The giant Rainbow Flag erected by Seville's Town Hall at the Glorieta Olímpica, by the Alamillo bridge, to celebrate Gay Pride Week 2009 and commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which marked the start of the gay civil rights movement both in the US and around the world.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Seville, 40 years after Stonewall
The giant Rainbow Flag erected by Seville's Town Hall at the Glorieta Olímpica, by the Alamillo bridge, to celebrate Gay Pride Week 2009 and commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which marked the start of the gay civil rights movement both in the US and around the world.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The Visitor_film
The Visitor is a heartfelt, humanistic drama that deftly explores identity, immigration, and other major post-9/11 issues. Sixty-two-year-old Walter Vale (Jenkins) is sleepwalking through his life. Having lost his passion for teaching and writing, he fills the void by unsuccessfully trying to learn to play classical piano. When his college sends him to Manhattan to attend a conference, Walter is surprised to find a young couple has taken up residence in his apartment. Victims of a real estate scam, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a Syrian man, and Zainab (Danai Gurira), his Senegalese girlfriend, have nowhere else to go. In the first of a series of tests of the heart, Walter reluctantly allows the couple to stay with him.
Touched by his kindness, Tarek, a talented musician, insists on teaching the aging academic to play the African drum. The instrument’s exuberant rhythms revitalize Walter’s faltering spirit and open his eyes to a vibrant world of local jazz clubs and Central Park drum circles. As the friendship between the two men deepens, the differences in culture, age and temperament fall away.
After being stopped by police in the subway, Tarek is arrested as an undocumented citizen and held for deportation. As his situation turns desperate, Walter finds himself compelled to help his new friend with a passion he thought he had long ago lost. When Tarek’s beautiful mother Mouna (Hiam Abbass) arrives unexpectedly in search of her son, the professor’s personal commitment develops into an unlikely romance.
And it’s through these new found connections with these virtual strangers that Walter is awakened to a new world and a new life.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Home_the trailer
Home, a documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, renowned photographer of "Earth From Above" fame, will air this Friday on the National Geographic Channel at 9 p.m. Check out the High Definition trailer on YouTube! It is awesome!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Endemic rape and abuse of Irish children in Catholic care
Beatings and humiliation by nuns and priests were common at institutions that held up to 30,000 children. Rape and sexual molestation were "endemic" in Irish Catholic church-run industrial schools and orphanages, a report revealed today.
The nine-year investigation found that Catholic priests and nuns for decades terrorised thousands of boys and girls in the Irish Republic, while government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rape and humiliation.
The high court judge Sean Ryan today unveiled the 2,600-page final report of Ireland's commission into child abuse, which drew on testimony from thousands of former inmates and officials from more than 250 church-run institutions. Police were called to the news conference amid angry scenes as victims were prevented from attending.
More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families – a category that often included unmarried mothers – were sent to Ireland's austere network of industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s until the last facilities shut in the 1990s.
The findings prompted the new Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, to say that it took "courage" for those clergy involved in child sex abuse to confront their actions. In an interview to be broadcast tonight on ITV News at Ten, he said: "I think of those in religious orders and some of the clergy in Dublin who have to face these facts from their past which instinctively and quite naturally they'd rather not look at. That takes courage, and also we shouldn't forget that this account today will also overshadow all of the good that they also did."
The Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (Isoca), an organisation set up to help victims, condemned the newly appointed head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales for his remarks.
"Rubbish is too kind of word for what the archbishop has said. I believe I have heard this kind of twaddle uttered by politicians in Ireland like Bertie Ahern, the former prime minister. It is the verbiage of un-reason and it leaves me cold. What the Archbishop really has to do is take a long hard look at the character and nature of the people he is talking about and ask himself if they are capable of being good," said Patrick Walsh.
The report found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order, and supervisors pursued policies that increased the danger. Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but instead endured frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.
"In some schools a high level of ritualised beating was routine ... Girls were struck with implements designed to maximise pain and were struck on all parts of the body," the report said. "Personal and family denigration was widespread."
