, etc.; They have become authentic and privileged "museum" supports for the great variety of artistic works on display or historical heritage that already exists but rightly valued as a living entity.
Thus, we have been able to enjoy the full range of the different disciplines that art offers us: we have embarked on the exciting adventure of interpreting the contemporary urban painting of Diego Di3go, Misterpiro or Silvia Viana with the murals that are splashed with bright colors and dyeing gray and heavy concrete walls with vitality; We have corroborated the activation of ingenuity in the Espais d'Art Urbà, both with the illustrations of Malagón, who materialized in them a different and fun interpretation of the "Pedro Zaragoza Orts Year", and with other artists who have managed to give it a poetic aura to some anodyne urban advertising supports, introducing heart inside them with his photography. A clear example of this is Cuco de Frutos, who invites us along with him to take "A walk through life", full of attractive contrasts and movements captured with surprising snapshots, or José Bravo, offering us some suggestive and tempting "Little invitations", part of which, in addition, we were later able to experience through his performance “Mirémonos”.
If after that, we are still hungry for art, we can go to the Espais Escultòrics, where, among others, we find the audacity of the spirited and energizing forms and the stimulating chromatic variety of the sculptures of Arne Quinze in "My secret garden", in harmonious contrast with the softness of the shapes of Passeig de Ponent by architect Carlos Ferrater, an exemplary example of masterful execution of an innovative and colorful landscape project in harmony with its maritime environment.
After such emotions, a dose of naïve tenderness will be appropriate from the hand of the "Swans" of Hung-Yi, a multicolored sculpture that is already part of the permanent work of Benidorm, previously included in the "Hung Galaxy", a pioneering exhibition in being held outdoors in 2021 due to the pandemic situation and whose successful acceptance by the public was the definitive stimulus to begin the journey towards our particular museum with impetus.
If after diving into foreign artistic experiences, what we find missing is an approach to our roots, there is nothing better than doing it through the rich historical heritage carefully safeguarded in the city of Benidorm. We can go back to our Roman ancestors at the Tossal de la Cala site, which houses the archaeological remains of a "castellum" or military fort, as well as finds of pieces and reliefs of great historical significance, or visit the two coastal watchtowers to prevent corsair attacks and declared BIC: the Torre de Les Caletes, ordered to be built by Philip II in the 16th century and recently restored, representing a valuable example of the exceptional work of defensive constructions carried out by said monarch, and the Torre de Morales, dated by a inscription in the 18th century (although possibly its construction dates back to earlier) and with a restoration project to be carried out this year in order to make even its interior visitable.
Finally, and as an indisputable sign that gives character to the city, we can extend our walk through El Castell, always near the sea to continue enjoying the warmth of the brightness of the light reflected in it, the caress of the sea breeze and the views. infinite; since this old walled fortification dating back to the 14th century, of which its archaeological remains are preserved in situ, is today the most emblematic viewpoint of Benidorm, representing a relevant attraction, not only for tourists but also for Benidorm residents, who They come to it attracted by the dance in the street during the Les Ones Festival, or who come to the open-air musical call of concerts such as the Benidorm Music Jazz or the festive marches; continuing with the rhythm towards the Oscar Esplà and Julio Iglesias auditoriums with the three local musical bands while, fortuitously, they pass by the Colla de xirimiters and the tabaleters, depending on the dates of the walk.
All this art undoubtedly represents an effective antidote to the wounds of the soul by converting them into light. A light that the city of Benidorm witnesses every day with its incessant but never blinding brightness, as it allows culture to reach even on the beach with its Biblioplayas on the furious front line, making suntan lotion and flavor coexist in a perfect marriage. of the sea, or that of an ice cream, with a public reading of "Don Quixote of La Mancha" or with any other book chosen at our whim at that particular moment, giving us our well-deserved rest after an intense emotional walk.
And all this without seasonality, without respite, as marks the character of the soul of Benidorm, because that is also the culture: restless.
It is at this point that it is appropriate to mention another sculptural work, currently present in our open Benidorm (also next to El Castell, in the Plaza de Santa Ana), due to its strongly stimulating and inspiring character, both on an artistic and intellectual level.
It's about "Silvia and María." These sculptures, temporarily loaned to Benidorm by the Hortensia Herrero Foundation, are two iron heads of monumental size, as is their ability to exert a moving influence on the viewer.
Yes, move, in its meaning of disturbing or moving someone strongly or effectively, internally. Because that is the magic of these atypical sculptures, not leaving anyone indifferent: some will be disturbed by their peculiar beauty and size; others will be disturbed by the surprising logic of their perspective linked to the need to move to understand them; while other perspectives that are more talented because they are experienced in the matter, will enjoy the suggestive challenge that both invite us to.
A challenge that aims to be suggestive by being dissuasive and provocative. Well, the closed eyes and serene attitude of these heads not only evoke meditation or reflection in us, effectively inviting us to do so; but also, in a kind of skillful strategy of destiny, its location "forces" us to raise our gaze to gain perspective and be able to appreciate them in all their magnitude, this subtle gesture naturally inciting us to also elevate our attitude, our spirit, according to proven theories of body language.
In this way, just like Pedro Zaragoza in the 1950s, in a visionary and transcendental urban development, he managed to build not only the skyscrapers of Benidorm but also promote the rise of an entire society; The architect of these works, Jaume Plensa, in addition to marking a milestone in the urban history of the city of Benidorm, by leaving an indelible mark on the memory of its skyline with "Silvia and María", could also raise our noblest thoughts, awaken minds and give them the lucidity to visualize that this new horizon of buildings is now more human with them leading it. And that, in the same way, our intelligent minds must always lead the threatening horizon of Artificial Intelligence, raising classical wisdom as a flag with its maxim "sapere aude": "dare to know."
Fortunately, there are already many contemporary philosophers who proclaim in the media the need for this "daring." The need, in short, not to fall asleep, to abandon the accommodation of accepting what is easily given to us with just a click of a key, without even questioning it.
Daring, finally, to take one of those dreaded 180-degree turns and leave our comfort zone, a turn that can begin with the alphabet; in which AI, in a kind of extraordinary alchemy, changes to AI and we dare to imagine, to get excited, to investigate, to be inspired by art; We dare to remain Restless in a city that Illuminates our minds and our spirit because it never extinguishes its light, in a city called Benidorm.
Despite everything, it is possible that skepticism persists among those who are more pragmatic, those who refuse to be carried away by the fascination that "Silvia and María" exert naturally and limit themselves to seeing their attractiveness in the tourist or commercial success associated with them. a renowned artist; or in that the need to look up to encompass them is simply associated with the virtue of being able to visually avoid the urban furniture that unfailingly surrounds them.
However, it will not be so easy for them to argue a solid reply to the insightful statement that Francis Picabia made some time ago, and in which it seems that Plensa took part of the inspiration for his work: the French artist defended that our heads are round so that our thoughts can change direction; The Catalan heads, although it may not seem like it to us apparently, are also that way. It will be enough to let ourselves (with) move around the different points of view that they offer us to perceive it clearly and take the direction towards new ideas, but always more human.
