Hernandez, Jo Farb

English

SJSU ScholarWorks

San Jose State UniversitySJSU ScholarWorksFaculty Publications Art and Art History & Design Departments4-1-2007Forms of Tradition in Contemporary SpainJo Farb HernandezSan Jose State University, Jo.Hernandez@sjsu.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/artdesign_pubPart of the Art and Design CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Art and Art History & Design Departments at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been acceptedfor inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contactscholarworks@sjsu.edu.Recommended CitationJo Farb Hernandez. "Forms of Tradition in Contemporary Spain" Folk Art (2007): 72-73.Epilogue Now, with a straight new road through the site where the art environment had been, Pujiula still goes down to the spring every morning, and below the road he has built a small tower for visi­tors to climb after taking a quick swim. Along with refining and enhancing this tower and surrounding passageways, he is also working on a more private cre­ation, a place that contains his memen­tos and will someday hold his ashes. It remains to be seen whether this site will be sufficiently accessible to the public to enable Pujiula to en­gage in the playful yet earnest aes­thetic dialogue with his viewers that had become crucial to his work. With phenomenal intensity of effort and purpose as well as an admirable tenac­ity that allowed him to keep working despite the repeated need to disman­tle or demolish components of his work, Pujiula created a special place of his own that he eagerly shared with others. He reveled in the fact that by he relationship that artists have with their culture is often the first among the many determinants of their aesthetic creations. In most cases, the "sense of place" that infuses an artist's work may be decipherable on a variety oflcvels, whether the work "mirrors" certain aspects of that culture or, in contrast, is evident primarily in its challenge to them. The relative levels of absorption or disregard are different in each indi­vidual, whether one studies artists typically defined as part of the international contemporary mainstream, those more immersed in a traditional society, or those somewhat outside ofeither. Forms ofTradition in Contemporary Spain, by Jo Fasb Hernandez (Jackson: University Press ofMississippi and San Jose State University, 2005), a groundbreaking study of artists working today in Spain, examines these varying relationships by exploring the myriad influences upon the work of four artists. Significantly differ­ent approaches to the creation of their art is revealed, as is the use of and/or investment in it by community members. By including both visual arts and performance events, a broader vision can be engaged beyond that which is bounded by media or genre categories; by studying groups of artists as well as individuals, shared qualities as well as idiosyncratic personal discourse can be evoked. In addition to Josep Pujilua i Vila, the book profiles a potter, Evelio Lopez Cruz; sculptors David Ventura and Neus Hosta; and performance troupe Les Gargoles de Foe. Pujiuta dismantling the last of the environment with a bonfire, November 5, 2002 inviting visitors into his space, they became part of it-as viewers, inspi­ration, and cocreators. Given that Pujiula's masterpiece at the Font de Can Sis Rals resulted at least partially from his being energized and inspired by public visitation and response to his work, it is ironic that the same public visitation was used as an ex­cuse to destroy it. Further irony lies in the fact that during the same year in which Spain celebrated the ses­quicentennial of the birth of Antoni Gaudi, the work of another Catalan architectural innovator was demol­ished in the name of progress. * 72 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART ]o Farb Hernandez is the director and curator ofthe Natalie andJames Thompson Art Gallery, School of Art and Design, at San jose State University, California, andprincipal of Curatorial and Museum Management Services. Also, she has recently become director ofthe national organization SPACES: Saving & Preserving Arts & Cultural Environments, based in California. Editor's Note This essay was adapted from Jo F arb Hernandez, Forms of Tradition in Contemporary Spain (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi and San Jose State University, 2005). All rights reserved. The book is the winner of the 2006 Chicago Folklore Prize. For more information, go to www. uprcss.state.ms.us. Notes 1 Enric Casasses, "Bulliment del Pais," El Mundo (May 5, 2001). 