Thursday 18 August 2016
Monday 15 August 2016
Racconti muti - Silent Tales by Alessio Schiavo
The latest, diminutive (15x21 cm), artworks titled "Racconti muti - Silent Tales”, by northern Italian architect and painter Alessio Schiavo, have grown out of a collaboration for a book of illustrated poems.
Though still inspired by Mark Rothko’s unique brand of Abstract Expressionism, Schiavo brings a gentle “Italianess” to his own works, an almost ethereal gentility to images romanticized from antiquity. The reduction to their present size lends these thirty pieces an ephemeral quality, a fragility conducive to the poems they stand against.
Schiavo has added a fresh element and melded it into the abstractions. Echoing the writer’s text, but not text itself, Schiavo renders a hand drawn 'text’ that is sans text as an echo of the poet’s words. Those cursive strokes recall the “Pseuoscripts” known as “Pseudo-Kufic”, “Kufesque” or occasionally Mongol (Phags-pa) script writing. They resemble cursive text, but represent no known language. Such imitative cursive imagery pre-dates even the southern Italian faux Arabic coins from the 10th century (those from Amalfi, and Salerno). Those fake coins (called tarì) used illegible pseudo-Kufic script instead of genuine Arabic, and were no doubt caste by artisans unfamiliar with Arabic language.
More importantly though, this form of “Pseuoscript” manifests itself in European paintings from the 10th century onwards (in France, Greece and Germany), but the most important discovery is “Pseuoscript”, arabesque lettering used as ornament in Italian painting of the 13th century onward. It is used as ornament by artists such as Cimabue (Cenni di Pepo,1240-1302) using false Arabic on a mandril (handkerchief) held by a crying Virgin Mary, in his painting “Crucifix” (1265-1268). Then there was Giotto (Giotto di Bondone, 1267-1337)), painter and architect from Florence. Masaccio (1401-1428) who used this form of cursive writing for halos in the “Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels” (1426), and not forgetting the pseudo-Arabic halos by Gentile da Fabriano (1370-1427), in the slightly earlier paintings such as “Adoration of the Magi” (1423).
Schiavo’s thirty pieces are not of silver. There is no suggestion of a betrayal of his art, but they are silent. As mentioned above, the artist incorporates pseudo-script, faux-language, into these thirty pieces, rendering them silent. The ‘language’ is false, unreadable, and therefore to all intents and purposes are “muti" or “muto" (dumb) but not “Senza Voce”, having no voice, nor voiceless nor “taciturno” (tactiturn). The voice is the combination of pseudo-script and image, it speaks but with the language of art not of text. The abstraction, image making, and the manifestation of the illegible language sits as a counterpoint to the very legible poetry it co-exists with. Separated from the poetry Schiavo’s thirty pieces take on a substance, a voice, and importance of their own, they phenomenologically become.
See more in the next issue of The Blue Lotus magazine, out September 1st 2016
Monday 8 August 2016
Dali and Duran
For a while I was able to visit annually, but it has now been a while since I talked about Señor Durán’s father (Lluis Durán Camps) and the relationship that he had built with Salvador Dalí, the fact that they went to the same school but were not in the same class. Señor Lluis Durán Simon would tell of extracurricular chance meetings; when Dalí’s father would bring his son into Hotel Durán to eat. One shy boy (Dalí) looking at another shy boy (Lluis Durán Camps). Señor Durán would tell of the times when Dalí was grown, eagerly eating the Catalan fare created by the foremost Catalan chefs at Hotel Durán, he would also tell of the performances that Dalí would give in the hotel restaurant and the special menus they created.
With over a century of service, Hotel Durán continues to be at the forefront of hotel restaurants within the region. Hotel Durán continues to be highlighted in travel guides like ‘Pyrenees’ by Marc Dubin, where it is mentioned as three-star, and “top standard”(page 142). Señor Ramon Durán Juanola, had always set aside his busy schedule and journeyed with me through his recollections of Salvador Dalí, as seen through his youthful eyes, growing in the knowledge that his grandfather, father and, later, he too were able to be a part of Salvador Dalí and Gala’s lives, and their connection to Hotel Durán.
Figueres, the capital of l’Alt Empordà, remains a most important city within Catalunya. It had already began to grow with the building of Castell de Sant Ferran (Sant Ferran castle), in the late 1700s. That castle is rumoured to have held 6,000 men and, in the stables, 500 horses in its heyday. Castell de Sant Ferran is also renown as the last Republican bastion in Catalunya, after the fall of Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939). The Civil War in which British poet Laurie Lee, British writer George Orwell, American writer Ernest Hemingway and Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueriros had fought alongside international brigades trying to stem the tide of fascism sweeping across Europe. It was a war in which Dalí’s good friend, the poet Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (Federico García Lorca), had been executed.