The report concluded that when confronted with evidence of sex abuse, religious authorities responded by transferring offenders to another location, where in many instances they were free to abuse again.
"There was evidence that such men took up teaching positions sometimes within days of receiving dispensations because of serious allegations or admissions of sexual abuse," the report said. "The safety of children in general was not a consideration."
The Catholic church had been steeling itself for the report, which was repeatedly delayed by church lawsuits, missing documentation and alleged government obstruction. The Christian Brothers delayed the investigation for more than a year with a lawsuit that successfully defended their members' right to anonymity in all references in the report, even in cases in which individual Christian Brothers had been convicted of sexual and physical attacks on children.
The church had already been under fire over the sexual misbehaviour of several priests in various Irish parishes. The commission's experts have sought to produce a comprehensive portrait of sexual, physical and emotional damage inflicted on the child victims. The thousands of survivors said they had no safe way to tell their stories until the investigation began because much of Irish Catholic society regarded them as liars.
Isoca today said it was now up to the Vatican to investigate its religious orders in the republic. John Kelly, the Isoca co-ordinator in Dublin, said: "Now that the Ryan [Laffoy] commission is finished, we call upon ... Pope Benedict XVI to convene a special consistory court to fully investigate the activities of the Catholic religious orders in Ireland.
"Amongst other things, such a court could establish the whereabouts of Irish state assets that were misappropriated over many years by the religious orders and make restitution to the Irish state exchequer."
During the commission's investigations, oral evidence was collected from more than 1,000 people, mainly aged from their 50s to 70s. Several hundred travelled back to Ireland from the US and Australia to describe their childhood of terror and intimidation.
One victim, John Walsh, of Isoca, called the report a hatchet job that left open wounds gaping. "The little comfort we have is the knowledge that it vindicated the victims who were raped and sexually abused," he said.
"I'm very angry, very bitter, and feel cheated and deceived. I would have never opened my wounds if I'd known this was going to be the end result. It has devastated me and will devastate most victims because there is no criminal proceedings and no accountability whatsoever."
The commission's original judge, Mary Laffoy, resigned from her post in 2003 over claims that the Irish department of education – which was in charge of inspecting the orphanages and industrial schools – was refusing to hand over documents to her.
The Guardian, Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 May 2009
The nine-year investigation found that Catholic priests and nuns for decades terrorised thousands of boys and girls in the Irish Republic, while government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rape and humiliation.The high court judge Sean Ryan today unveiled the 2,600-page final report of Ireland's commission into child abuse, which drew on testimony from thousands of former inmates and officials from more than 250 church-run institutions. Police were called to the news conference amid angry scenes as victims were prevented from attending.
More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families – a category that often included unmarried mothers – were sent to Ireland's austere network of industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s until the last facilities shut in the 1990s.
The findings prompted the new Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, to say that it took "courage" for those clergy involved in child sex abuse to confront their actions. In an interview to be broadcast tonight on ITV News at Ten, he said: "I think of those in religious orders and some of the clergy in Dublin who have to face these facts from their past which instinctively and quite naturally they'd rather not look at. That takes courage, and also we shouldn't forget that this account today will also overshadow all of the good that they also did."
The Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (Isoca), an organisation set up to help victims, condemned the newly appointed head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales for his remarks.
"Rubbish is too kind of word for what the archbishop has said. I believe I have heard this kind of twaddle uttered by politicians in Ireland like Bertie Ahern, the former prime minister. It is the verbiage of un-reason and it leaves me cold. What the Archbishop really has to do is take a long hard look at the character and nature of the people he is talking about and ask himself if they are capable of being good," said Patrick Walsh.
The report found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order, and supervisors pursued policies that increased the danger. Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but instead endured frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.
"In some schools a high level of ritualised beating was routine ... Girls were struck with implements designed to maximise pain and were struck on all parts of the body," the report said. "Personal and family denigration was widespread."
