Monday, May 5, 2025, 22:49
The César Manrique Foundation (FCM) will present on Thursday (20.00) the book-catalog entitled ‘Word and commitment: the power is bothers. César Manrique. Activism ‘, in the José Saramago room (La Plazuela, Arrecife). And a round table on tourist massification and its consequences will take place, with Jaime Coello (director of the Telesforo Bravo-Juan Coello Foundation, naturalist, manager, disseminator and environmental activist), Alfredo Díaz (responsible for the Pedagogical Department of the FCM); Irma Ferrer (lawyer); Natalia G. Vargas (Journalist of ‘Canary Islands now’, specialized in migrations and human rights); and Felipe Ravina (documentary filmmaker and graduate in Sea Sciences); moderating journalists Andrea Domínguez and Saúl García.
The book explores the activist aspect of César Manrique, linked to the protection of the territory and the environment. The study attends to central issues in Manrique’s public discourse: the promotion, by the artist, of a limited and quality tourism; the defense of the limits and the singularity in terms of a tourist offer based on the culture and the patrimonial values of the place; His critic open to speculation, corruption, developmentalism and environmental abuses. Their public statements, made over more than forty years, as well as written documents of the artist are taken as a central reference.
The catalog is connected to the subsequent round table in which the current situation of tourist massification and overflow will be discussed, with the consequent condition of natural heritage and the quality of life of citizens, at the level of Lanzarote and in the whole of the Canary Islands.
Sample for the centenary
It is based on the 2019 sample of the FCM, curated by Fernando Gómez Aguilera, by the centenary of the birth of Manrique. It is a detailed research study overturned in 600 pages; that brings together thirteen critical texts, more than 440 images, 260 press pages with statements by Manrique, handwritten and manifest annotations of the artist, historical series of growth and graphic material.
Fernando Gómez Aguilera, Blanca de la Torre, Leopoldo Díaz, Alberto Santamaría, Mario Alberto Perdomo, José María Parreño, Fernando Prats, Ana Carrasco, Joaquín Araújo, Bárbara Fluxá, Federico Aguilera Klink, Benigno Varillas, Saúl García and Santiago Beruete.
It is a tool to resume and update Manrique’s attitudes and positions “through his own words, without reinterpretations,” says Gómez Aguilera. And a practical resource is provided «To prevent the claims of mixing Manrique’s thought and behaviors, ”says FCM FCM Foundation Director.
It has been edited by the FCM Publications Service, under the direction of Fernando Gómez Aguilera, responsible for the conception of the work, dedicated to documenting the Ecosocial dimension of Manrique. The graphic design and layout has been carried out by Sebastián Puiggrós, while the thorough and thorough documentation work, coordination and supervision of the catalog has been carried out by the FCM team formed by Idoya Cabrera Delgado, Carla Gómez Amat, Irene Gómez Fábregas, Consuelo Niz Cabrera, Bisi Quevedo Portillo and Paula Ramírez Luengo.
It should be added that César Manrique’s ideas align with the Canary Islands has a limit announced for May 18 against tourist massification in the islands, a call that the FCM supports and believes timelytrusting that you have a massive support from citizens.