The now much acclaimed Hotel Durán and Restaurant (in Figueres), itself once also a bastion against fascism, has been frequented by many international celebrities including, of course, Salvador Dalí and his wife Gala. The hotel, however, had very humble beginnings as a travellers rest-stop in the mid 1800s.
I sat with the present owner, Señor Ramon Durán Juanola, one of the local gastronomy group calling themselves La Cuina del Vent (Cooking the Wind), in the now famous El Celler de Ca la Teta, a remnant from that original rest-stop, Ca la Teta (place of sisters). It was in that antique cellar that Salvador Dalí had entertained friends, saving them the torturous trip over the roller coaster ride on that road across the Pyrenees, to his home in Port Lligat. Dali, Gala and hosts of friends were catered to by Señor Lluis Durán Camps, Ramon’s grandfather.
The original travellers’ rest stop (Ca la Teta), was founded in 1855, in Career Vilafant, by two sisters, during a period known as Catalunya’s Renaixenca (Renaissance). It was seven years after Spain’s first railway (1848) had begun and twenty-two years before Figueres had its first railway station (1877). Ca la Teta, was one of the meeting places, rest-stops, and postal stops catering to travellers in and out of Figueres. Ca la Teta specialised in travellers into Catalunya’s interior, to places like Besalú and on to Banyoles, which was then a four hour journey away from Figueres.
With the covering of the old disease-ridden river bed forming La Rambla, its open space and promenade, in 1864, the town began expansion. Joan Durán Hugas rented the small building previously known as Ca la Teta, calling it Fonda (the Inn) Durán and, in brackets, Antiga “Ca la Teta” (formerly House of the Aunties). As was traditional, the husband provided transport to other places while the wife organised food for busy travellers, thus began the Durán legend in Figueres.
With the advent of La Rambla and the small roads feeding it, the entrance to Fonda Durán was changed from Carrer Vilafant to where it is today, on Carrer Lasauca, absorbing with it the old Hotel Commerce. Later, in the 1930s, the property became known as Casa de Menjars (eating house) under the guidance of Señor Lluis Durán Camps. Hotel Durán grew with the growth of Figueres. To date, Hotel Durán has had many famous guests, including Maurice Chevalier and the Catalan writer Josph Pla, but none had been more constant, nor more connected to Hotel Durán than Salvador Dalí.
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech (Salvador Dalí) was born in Figueres, May 11th, 1904, and named after his father Salvador Dalí i Cusí, a lawyer, and also after his late brother. The family lived on the 1st floor of number 20 (now number 6), Carrer Monturiol. In the Summer of 1912, the family moved to the top floor of Carrer Monturiol 24 (now number 10). Dalí’s older brother (Salvador Galo Anselmo Dalí Domènech) had been born on October 12th 1901 and died in 1903, nine months prior to Dalí’s birth. Dalí’s mother was Felipa Domènech I Ferrés. She died in 1921, aged 47. In 1963 Dalí had painted ‘Portrait of My Dead Brother’ (now in the permanent collection of The Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA).
There is a school photograph titled ‘Figueres, Calle del Palau’ (Palace street), where a band of children, boys with hats, girls in their button-down dresses, pose. They are the alumni from 1914-1915 and 1915-1916, of the Figueres drawing school, Collegi dels Maristes (Marist Brothers College). The group from 1916 includes a twelve year old Salvador Dalí, and it is the same year that the young Dalí painted the oil and card ‘Landscape’. The gaggle of children pose somewhat impatiently for the cameraman, Jose Masdevall - whose Imprenta Libreria (literally printing library, or photo gallery) stands in the background of the image. By the age of thirteen Dalí was attending Figueres Institute High School. And, in 1917, the young Dalí began with Professor Juan Núñez Fernández, in the Municipal School of Drawing, Figueres. In the Summer of 1918 Dalí exhibited his paintings for the first time, in the lobby of the Municipal Theatre in Figueres and then again in 1919.
He was 15.
Dalí and his parents visited Hotel Durán numerous times as the boy grew. In his manhood, freshly arrived from his sojourn in American (1940 - 1948), Dalí would continue his connection to Figueres and Hotel Durán. On his return to Europe, Dalí was to paint another in his ‘elephant series’, ‘Los Elefantes’, the first being ‘Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening’, 1944.