2 The author conducted a series ofinter­views with Pujiula during the sum­mers of2000, 2001,2002, and 2004. All otherwise unattributed quota­tions by the artist arc the author's translations from interviews in Spanish or from Josep Pujiula i Vila, L' Home de les Cabanes (Argelaguer, Spain: self-published, 2001), which was written in Catalan. 3 Pujiula i Vila, op. cit., p. 56. Additional items purchased with the donations included two burros, two goats, more than a hundred ducks, at least fifteen sacks of oats for the burros, two carts, and a tractor. Encouraged by public response to the informal tours he spontaneously offered to visitors, and to document his construction activities in the event of future demolition, Pujiula published this account of his experiences at the park with the help of the group Lluna Plena (Full Moon). The small paperback is replete with anecdotes about his advenrures and some ofthe events and efforts that marked his time at the park In the book, Pujiula makes it clear that the most impor­tant aspect of this project, at least in later years, was his relationship with his visitors. 4 R. Ponsati, 'Josep Pujiula i Vila: L:Home de les Cabanes," L'Argelaga 7 (May 2000): 10. 5 Iolanda Batalle Prats, "El Tarzan d'Argelaguer," Diari de Girona Dominica! (April22, 2001). 6 Ibid. 7 Casasses, op. cit. t- <l ""cl ' ~ '<·l £.J 'i;,j 	 I;....,J""'"""' ,~n ~ 	 n i { t-~ ) :1 u n l r iH ' 't·g i ' ~ : ;. In-·~ n 	 il~'~ ~:~ Ll' 1'Li~~--o. •I •·I. I 	 Evelio Lopez Cruz, who learned his craft from his mother, makes un­glazed earthenware vessels in an area in La Mancha where ceramics have been made for more than a thousand years, primarily by women. Bucking historically stringent socio-sexual mores to be able to follow his family's tradition, he has little interest in in­novation in any aspect ofhis technol­ogy or production. Lopez Cruz digs his clay by hand, builds his vessels on a pre-Christian-style wheel that does not use centrifugal force for turn­ing, produces only styles ofware that have been locally customary, and fires his kiln with wood. Grounded in the creation ofmodest objects inspired by and responsive to the needs of daily life as they have been manifested for generations, he is proactively and un­swervingly dedicated to preserving the time-honored aspects ofhis ancestral lifestyle and artistic production. David Ventura and Neus Hosta are cartroners, or sculptors in press-molded paper, who construct monumental gegants (figures) and capgrossos (heads) for use in public festivals and proces­sions. They learned their craft through oral transmission and self-teaching, and they produce traditional images that respond to community standards within the framework of rituals and festivals as well as innovative aesthetic variants that nevertheless remain linked to Catalan tradition. Function isimportant to the artists-the heads and figures must be light enough to be worn and danced in the streets-but they are also able to be inventive and concentrate fully on aesthetic and expressive value. Folktales, legends, and myths vie with images from con­temporary culture or local events to enliven performance events with their expressive and eloquent creations. Les Gargoles de Foe, a group of masked folk street-theater performers, lead correfocs, night processions whose now widely known forms retain relics ofpre-Christian cults as well as later medieval elements sanctioned by the Catholic Church as it incorporated them into its own ritual framework. These "devils," dressed in homemade costumes and masks, waving wands with elaborate pyrotechnics and ac­companied by a fire-spitting "dragon" float, simulate the misrule of satanic disorder, pitting Evil against Good as they fleetingly capture and reign over Catalan villages. Les Gargoles at once continue a tradition and creatively adapt it with innovative theatrical ele­ments and technological advances. The flow of the procession is primal and visceral; the elements combine to cre­ate an immense-albeit fluid-work of art that can be neither completed nor consummated without community involvement. DVDs of each of the featured artists have been produced. For information, contact Jo Farb Hernandez at and James Thompson Art Gallery, School of Art and Design, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 95192-0089; 408/924-4328; or jfh@cruzio.com. 

Forms of Tradition in Contemporary Spain

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Forms of Tradition in Contemporary Spain

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