The report concluded that when confronted with evidence of sex abuse, religious authorities responded by transferring offenders to another location, where in many instances they were free to abuse again.
"There was evidence that such men took up teaching positions sometimes within days of receiving dispensations because of serious allegations or admissions of sexual abuse," the report said. "The safety of children in general was not a consideration."
The Catholic church had been steeling itself for the report, which was repeatedly delayed by church lawsuits, missing documentation and alleged government obstruction. The Christian Brothers delayed the investigation for more than a year with a lawsuit that successfully defended their members' right to anonymity in all references in the report, even in cases in which individual Christian Brothers had been convicted of sexual and physical attacks on children.
The church had already been under fire over the sexual misbehaviour of several priests in various Irish parishes. The commission's experts have sought to produce a comprehensive portrait of sexual, physical and emotional damage inflicted on the child victims. The thousands of survivors said they had no safe way to tell their stories until the investigation began because much of Irish Catholic society regarded them as liars.
Isoca today said it was now up to the Vatican to investigate its religious orders in the republic. John Kelly, the Isoca co-ordinator in Dublin, said: "Now that the Ryan [Laffoy] commission is finished, we call upon ... Pope Benedict XVI to convene a special consistory court to fully investigate the activities of the Catholic religious orders in Ireland.
"Amongst other things, such a court could establish the whereabouts of Irish state assets that were misappropriated over many years by the religious orders and make restitution to the Irish state exchequer."
During the commission's investigations, oral evidence was collected from more than 1,000 people, mainly aged from their 50s to 70s. Several hundred travelled back to Ireland from the US and Australia to describe their childhood of terror and intimidation.
One victim, John Walsh, of Isoca, called the report a hatchet job that left open wounds gaping. "The little comfort we have is the knowledge that it vindicated the victims who were raped and sexually abused," he said.
"I'm very angry, very bitter, and feel cheated and deceived. I would have never opened my wounds if I'd known this was going to be the end result. It has devastated me and will devastate most victims because there is no criminal proceedings and no accountability whatsoever."
The commission's original judge, Mary Laffoy, resigned from her post in 2003 over claims that the Irish department of education – which was in charge of inspecting the orphanages and industrial schools – was refusing to hand over documents to her.
The Guardian, Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 May 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Norman Foster, the global architect
Norman Foster, un humanista visionario
LUIS FERNÁNDEZ-GALIANO
El País, 21/05/2009
Deslumbrados por la escala colosal y la audacia técnica de tantos de sus edificios, con frecuencia olvidamos lo que la obra de Foster tiene de utopía social y aventura estética. Desde sus primeros proyectos, como el realizado para la naviera noruega de Fred Olsen en los muelles de Londres, que reunía a los descargadores y a los oficinistas en un espacio único limitado por una tersa fachada de vidrio que era a la vez un logro constructivo y una declaración de intenciones artística, su trayectoria ha procurado reconciliar los valores democráticos y la innovación tecnológica con el refinamiento visual.
Muchas de estas obras son igualmente admirables por su atención a la sostenibilidad, como evidencia Masdar, una nueva ciudad sin coches, sin producción de residuos y carbon-neutral en Abu Dhabi. Pero junto a estos proyectos visionarios o sus grandes realizaciones de infraestructuras, de las que en España tenemos buenos ejemplos en la torre de Collserola o el metro de Bilbao, el arquitecto ha completado pequeñas obras de rehabilitación tan elegantes y silenciosas como sus tres espacios madrileños: su propia casa, el estudio profesional, y la sede de Ivory press, la galería de arte y librería dirigida por su esposa Elena Ochoa, donde ayer recibió la noticia del Premio Príncipe de Asturias mientras asistía a la inauguración de la mágica exposición de Ai Wei Wei: en ese mismo lugar se mostrarán en septiembre los dibujos de este zurdo genial, que resumen con su trazo analítico y exacto la naturaleza clásica de una arquitectura intemporal.