“Each time he went to Figueres Dalí would visit my grandfather, for lunch, or have parties. My grandfather would prepare all that he (Dalí) needed” mentioned Ramon Durán Juanola. Hotel Durán had connections in France. Since the days of Spain’s Civil War, when the Figueres Durán family were split, with half the family studying gastronomy at the french border, and the other half keeping the Figueres hotel running, connections had been made in France. Since his years in Paris, Salvador Dalí had adored French culture. In Spain, at that time, only Hotel Durán could access French food, especially dairy products, French literature and magazines. It was to Hotel Durán that Dalí went to keep up with news and culture from France. Dalí also contacted Lluis Durán Camps for his kind assistance with his performances and asked various favours. Once Dalí found himself in need of feathers. Duck or goose feathers, “feathers were needed, feathers from cushions of Hotel Durán’s rooms”, observes Ramon Durán Juanola. Arturo Caminada, Dalí’s driver, was sent to obtain the feathers from Lluis Durán Camps and to transport the hotel cushions to Port Lligat for the making of a film.
Throughout his adult life Dalí was only able to rely on very few people. Arturo Caminada who had stayed with Dalí for 37 years was one, also Joan Vehí, who was with Dalí for 35 years and Lluis Durán Camps who had known Dalí since their schooldays together in Figueres.
There are many anecdotes portraying the closeness of Dalí to Hotel Durán, but one in particular demonstrates Lluis Durán Camps’ visionary abilities. Seated in Hotel Durán’s El Celler de Ca la Teta, I sat with Ramon Durán Juanola as he explained “My grandfather (Lluis Durán Camps) had recognised Dalí as a painter who had an international reputation. My grandfather had approached the Mayor (of Figueres) to have an exposition of Dalí’s works, and talked with Dalí’s secretary Captain (John Peter) Moore, to help Hotel Durán with an exposition of paintings or drawings, something in the town in which he (Dalí) was born.
It was a small idea.” he said “The idea came from this table” remarked Ramon, taping the wooden table in El Celler de Ca la Teta, where we were sitting. “At this table were the Mayor of Figueres, Ramon Guardiola, my grandfather and Captain Moore, talking about what they can do, in this city, to celebrate Dalí.” he went on “Both Dalí and Gala had wanted to do something in Spain, maybe in Barcelona or in Madrid, but had not considered Figueres.” There were many ideas suggested but, once the idea had taken hold, Dalí had become fixated with doing something grand in the city in which he was born. So began the idea of creating what became known as the Dalí Theatre-Museum germinated.
Over the years Hotel Durán had created many menus centred around Dalí’s love for Catalan and American food. Here is a selection……
A menu, dated August 12th, 1961
Gazpacho cortijero (cold tomato soup)
Llomillo amb mongetes (beans with pork)
Llagosta i Pollastre estil de Port Lligat (chicken styled lobster from Port Lligat)
Boifaara dolca de L’ Empordà (sweet Empordà sausage)
Flaones de Sant Pau (sweet pastries filled with cream)
Vinos y champaña Perelada (wines from Peralada, and champagne)
followed by coffee and liquors.
Another Hotel Durán menu (September 22nd, 1967) de Delhi a Dali (Dehi to Dali), celebrating Dalí’s collaboration with Air India, who had just given Dalí a live baby elephant (Surus), features…..
El Melon con Jamon De Massanet de Cabrenys (melon with ham, a rural speciality)
Los Pescados y Mariscos de Port Lligat (fish and seafood from Port Lligat)
El Cordero de can Xicu a L’ast Rovellones de Pirineo (Mushrooms Pyrenees style)
La Montanyeta en Llamas (flaming pastis)
las Fruas Sopresa (fruit surprise)
Champagne Perelada
Cognacs and Spirits
Coffee
A van took the elephant to Dalí’s home in Port Lligat, where it was let loose in the gardens. Over night, the baby elephant ate as many of Dalí’s flowers and bushes as it could find. In 1971, Surus had outgrown his welcome and was placed in a zoo, in Barcelona, while awaiting a more permanent place in Valencia.
In the November of 1970, Hotel Durán hosted a dinner in honour of Gala and Salvador Dalí. It was on the occasion of the initiation of works for the Dali Museum in Figueres. the menu ran…
Sopa de Ajo con Huevo Gratinada (Rosado Ampurdán)
(Garlic Soup with Egg Gratin, with Pink local wine)
Lubina Flambeada al Hinojo (Blanco Perelada Pescador)
(Flambé sea bass with fennel, with White local wine)
Chuleta de Ternera del Ampurdán a la Antigua (Champan Perelada)
(Calf cutlet with local champagne)
Turban Helado de Frambuesa
(Raspberry Ice Cream Turban)
Pastel Ampurdanes
(local cake)
Bomba Sorpresa
(bomb surprise)
Café Coñacs Licores.
(coffee, cognac and liquors)
Señor Lluis Durán Simon, the former owner of Hotel Durán (and Ramon’s father), remarks that the Dalís enjoyed “…soup slices of dry bread, garlic, a little olive oil, a sprig of thyme or mint, perhaps adding broth and a whole raw egg, well beaten, at the end. They particularly enjoyed the Spanish cold soup gazpacho or a simple consommé. Gala usually began her meal with a consommé containing sherry, she preferred it very cold, even if it had lumps.”
