Interview with Paulino Plata, culture director of Junta de Andalucía

INTERVIEW WITH PAULINO PLATA,
ANDALUSIAN GOVERNMENT'S MINISTER FOR CULTURE

“The Unesco’s declaration of flamenco as Cultural Heritage of Humanity obliges us to establish safeguarding measures and to assure its future development”

Fernando Onrubia/ Silvia Calado. Seville, November 2010
Translation: Joseph Kopec

Now that flamenco is Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Andalusia’s public administration tackles the duty of safeguarding it. The Andalusian Government's minister for Culture, Paulino Plata, is aware of that challenge but moreover seeks to combine it with a policy which makes flamenco “a real cultural industry without detriment to its artistic roots”. The role of the Flamenco Agency and the Andalusian Flamenco Center, the need to quantify the economic repercussion of this artform, the synergies between flamenco and tourism… are some of the subjects talked about by Plata, an enthusiast who got started at the festivals of Antequera and Ronda. If he has to mention an idol, he doesn’t hesitate: “The genius Camarón”.

Paulino Plata, Andalusian Government's minister for Culture, with Bibiana Aído, Ángeles Carrasco and Fosforito at the Flamenco's Agency headquarters

In the framework of your cultural project for Andalusia, what role does flamenco play?

“We try to put means at the disposal of flamenco so that it becomes a cultural industry without detriment to its artistic roots”

Flamenco has singular prominence in Andalusian culture. It’s one of Andalusia’s main marks of identity and the Statute of Autonomy establishes the safeguarding and promotion of this artform. Naturally, there are many other cultural icons, such as the heritage, literature, plastic arts and performing arts, all of them with enough recognizable works and personages. But flamenco travels its own way and in fact, it’s present in the cohesion of all the arts. This power, which spreads not just to the field of creation or interpretation, but also to the commercial, academic and social, now constitutes an element of economic development and of promotion within Andalusia and beyond. What we try to do from the Council is to put means at the disposal of the flamenco agents so that it becomes a real cultural industry without detriment to its artistic roots.

You’ve always upheld the values of management and commercialization in areas such as Tourism and Agriculture. Do you think emphasizing flamenco’s industrial values is a priority?

The artistic values have enjoyed marvelous health throughout the development and evolution of the jondo art in the last 200 years. Regarding the economic values in the cultural or artistic context, they’ve been split up traditionally. Now - and Europe is also moving in that direction - it’s a matter of grouping and highlighting its added value as a factor of development and economic improvement, because that means employment and progress. I’m fully convinced that this isn’t at all incompatible with the main thing, which is the artistic context; the creation, the talent, the genius, the emotion.

Highslide JS
Inauguration of the new Flamenco's Agency headquarters at the Murillos's House in Seville

In your politics, you’ve been defending concepts like management, dynamization, exporting... How can they be applied to flamenco? What economic potential do you think flamenco has?

“It’s a matter highlighting flamenco added value as a factor of development and economic improvement, because that means employment and progress”

There are already studies on that. The University of Cádiz and the Culture Council are working on a document about the economics of flamenco. It’s obvious that flamenco goes much further than a stage show: it’s a textile industry, musical, it’s design, it’s teaching. There’s an entire social network through the peñas, which generates economy besides maintaining the essential. It’s a matter of grouping all the branches for them to become stronger; that’s what management and dynamization consist of. That report will undoubtedly help us to move forward in its management, relying on its true actors, on the creators, performers, the existing cultural industry and the social network constituted by the peñas. With regards to exportation, the festivals, like Bienal de Sevilla, largely contribute to spreading our artform, but we don’t stop seeking other ways to disseminate it, like the one carried out through the Instituto Cervantes or the very inclusion of the jondo art in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, recently agreed upon by UNESCO.

What does its being declared Heritage of Humanity mean to flamenco?

“Flamenco goes much further than a stage show: it’s a textile industry, musical, it’s design, it’s teaching”

It was a matter of dignity and justice, it’s the recognition with the world’s most important seal of quality, the one awarded by the international cultural organization par excellence. On the other hand, it means getting on equal footing with the other two types of deep-roots music in the world, which are jazz and tango. Moreover, the declaration obliges the applicant -the Junta de Andalucía - to establish safeguarding measures; that’s to say, to assure its survival and future development.

Paulino Plata, Ángeles González-Sinde, José Antonio Griñán and Sara Baras, supporting the Flamenco Soy campaign at the Teatro Real de Madrid

Do you believe planning is needed to export flamenco?

We’re working along the lines of specific promotion. Meanwhile, added to the support of festivals and promotion through the Instituto Cervantes which I referred to earlier is the fact that in every tourist campaign by the Junta de Andalucía, which you mention in your question, flamenco is a very important attraction. We must add to it all the huge potential which it offers in the tasks of dissemination and commercialization.

From your knowledge of the potentials of Andalusian tourism, do you think that coordinated policies with the tourist sector are needed to make flamenco not just a “cliché” attraction, but rather a reason to visit Andalusia?

“The close association between culture, flamenco and tourism can only bring everyone benefits”

Flamenco is Andalusia’s best letter of introduction and UNESCO’s recognition will help for it to stop being considered a “cliché” attraction. Regarding coordination with the tourist sector, I don’t think that it’s desirable but rather indispensable to be more efficient; the close association between culture, flamenco and tourism can only bring everyone benefits, since they will be strengthened without losing an ounce of their sense because of it.

Flamenco Soy's campaign poster to support the candidacy of flamenco as a World Cultural Heritage

In your time, you were a pioneer in using platforms such as Flamenco Festival USA to promote Andalusia’s food and agriculture products abroad. Are those synergies between the region’s strategic sectors and flamenco being reinforced nowadays?