El País, 21/05/2009
Deslumbrados por la escala colosal y la audacia técnica de tantos de sus edificios, con frecuencia olvidamos lo que la obra de Foster tiene de utopía social y aventura estética. Desde sus primeros proyectos, como el realizado para la naviera noruega de Fred Olsen en los muelles de Londres, que reunía a los descargadores y a los oficinistas en un espacio único limitado por una tersa fachada de vidrio que era a la vez un logro constructivo y una declaración de intenciones artística, su trayectoria ha procurado reconciliar los valores democráticos y la innovación tecnológica con el refinamiento visual.
Fruto de este empeño son obras maestras como las oficinas paisaje de Willis Faber & Dumas, el monumental y liviano Centro Sainsbury o el Banco de Hong Kong y Shanghai, que cambió la forma de construir rascacielos como su aeropuerto de Stanstead transformaría irreversiblemente las terminales aéreas, o como su Carré d'Art en Nîmes alteraría la manera de abordar el diálogo entre el patrimonio y la construcción contemporánea. Al final, sería el propio Foster el que daría el paso siguiente: en los rascacielos, con obras ejemplares como el Commerzbank de Frankfurt o el Swiss Re londinense; en los aeropuertos, con realizaciones titánicas como la terminal de Chek Lap Kok o el nuevo aeropuerto de Pekín; o en las obras de intervención en arquitecturas históricas, como la llevada a cabo en el British Museum o la extraordinaria transformación del Reichstag.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The Final Frontier
“In this tightly cropped image, the NASA space shuttle Atlantis is seen in silhouette during solar transit, Tuesday, May 12, 2009, from Florida. This image was made before Atlantis and the crew of STS-125 had grappled the Hubble Space Telescope. Photo Credit: (NASA/Thierry Legault)” — STS-125 Atlantis Solar Transit (200905120002HQ) Photo from nasa hq photo.El Atlantis, en órbita terrestre a 560 kilómetros de altura y a 28.000 kilómetros por hora sobre la superficie de la Tierra, fue fotografiado con una cámara Canon 5D Mark II y un telescopio de 12 centímetros de diámetro utilizando un filtro solar. La nave mide 37 metros de longitud y 24 de envergadura.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Ciao a tutti :)
ENG 130/Relax and Enjoy_May 09
ENG 312/ECTS Activity 5: Tapas_May 09
ENG 303/ECTS Activity 5: Breakfast_May 09Sunday, April 26, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Juan Marsé, Premio Cervantes
Por JAVIER RODRÍGUEZ MARCO El País, 24 de abril de 2009
La última palabra de Juan Marsé en su discurso de recepción del Premio Cervantes fue belleza. De eso trata, vino a decir, su trabajo: de persistir en la búsqueda de algo que tiene que ver "con alguna forma de belleza". Media hora antes de pronunciar esa palabra Marsé se había subido al púlpito del paraninfo de la Universidad de Alcalá, un lugar que, como diría uno de sus personajes, es más pequeño que en la tele. El autor de Si te dicen que caí dijo hace días irónicamente que, entre otras muchas cosas, del Cervantes le hacía ilusión hablar desde un púlpito. Pero empezó nervioso. La boca seca, los folios golpeando el micrófono.
"Nunca me vi donde ustedes me ven ahora. Los que me conocen saben que me da bastante apuro hablar en público", advirtió nada más saludar a una audiencia en la que faltaban sus amigos muertos -Gil de Biedma, Barral, García Hortelano, Ángel González- y Carmen Balcells. A ésta, convaleciente de un accidente doméstico, se dirigió con una ocurrencia de Groucho Marx: "Me has dado tantas alegrías, que tengo ordenado, para cuando me muera, que me incineren y te entreguen el diez por ciento de mis cenizas".
Si la literatura, como dicen los manuales, es un triángulo formado por el escritor, la escritura y la realidad, Juan Marsé (Barcelona, 1933) habló de las tres. Y lo hizo, pese al chaqué, quitándose importancia, con una mezcla de humildad e ironía. El Rey lo resumió con una palabra: autenticidad. Don Juan Carlos puso la anécdota de la mañana. Empezó su discurso saltándose el turno de la ministra de Cultura, Ángeles González-Sinde: "Hoy las letras españolas...", arrancó. Luego paró y dijo sonriendo: "Se ve que ya..."