Dalí and Gala liked the head and leg of veal, or pig ‘s trotters boiled in a casserole, served with boiled potatoes and pesto. They ate paella, prawns and fresh Crayfish (but only the tails), mullet, sole, sea bass, sea bream, octopus, squid, sea urchins, mussels and local Catalunyan anchovies. Otherwise they might partake in lamb chops, or grilled beef filet with artichokes, eggplants or chips and, when in season, forest mushrooms like rovellones or rosinyols. Dalí and Gala ate traditional Catalan dishes such as roasted thrushes (also popular in rural Naples), plain omelette or dry sausage with beans.
For dessert it could be the “Butifarra dolça of L’Emporda”, sausages pricked to prevent bursting during cooking, then place in a saucepan with a finger of water, a glass of muscatel, the rind of a lemon, sugar and cinnamon. They are cooked on low heat so that the sausages cooked slowly and become sugar coated. When cooked they were placed on bread slices and served hot. It is a traditional dish which Dalí loved, and Hotel Durán often shares this with its guests.
At Hotel Durán, Dalí often partook of the local Peralada Castle wine. Castell de Peralada, where the wine is made, is approximately 11 kilometres from Figueres, and was Dalí’s favourite vinery. For the Dalís one or two glasses was enough. The area had a reputation enhanced by Carmelite monks who tended vineyards in the 14th century. In the 20th century it was Miquel Mateu, who acquired Peralada Castle in 1923, that brought back the prestige of Castell Peralada wines so beloved by Dalí. However, sometimes Dalí might prefer to drink garnatcha from the drinking vessel known as the porrón, though he was also known to pretend to (with his thumb over the pouring spout).
After Gala’s death (in June 1982) Dalí retreated both from the world and from Hotel Durán. He died in Figueres where he was born, 1989, aged 84. His memory lingers in photographs and prints on Hotel Durán’s walls. His spirit encourages gastronomic delights such as the annual Tastets surrealists. Dalí’s bronze bust greets visitors as they enter Hotel Durán the street. Hotel Durán is not all about Salvador Dalí, its own gastronomic star shines very brightly, but there remains a long link between the Dalís and the Duráns which, inevitably, will always be there.
Since I originally wrote this piece Señor Lluis Durán Simon has joined Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech and Gala Dali in the Catalunya beyond. He is sorely missed.
Wednesday 3 August 2016
Visiting Vehí (Dalí's photographer)
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Señor Joan Vehí Serinyana (otherwise known as Joan Vehí) and I |
Over many years Cadaqués has hosted a number of famous people. These include Pablo Picasso (also a friend of the Pitxot family), Antoni Pitxot (friend, collaborator and co-designer of Salvador Dali’s museum in Figueres) and Marcel Duchamp, who first discovered the town in 1933, and returned for the Summers from 1958 to 1968. Man Ray, René Magritte, Federico García Lorca and of course Salvador Dalí, all visited or stayed on in Cadaqués. As a youth Dalí stayed at the Pitxot house, and learned painting from Ramón Pichot (Pitxot) his mentor, and who was, coincidentally, friends with Pablo Picasso in Paris. Dalí had also met the love of his life, Gala (Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, then Gala Eluard, wife of Paul Eluard) when he was staying in Cadaqués in 1929. In 1930 Dalí began building his home in Port Lligat, just along the coast from Cadaqués. He lived and painted there for 40 years, until Gala’s death in 1982.
Joan Vehí was born in Cadaqués, Catalonia, Spain, on 30th May in the year that Dalí met Gala, 1929. It was also the year of the Barcelona International Exposition, the second Worlds Fair to be held in Barcelona, the first being 1888. At the tender age of fourteen Vehí, took the initiative to become a carpenter. Manuel Torrents was Vehí’s first teacher, teaching with manual tools. In 1947 Vehí learned to operate machines, and later, established the first factory wood machines in Cadaqués. Working with wood enabled Vehí to mix with the artists visiting Cadaqués, including Salvador Dalí.
Señor Lluís Duran, an old acquaintance of Señor Vehí, had arranged for Azucena and I to visit with him for an informal interview, as part of my background research. Once more we traversed the steep, pebbly, white and blue, vermillion and pink bougainvillea clad corridors, down and up to that old carpentry workshop that Señor Vehí, a cabinetmaker and carpenter by profession, had converted into a small museum dedicated to his photography (1996). We remembered that it was adjacent to the stunningly white Església de Santa Maria (Saint Mary’s Church), in Cadaqués.
To read the interview go to Issuu, The Blue Lotus issue 4, available 1st of September 2016
