The professor of Philosophy and art historian expressed the feelings of all the winners at the award ceremony for the new Alfonso Décimo culture awards
Philosophy professor and art historian Francisco Jarauta could not convey his passion for all artistic disciplines better: “Art is the fire that we must feed with greater love.” This was made clear last Friday in his acceptance speech after receiving the honorary Alfonso Tenth prize for culture. For this recognition of a lifetime, Jarauta was the only winner with the privilege of holding the microphone for a few minutes during the gala held at the Murcia Regional Auditorium.
“Thank you is said with the heart.” The retired UMU professor began his speech with these words, expressing the feelings of all the artists of the Region recognized here, adding that “the Community must feel happy for that way of breathing, thinking and imagining our future.”
The winner, who received a blue heart as a trophy – white for the honorary award to Maria Blaya and red for the rest of the winners – from Juan Antonio Lorca, Secretary General for Culture, encouraged the establishment of a dialectic between tradition and innovation. “We must be daring, ‘coraggious’ societies” and work in the future “multiplying schools, conservatories and creative spaces and thinking in community terms. The community is plural and can be happy. We must help her », he stressed.
In a speech in which Francisco Jarauta was able to convey his emotion for culture through different anecdotes, he encouraged the public to add their grain of sand without exaggerated aspirations: “We don’t all have to be great artists”, and recalled the work of the so many times forgotten artisans.
Francisco Jarauta’s speech was heard almost at the end of a gala that, a few minutes after eight in the afternoon, began with a fragment of the ‘Pas de deux’ by the National Dance Award Winner Chevi Muraday and the ‘performer’ Miss Beige, who with their presence filled the huge stage, free of artifice, of the Regional Auditorium. Together they dialogue, disconcert and invite reflection until they bring a smile to the audience when Tchaikovsky’s music gives way for the first time to ‘Centro di gravità permanent’, by Franco Battiato. The pop anthem of the Italian artist broke into several of the different interventions of this proposal that, as the presenter of the gala, Marta Nieto, “deals with diversity and the encounter with the other.” An ideal show to capture the intention of an encounter with culture with the heart of Alfonso X as a metaphor for “the veins and arteries through which the arts of our society circulate”.
fourteen hearts
Starting with Miguel Mesa del Castillo, in the category of Architecture, one by one the different winners paraded in these new awards created by José Manuel Jiménez, which distinguish the best works by artists and creators in 2021. María José Peñalver, Dean of the College of Architects of the Region and president of the jury in this category, presented the award to the architect for the cycle of conferences ‘The end of the world’. Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, “a fundamental figure in absolute force in contemporary art,” as defined by the president of the jury, took the award for Painting and Sculpture from Francisco Morales, vice mayor of Lorca.
At the age of 21, Ginés Paredes, ‘Walls’, “turned into a true musical phenomenon”, as defined by the president of the jury for Pop, Rock and Urban Music, Jam Albarracín, became the youngest winner of the night, receiving the award given by Maribel Romero, Marketing Director of Estrella de Levante. With more experience in the musical field, Muerdo won the Other Music Award, presented by David Martínez, Councilor for Culture of the Cartagena City Council.
The writer Miguel Ángel Hernández highlighted “the power of language to say the unspeakable” by Raúl Quinto in ‘La Canción de NOF4’, for which the poet and novelist received the Literature award from Antonio Benito, Councilor for Education of the Murcia City Council .
Raúl García, president of the SOS Legado Humano foundation, took the stage to give Muriel Romero the recognition for Dance, while the Secretary General of Culture, Antonio Lorca, did the same with the stage director, set designer, producer and lighting designer Paco Azorín for a reading of ‘Tosca’, by Puccini, designed for the young viewer.
Salvi Vivancos and his collective memory recovery project received the Film Award from the mayor of Mula, Juan Jesús Moreno, while Eliseo García, mayor of Molina de Segura, presented the red heart to Fito Conesa in the category of Art of the New Media.
For a campaign “that throws a punch when you see it, with a poetic and personal message”, according to the president of the Comic and Illustration jury, Juan Álvarez, José David Morales won an award given by Inés Campillo, deputy mayor of Mazarrón.
Just arrived from London, Paula Cánovas del Vas received the recognition in the Fashion category from Salvador Huertas, manager of Audi Huertas Motor. The last of these twelve winners, the archeology professor José Miguel Noguera Celdrán, received the Heritage Award given by Carlos Egea, president of the Cajamurcia Foundation, for the monumental restoration of the Roman Forum in Cartagena and the creation of its museum.
After the AX Honorary Award was presented to Francisco Jarauta, the night was lit up with the voice of Maria Blaya and her brilliant staging to perform ‘Silencio’, the song that gives its name to the singer and producer’s debut album, which received the white heart that symbolizes the AX Patronage Award, endowed with 3,000 euros. With the experimental melodies of this young emerging artist, the first gala of some awards that intend to consolidate themselves as benchmarks of artistic excellence in the Region said goodbye.