Si la ministra, en un discurso que destacó por su altura literaria, habló del premiado como de un escritor hecho a sí mismo capaz de "engarzar la ternura y lo canalla", el propio autor de Rabos de lagartija recordó su ingreso a los 13 años en un taller de relojería. Allí estaba, relató, cuando publicó sus primeros cuentos en Ínsula y su primera novela en Seix Barral, la editorial en la que fue recibido como el "escritor obrero" que faltaba en el catálogo. Eran los años del realismo social, y él cumplió las expectativas artísticas; las sociológicas no. Y eso que es un firme partidario del realismo, "el único lugar donde puedes adquirir un buen bistec".
La cita es de Woody Allen, una de las autoridades invocadas ayer por Marsé. Otra de ellas fue Ezra Pound: "El esmero en el trabajo, el cuidado de la lengua, es la única convicción moral del escritor". En eso se resume la teoría literaria de alguien al que la metaliteratura le deja "frío" porque la cocina del escritor nunca le ha parecido, apuntó, "un sitio muy cómodo para recibir visitas". Ayer, además, subrayó un viejo aviso: "No me considero un intelectual, solamente un narrador".
Hechas todas las advertencias, el creador del Pijoaparte puso sus ojos en el mundo sin quitarlos de su propia vida. Así, destacó la riqueza que supone "la dualidad cultural y lingüística de Cataluña". Si él es un "catalán que escribe en lengua castellana" lo es, dijo, porque en esta lengua "ha mamado los mitos literarios y cinematográficos, la que ha dado alas a la imaginación".
Poco antes, Marsé había criticado la "nefasta influencia cultural y educativa" de la televisión. En la última fila del paraninfo escuchaba sus palabras Luis Fernández Fernández, presidente de RTVE. Poco después se refirió a las armas de destrucción masiva, que "resultaron ser un par de zapatos". En la mesa presidencial estaba Esperanza Aguirre.
La guerra de Irak le sirvió para destacar una de las grandes enseñanzas del Quijote, un libro que él compró "en cómodos plazos" a un vecino y que leyó a los 16 años sentado los domingos por la tarde en el parque Güell. La enseñanza es ésta: las cosas no siempre son lo que parecen. Algo que él mismo pudo comprobar al contrastar la realidad de la posguerra con lo que el régimen de Franco decía que era esa realidad. Eran tiempos en los que la memoria colectiva estaba "sojuzgada, esquilmada y manipulada" y en los que había que quemar los libros peligrosos. El novelista contó ayer cómo su padre expurgó los suyos.
A su reivindicación de la memoria, Juan Marsé añadió una defensa de la imaginación: "Son dos palabras que van siempre entrelazadas, y a menudo resulta difícil separarlas". Además, dijo, una excesiva dosis de realidad puede resultar indigesta, "incluso para un adicto a la realidad y al bistec como Sancho y como yo".
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
The Lancet rebukes Pope Benedict
Britain's best-known medical journal, The Lancet, has launched an unprecedented attack on Pope Benedict. The editorial in its current edition accuses the pope of 'distorting scientific evidence' to promote Catholic teaching on the use of condoms. The Lancet editorial is titled "Redemption for the Pope?" Here's the full text: 'The Vatican felt the heat from an unprecedented amount of international condemnation last week after Pope Benedict XVI made an outrageous and wildly inaccurate statement about HIV/AIDS. On his first visit to Africa, the Pope told journalists that the continent's fight against the disease is a problem that "cannot be overcome by the distribution of condoms: on the contrary, they increase it".' 'The Catholic Church's ethical opposition to birth control and support of marital fidelity and abstinence in HIV prevention is well known. But, by saying that condoms exacerbate the problem of HIV/AIDS, the Pope has publicly distorted scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine on this issue.'
