SPECIAL FEATURE. FLAMENCO 2000-2010, A DECADE OF ART FOR
HUMANITY. (and 5) THE EVENTS
(and 5) The events
Silvia Calado/ Flamenco-world.com, January 2011
Translation: Joseph Kopec
And after the artists, the festivals,
the albums and the shows, the flamenco balance of the decade
closes with a review of the events. They are those special
happenings which shook up the current state of affairs and
marked the genre’s future evolution. They aren’t
premieres or festivals, but rather facts which went beyond
the artistic, expanding towards the political, the economic,
the social and even the technological, finding their way
into the world’s cultural evolution and giving flamenco
more reasons to extend its global repercussions. And what
do you think is the best flamenco event of the decade?
5. THE EVENTS
At the beginning of the first decade in
the 21st century, flamenco became aware of its economic
dynamics for the first time. From Seville, in 2001 the City
Hall and Fibes organized the first World’s
Fair of Flamenco. The aim was to create a forum of encounter,
exchange and promotion between the companies taking part
in the commercial exchange of flamenco. Several editions
were held, but reasons like the lack of cohesion in the
sector brought the project to an end. Even so, it was of
use for the sector to recognize itself, for it to be recognized
by institutions and for its reality and its potential to
begin to be studied.
'Nuevos Medios Colección.
Diego Carrasco' front cover / World's Fair of Flamenco
(Photo Anahí Cármody) / World's Fair
of Flamenco Logo |
Although, as we already recalled in the
article about the albums, new record labels arose in the
early years of the decade, hardly any of them survived.
That is why it was a real event in 2002 when the record
label Nuevos Medios celebrated
its twentieth anniversary. And it did so, not with pomp
or parties, but rather with the release of a meticulous
series of anthological discs under the title ‘Nuevos
Medios Colección’, among them, ones by Diego
Carrasco, Rafael Riqueni, Jorge Pardo, Ketama, Pepe Habichuela
and Tomatito, among others; that’s to say, the main
renovators of the genre in the past two (or nearly three)
decades.
In 2004, there were two really remarkable pieces of news.
On the one hand, Paco
de Lucía received the Prince of Asturias Award for
the Arts, a prize which placed the flamenco musician
in the sphere of international artists such as Bob Dylan,
Woody Allen, Maya Plisetskaya and Norman Foster, among others.
To him, who dedicated it to Camarón, it was “a
sign that the official organizations value flamenco”.
And on the other hand, perhaps as proof of what the guitarist
was stating, around the same time the architectural contest
to build the Flamenco City in Jerez de la Frontera was won
by the proposal of Swiss team Herzog & De Meuron. The
first stone was laid down, construction came to a halt due
to budget constraints and, in the end, once the Ministry
of Culture became involved, it resumed throughout 2010.
The aim now is for it to be inaugurated in 2013, coinciding
with the celebration of the Year of Flamenco in the Cádiz-area
town.
Flamenco City in Jerez de la
Frontera, Herzog & De Meuron's proyect |
Stemming from those same lines of institutional
involvement in 2005 was the Andalusian Agency for the Development
of Flamenco, at the request of the Andalusian government.
Following an initial period of defining aims and competences,
it currently devotes itself to promoting and coordinating
the policies related to flamenco in Andalusia, acting in
areas such as preservation, study and dissemination. In
2010, coinciding with its headquarters being moved to the
Casa de Murillo in Seville, it played an active role in
the campaign in favor of flamenco as Heritage of Humanity.
But private enterprise also drove forward
ambitious projects. In 2006, in the old quarter of Seville,
veteran bailaora and choreographer Cristina Hoyos founded
the Flamenco Dancing Museum, the first permanent exhibition
hall dedicated to this artform. The museum –currently
for sale on a real estate website– opened its doors
with a temporary exhibit of drawings by Vicente Escudero,
which joined the permanent contents, displayed with a very
current museographic concept.
Andalusian Agency for the Development
of Flamenco. Headquarters in Seville |
Flamenco Dancing Museum |
Precisely that year, the neighboring city
of Córdoba clamored for its jondo nature with the
celebration of the Year
of Flamenco 2006. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary
of the National Flamenco Art Contest, numerous activities
were scheduled during the twelve months, with the epicenter
at the Gran Teatro, plus encounters, circuits around the
peñas in the province and galas at settings as special
as the Alcázar Gardens. From that impetus, the Ommiad
city’s commitment to the genre was sealed, starting
in 2008, with the annual celebration of the White Night
of Flamenco.
Flamenco-world.com's anniversary |
In
2007, Flamenco-world.com turned ten years old. The flamenco
website celebrated not just its first decade of life, but
also that of flamenco reaching the Internet. And the thing
is that the website was a pioneer in spreading information
about the genre on the Net and therefore, in the world,
with a unique concept consisting of a magazine and online
store. With that celebration, which took place at Tablao
Las Carboneras in Madrid with a recital by Encarna Anillo
and the presence of friends like Niña Pastori, María
Pagés, Carmen Linares and Jorge Pardo, among others,
the continuity was being celebrated of a project which closed
the decade by winning
the 2010 Andalusia Journalism Prize.
Then in the final stretch of the decade,
noteworthy is the 25th
anniversary of the premiere of ‘Carmen’ by Antonio
Gades, which was commemorated with the revival of the
show –one of the reasons for flamenco’s international
reactivation at the end of the 20th century– and with
a tour which made stops in Madrid, New York, London and
Seville. But the most important events would be crammed
into the last year. And the thing is that it was in 2010
when Paco de Lucía was named Doctor Honoris Causa
by Boston University’s Berklee College of Music, a
recognition which, of course, made flamenco extensive. But
Carlos Saura’s
‘Flamenco, flamenco’ was also premiered,
the sequel of the film which best depicted the genre. And
as icing on the cake, flamenco
was included in UNESCO’s representative list of Intangible
Cultural Heritage of Humanity, a real recognition, but
also a responsibility for those of us who love this artform.
'Flamenco, flamenco' by Carlos
Saura / The campaign ‘Flamenco Soy’ collected
signatures to support flamenco as Cultural Heritage
of Humanity / Paco de Lucía, Doctor Honoris
Causa by Berklee College of Music (Photo @ Arthur
Pollock) |
Complete
catalogue, listen to audio clips
Complete
catalogue, watch videos