Every time something from Andalusia or from Spain goes abroad, it does so with everything that can dynamize the image of our land. Flamenco doesn’t have any problem with accompanying other productive or industrial sectors, because that synergy benefits both of them. Flamenco accompanies any sector without losing its identity because of it.

Do you consider it of interest to create seals of quality for flamenco, as Landaluz promoted in its day for food and agriculture production?

That’s a matter for specialists. In my opinion, flamenco doesn’t need quality seals. It’s our best ambassador and at the same time, it’s a distinguishing sign which identifies us as Andalusians abroad.

In times of crisis, artists cry out for protection. How is the Andalusian Flamenco Agency going to focus on this situation?

“We’ve set in motion several initiatives and tools which assure the promotion, spread and protection of flamenco”

UNESCO is the top organization in cultural protection at the international level and we believe that with the inclusion of flamenco on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, we will have the protection assured of our most genuine artform because it’s said organization which requires it of us. Once having achieved the recognition, we have the obligation to protect it; a commitment we acquired upon including the jondo art in the Statute of Autonomy as a cultural expression belonging to our Community. We’ve set in motion several initiatives and tools which assure the promotion, spread and protection of flamenco, like the digitalization of documentary archives, the declaration of those styles lesser known or in danger of extinction as BIC (Items of Cultural Interest) as well as aid to the different groups which are a part of the jondo art. These are a clear example of how we intervene in those two fields: that of conservation and dissemination, because they’re two spheres which we have to work in: that of flamenco as a cultural identity, and that of flamenco as a cultural industry.

To many entrepreneurs, artists and producers, it still isn’t clear how the Agency can support their initiatives. Could you explain what tools this institution offers to them?

Since 2008, the Andalusian Flamenco Agency has put at the disposal of the groups several aid packages which can be applied for, on the one hand, by flamenco’s professional network, and on the other hand by the associative network - peñas and cultural associations. Research is specifically sponsored by the Flamenco Observatory. The announcements are published in the Official Bulletin as of competitive participation. Moreover, we collaborate with jondo events within and beyond our borders; the big ones and the not-so-big ones, since the New York Festival is as important as that of La Yerbabuena. What’s more, we have series of our own, Flamenco Viene del Sur, in the eight Andalusian provinces; and Andalucía Flamenca, in Madrid, whose programs we open up to the reception of show proposals.

The record industry’s crisis has reduced flamenco albums in number and quality. Are there any immediate measures of support?

“The Andalusian Flamenco Center is the largest center of flamenco information in the world”

Not yet; from the Agency we are developing different lines of aid for different sectors and the record industry is one of the sectors which specific aid is foreseen for. We haven’t started up said program yet, so we maintain collaboration with the sector by means of the acquisition and later dissemination of discs.

With regards to research and training, what role is the Andalusian Flamenco Center going to play?

Murillo's House in Seville, Flamenco's Agency headquarters

The Andalusian Flamenco Center is the largest center of flamenco information in the world. Dependent on the Andalusian Flamenco Agency, it stores over 300,000 documentary archives at the service of researchers and enthusiasts. Our main goal, on the one hand, is to digitalize the documents we already have; and on the other, to acquire new archives by means of collaboration agreements like the one we’ve signed with Seville’s Bienal de Flamenco and the ones we are closing with the Mario Maya Foundation, with Festival de Jerez and with the Córdoba Guitar Festival. These archives are being digitalized - we currently have about 40% of the archives in digital format - and are put into the Flamenco Information Points (PIF), distributed to every Andalusian province at the disposal of users and researchers. We want to go further, and within the agreement we sign annually with the Instituto Cervantes, we will include the installment of the PIF at their headquarters. The Center’s archives includes a catalogue of its own exhibits at the disposal of institutions, associations and organizations who request them.

Moreover, the Andalusian Flamenco Center is the headquarters of different training activities, like the course 'Flamenco and Education' organized with the Jerez Faculty Center, and another seminar about new technologies in collaboration with the Business Development Support Centers, of the Economics, Innovation, Science and Company Council. The training activity is completed with a wide offer of exhibits and every month, the Pemartín Palace hosts an exhibit which displays plastic art related to the jondo art according to the vision of new as well as acclaimed artists.

How will the Junta de Andalucía support Jerez’s Flamenco City project?

“In the name of flamenco and of Andalusia, I have to thank Flamenco-world.com for its work in spreading flamenco”

From the very beginning, the Junta has committed itself to providing the Flamenco City with contents for the museum conceived in the project. To that end, a Museographic Commission has been created which the Culture Council Museum Bureau is in charge of.

How do you assess the work of spreading flamenco internationally which has been carried out on the Internet by online media like Flamenco-world.com?

It’s important, necessary, timely support, since information and communications technologies multiply the possibilities of offering information to millions of citizens all over the world. Specifically, in the name of flamenco and of Andalusia, I have to thank Flamenco-world.com for its work in spreading flamenco which it has been carrying out for years in the global village.

Melilla and Málaga are the geographic points which mark your biography. How did you live flamenco there? Who have been and are your favorite artists today?

I lived in my hometown for a very short time, a time when flamenco had little presence there, or at least, I didn’t know about it. In Ronda and Antequera I have lived flamenco more intensely. I remember the bill of the Ronda Flamenco Festival which was put together by my art teacher, Cristóbal, a magnificent person, and of course, the Antequera Festival, at the wonderful setting of Colegiata de Santa María, whose poster used to be made by Antequera-born artist Luis Martínez Salvador. As far as artists go, I could name outstanding guitarists, cantaores and bailaores who are active, but since the list is very long, I don’t want to forget anyone, so I’ll mention the genius Camarón.

Highslide JS Exhibition about La Niña de los Peines at the Flamenco's Agency headquarters in Seville