'The international community was quick to condemn the comment. The governments of Germany, France, and Belgium released statements criticising the Pope's views. Julio Montaner, president of the International AIDS Society, called the comment "irresponsible and dangerous". UNAIDS, the UN Population Fund, and WHO released an updated position statement on HIV prevention and condoms, which said that "the male latex condom is the single, most efficient, available technology to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV". Amidst the fury, even the Vatican tried to alter the pontiff's wording. On the Holy See's website, the Vatican's head of media, Father Federico Lombari, quoted the Pope as having said that there was a "risk that condoms...might increase the problem".'
'Whether the Pope's error was due to ignorance or a deliberate attempt to manipulate science to support Catholic ideology is unclear. But the comment still stands and the Vatican's attempts to tweak the Pope's words, further tampering with the truth, is not the way forward. When any influential person, be it a religious or political leader, makes a false scientific statement that could be devastating to the health of millions of people, they should retract or correct the public record. Anything less from Pope Benedict would be an immense disservice to the public and health advocates, including many thousands of Catholics, who work tirelessly to try and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS worldwide.'
Thursday, March 26, 2009
hablamejoringles.com
While reading Ciberpaís, I happened to come across a link to www.hablamejoringles.com, a website designed by Madrid-based, American teacher of English Zac Tobias. He postulates that Spaniards needn't know more English but what they really need is to speak it better. Instead of the customary grammar and vocabulary presentations, this site aims at correcting the typical mistakes Spanish-speaking people make when speaking English. By analyzing the English spoken by Spanish celebrities, such as Rafael Nadal or Javier Bardem, or giving pronunciation tips and advice on how to master false friends, this blog offers clear, entertaining explanations presented in a very attractive design. Posts are printable and provide a wide range of exercises that can help you to avoid the most common errors of Spanish-speaking students.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Richard Serra_sculptor
One of the most prominent sculptors of the twentieth century, Richard Serra (born in California in 1939) has long been acclaimed for his challenging and innovative work which emphasizes the process of its fabrication, characteristics of materials, and an engagement with viewer and site. In the early 1960s, Serra and the Minimalist artists of his generation turned to unconventional, industrial materials and begun to accentuate the physical properties of their work. Relieved of its symbolic role, freed from the traditional pedestal, and introduced into the real space of the viewer, sculpture took on a new relationship to the spectator whose phenomenological experience of an object became crucial to its meaning. Viewers were encouraged to move around --and sometimes on, in, and through-- the work and encounter it from multiple perspectives. Over the years, Serra has expanded his spatial and temporal approach to sculpture and has focused primarily on large-scale, site-specific works which create a dialogue with a particular architectural, urban, or landscape setting.Snake (1996), is a work which the artist made specifically for the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum. Consisting of three serpentine ribbons of steel made up of six sections (two per curve), Snake totals 104 feet in length, reaches thirteen feet in height and is over twenty-one feet wide. There is no discernible vertical line in the structure. These new forms seem to defy gravity and logic, making solid steel appear as malleable as felt. Shifting in unexpected ways as viewers walk in and around them, these sculptures create surprising experiences of space and balance and provoke a dizzying sensation of solid steel and space in motion. Susan Cross
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
La belleza entre las tinieblas
ROSA MONTERO
A menudo, cuando disfruto de algo especialmente hermoso, un libro muy bueno, una exposición inolvidable, un espectáculo excepcional, siento algo muy parecido a la envidia y me digo: si yo hubiera sido capaz de hacer esto o de participar en esto, creo que sentiría que mi vida estaba cumplida, que sólo con ello ya habría merecido la pena la existencia. Me sucedió el otro día viendo alguno de los mejores momentos de Varekai, el último espectáculo del Circo del Sol. Tanto tiempo, tanto esfuerzo, tanta gente afanándose al unísono para conseguir un minuto de magia: decoradores, iluminadores, músicos, actores, maquilladores, figurinistas... además de los artistas circenses, quienes, para lograr ese minuto soberbio, ese vuelo imposible, esa acrobacia exacta, han tenido que machacarse el cuerpo y la mente durante muchos años. Toda esa ingente marea de trabajo y talento se va uniendo y armonizando hasta culminar en una representación que dan para ti. Qué gran regalo. Una vez más pensé que un solo instante de verdadera belleza puede valer toda una vida.
