02.01.2024 – 21:40
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Updated: 02.01.2024 – 21:55
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There is a common practice in professional politics that has not been given sufficient emphasis: they place any party addict in charge of the world of culture, with only one condition, that he can read and write. Yes, it's a joke, but you know that in a joke there's always a little bit of… the joke. To carry the culture of a country, a delegation or a city council, they never put the most prepared people on the field. If this happens, then by coincidence or to improve on this idea, the exception confirms the rule.
Mikel Isita is the penultimate example of this intrusion by a politician who holds a key position in the cultural sector (Spanish Minister of the Ram, little joke) without having any merit. According to Wikipedia, Isita attended chemistry college for one year, and it does not indicate whether or not she attended any classes; Later, he ended up at the Faculty of Economics at UAB, but after attending the first course five times in a row and exhausting all possible invitations, he was expelled from the center. But he ran the game. Oh, and a lot! There are other mechanisms for promotions (Such and such).
I know that this also happens in some other sectors that are not sectors of culture: merit does not award points within political parties, to no one and without exception. Mikel Isita (like his colleagues José Montilla and Antonio Palmon, for example) has held many positions without going through the filter of knowledge that society demands from those who do not participate in any training. This happens in all sectors, but in the cultural field this interference has become commonplace and the dominant parties dare to put any ignorant people out there (except those who can read and write, and I have already said that) to besiege governments. Another example: Daniel Geralt Miracle has just published his memoirs, and momentarily escaping the proverbial civility, he recalls with bitterness the unpreparedness of the question of Caterina Meras, the Minister of Culture who placed Pascual Maragall in the first trio.
This is the context. Now I would like to explain the latest case I have known of this intolerable interference of party logic in what should be a defense of an independent culture. It is a sector that must be controlled by public authorities, of course, but it should not move under the whims of the usual bureaucracy or party favoritism.
The truth is that the Alila City Council is jeopardizing the continuity of Cannes Manet, a cultural space that has managed, over the past fifteen years, to obtain an important place among facilities dedicated to contemporary art. This is difficult: outside Barcelona, the continuity of spaces dedicated to thinking is full of obstacles. It is necessary to protect them from professionalism and experience, and not from incompetent administrators who may be present there as in the cemetery market. As is the case with culture-oriented politicians, as I explained in the first three paragraphs of this text.
So, Alila once again becomes an example of the erratic neoliberal behavior of its leaders. A few weeks ago, I explained a plan to build a business park, sixty houses and two or three large commercial areas in the Miralda area, traditionally devoted to agriculture. Through legal tricks, the so-called leftist political forces in Alila put themselves at the service of speculation and reinforced what I call horizontal walls, that is, building, building, building in favor of the always favored.
And now, as if the Alila City Council wanted to give me the necessary arguments to write about the city of Maresme again, I learned that the campaign “Defending Cannes Manet” as a visual arts space has been launched in Alila. I don’t want to bore you with the details of the problem, everything is legal. , but it hides contempt for the necessary independence of the cultural world. In Cannes, no government employee, selected through job exchanges, either by organized methods or by patronage, can go there. If Can Manyé has reached the position it has, it is because there were people at the helm who were groomed in the cultural field. And if you want to fire the person who is there now (even if the reasons are not explained, except for bureaucratic excuses), let there be a competition for the position that requires explicit knowledge of the art.
Perhaps the mayor of Alila, who holds a law degree, finds it difficult to understand this demand? Or the municipal culture advisor, whose CV does not reflect the intrinsic merits of the position she holds? It's very simple: are they going to put an art history graduate in command of the local police? is not it? Maybe it's time for cultural people to demand a little respect for our profession, or for all our professions. Personally, I have not spent half my life helping to train young enthusiasts at university in arts and cultural subjects, because in practice, the jobs they should hold are appointed or determined by people whose culture (especially the one that wants to shake everything up) seems to upset them.
May Many live without excuses or administrative interference.
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