We all need Cultura Segura: Week 44: Spain
I’ve been thinking about what it is that keeps us sane in trying times. The common thread, at least from my experience, is culture, art and creativity.
The sun sets earlier these days. The waning days leave me more time to think and reflect, something I think a lot of us do as the year draws to a close. This year is a particularly nutty one to reflect on, a year that has thrown us all around and taken us on a journey of isolation, restriction, and even anger and confusion. As I write this blog, at the end of our 44th week since setting off in the van, the sun sets and I start to reflect on what’s been going on.
While there’s been a shed-load of frustration this year, I am actually incredibly grateful. Getting ‘stuck’ in Spain has resulted in a unique opportunity to build our video production business here - to build a client base, gain new skills and work on some really cool projects. In looking at this opportunity, it’s pretty clear to me now that it’s the thing that has kept me sane.
The common thread in my positive memories over the last few months here in Valencia is the presence of creativity and culture. It seems no coincidence then, that in Spain people have championed ‘Cultura Segura’ (safe culture) so passionately.
In the UK we have a strong history of culture and creativity. I’ve often thought it was the bad weather that drove people inside to create, and the hardships that people have faced that have developed our zany sense of humour and self-expression. So much music, cinema, sculpture, comedy, gastronomy and more has been born on the fascinating little island I know of as home.
And yet, when the virus brought the world to a standstill, I was dismayed by the lack of solidarity with the arts in the UK, the lack of support and the lack of acknowledgement that these sectors bring so much value not only financially but emotionally and spiritually too. In contrast, my personal experience here in Spain has been that culture has not been forgotten. Measures have been put in place to allow for performance and celebration. Jobs have not been destroyed or funding cut. Of course, it’s just the perspective of one individual, but from where I stand the UK could learn a little about Cultura Segura.
Every week, George and I have the pleasure of livestreaming concerts performed to the public at the Marina de Valencia.
We started livestreaming from the Marina back in July, and have since then sat in the same spot once a week to film and share the sounds of a whole diversity of performers to audiences online. Okay, so not every performance has been ‘our kind’ of music, but then there have been weeks which have blown us away too. And of course that same diversity is one of the most incredible aspects of these concerts; that they appeal to a diversity of people from in and around Valencia. It’s a truly community-spirited event, which firmly says that culture has an important role to play even in a pandemic-stricken city, and perhaps even more so.
As I’ve sat behind my desk mixing three cameras and sending a video output to two platforms (Facebook and YouTube), I’ve wondered if it’s all worth it. The money that has to be invested into something like these concerts - into sound engineers and lighting and seating and hand gel and toilets and cleaners and bar staff and people like George and I. But then, I watch the standing ovations or see that yet another week’s concert has sold out, and I realise that giving people live music is a kind of lifeline that extends beyond simple cost-effectiveness calculations. Live music, even if it has to be enjoyed seated 2 metres apart from your friends and wearing a mask, is as necessary to our wellbeing as food and water.
I’ve written before about the power of collage in giving me self-expression and a sense of joy. I haven’t collaged much recently, but even consuming the art of others has lifted my spirits.
Even though I haven’t quite found the right mindset, time or space to create new collages, I’ve found that looking at the art of others leaves me similarly enthused. Instagram can be full of rubbish, toxic mindsets and jealousy-inducing images of perfect lives lived elsewhere, but when I come across art on Instagram it’s so encouraging. These platforms have created new routes to discovering ‘undiscovered, normal’ people making art, regardless of who they are or where they live, and it’s one of the reasons I think social media has the potential to be a force for good.
And while the internet is great at bringing together people and things from across the globe, I think that the pandemic has also encouraged us all to celebrate the things closer to home. At Broaden, we recently started a commission working with the Valencia World Design Capital and it’s been a great chance to celebrate the creators that exist right here. I’ve been embracing the opportunity to get under the skin of one city, to give my time and attention to this one place rather than worry about the fact that our original plan was to have travelled through so many more countries, and therefore cities, by now.
In developing this project with the World Design Capital, I’ve been reminded that there’s always so much more than meets the eye in cities, and that there are creative people making and doing things, just not always in plain sight.
So far as part of the project, we’ve visited and interviewed Fernando Abellanas (furniture designer & maker), Pepe Gimeno (graphic designer & artist) and Angela Montagud (interior & product designer). We would never have had the chance to meet these people and enter their studios, each tucked out of sight in the city’s surrounds, if it wasn’t for the pandemic keeping us here. I’ve been so inspired by the way that each of these creators, in their own personal way, are just chipping away at what they do best while the world around them is changing. Their work requires concentration and patience, and I think I left each of our meetings with them a little more inspired about applying the same qualities to my own work.
While the language barrier can sometimes create a sense of isolation, the common language of creativity has helped me feel so much more connected to this place.
Each day we spend in Spain, I know that my Spanish is getting a little bit better, but it definitely doesn’t always feel like that. Not being able to communicate clearly can be a real frustration and add to the feeling that George and I are quite isolated. I am forever grateful to the people here who we are coming to know as friends who have shown us so much patience when it comes to stringing a sentence together!
But as I said above, creativity can be a common language. We have been able to make videos which navigate English and Spanish, and which explore topics like design and music and food, topics which transcend barriers. I’m hoping that when George and I are in quarantine in the UK over Christmas and we finally get around to editing Broaden’s showreel, we’ll be able to look back on all this creativity and culture in Spain with a smile.
Just like we all need food and security and a place to call home, we need ways to create and to enjoy creativity. We all need Cultura Segura.