Creo que no somos lo suficientemente conscientes de hasta qué punto los seres humanos necesitamos la belleza para vivir. Hablo de una necesidad primaria, básica, esencial. De algo casi tan importante para nosotros como la comida. Los cromañones trogloditas ya usaban collares, ya adornaban sus artefactos. Invertían tiempo y esfuerzo en hacer objetos aparentemente inútiles. Los neandertales, en cambio, no crearon adornos, aunque tenían la misma capacidad craneal y, por consiguiente, la misma inteligencia. Ahora los paleontólogos se preguntan si el éxito de los cromañones se habrá debido precisamente a esa diferencia; si la belleza nos ayudó a sobrevivir. Si esto es así (y yo lo creo), nada sería más útil que esa inutilidad.
El poeta romántico Friedrich Schiller decía que la política era una cuestión de estética: "A la libertad se llega por la belleza". Me parece que le entiendo; estoy convencida de que la falta constante de belleza aumenta la violencia y multiplica el mal. Esos chicos nacidos y crecidos en barriadas marginales y horrorosamente feas, esos adolescentes que nunca han podido saciar y tal vez ni siquiera reconocer el hambre de belleza que todo humano posee, son como niños físicamente maltratados. Individuos heridos y frustrados. La falta de belleza deja cicatrices que no se borran.
Algunos creen ver a Dios en ese afán de belleza, pero para mí es un rasgo radicalmente humano. Algo que llevamos inscrito en el más recóndito rincón de nuestras células, en el chapoteo de nuestra sopa química. Un regalo genético que nos permite olvidar que somos mortales. La maravillosa exposición de Rembrandt en el Prado es un ejemplo perfecto de todo esto. En sus 63 años de existencia, Rembrandt lo vivió todo. Tuvo un éxito temprano y arrollador, se casó con una mujer a la que amaba, era un vitalista, sin duda fue feliz. Cada vez pintaba mejor y era más verdadero, pero esto tuvo sus costes; su pintura dejó de ser tan comercial y empezó a irritar a sus clientes, porque no les hacía los retratos complacientes que exigía el mercado. Su éxito se apagó, se llenó de deudas, tuvo que venderlo todo, incluyendo su colección de arte, llegó hasta la más completa bancarrota. Cuando falleció, no poseía más que sus pinceles y su ropa vieja.
Uno o dos años antes de su muerte pintó el último del centenar de autorretratos que se hizo a lo largo de su vida. Es el Autorretrato como Zeuxis, un cuadro casi monocromático, en sombras y ocres y luces marfileñas, y para mí, la obra más conmovedora de la exposición del Prado. Zeuxis fue un pintor griego tan amante de lo hermoso que, según dice la leyenda, murió de risa al tener que retratar a una anciana feísima. Rodeado de oscuridad, el rostro de Rembrandt también sonríe en este lienzo. Un Rembrandt viejo, arruinado y olvidado, que además había tenido que enterrar a su primera mujer, luego a su querida segunda pareja, mucho más joven que él, y por último a su hijo Titus. Frente a todo este desconsuelo y este dolor, Rembrandt sonríe, y su gesto es el más triste y el más sabio que he visto. Mira, ésta es la gran broma, ésta es la pesada broma de la vida, parece estar diciendo. Hace falta saber mucho para poder verlo tan claro, para asumirlo así, con esa humanidad y esa modestia. Y con el coraje de seguir pintando. De seguir buscando la belleza entre las tinieblas. Esa belleza que quizá nos pueda rescatar del sufrimiento.
El País Semanal, 11/01/2009
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