Sunday, February 3, 2019 – The weather has turned
cool, partly cloudy and very windy the last few days, although, being Valencia,
there is always some sun too. Daytime highs have been in the low- to mid-teens.
One of the weather sites we consult talks about wind “disruptions,” or
sometimes warns of a “coastal disruption,” whatever that is.
The winds are gusty, like the Mistral in France. They
remind me of that Joni Mitchell song. “The wind came in from Africa/Last night
I couldn’t sleep...” We haven’t been
sleeping well either. When you’re out walking, you’re never sure where you’re
going to be hit by the wind. Sometimes you seem protected by buildings, then you
turn a corner and you’re suddenly out of the sun and walking into a gale-force
wind, freezing.
You’d think we’d be very protected here at the back of
the apartment, where we spend most of our time. The great room, a kitchen-dining-sitting
room with wall-to-wall patio windows looks on a terrace which is tucked in
the corner on the inside of our block. It's surrounded by buildings. But as I write this, I’m interrupted
every few minutes by a great clattering of the ropes and blinds on the terrace as
the wind suddenly whirls up. A couple of nights ago, it blew one of the
folding doors slightly open.
A black shirt hanging on a line across the way was
waving its arms like a crazy dancer a few minutes ago. That shirt, I now
notice, is no longer hanging out. It may have blown away. The ground at the
bottom of our air shaft and the tin roof below our terrace are littered with
undies and socks and abandoned clothes pegs.
We did get out for a walk on Thursday afternoon after
I posted last. It was still quite mild and sunny that day. We went through
Ruzafa and down Gran Via del Marqués del Túria to the river, where we did a
mini tour of bridges. We started by crossing the Pont del Mar, one of the oldest,
a pedestrian-only bridge that always seems sunny.
I noticed for the first time that one of the two
statues on this bridge, which I had thought were both of bishops, is actually a
depiction of the Queen of Heaven. I think it’s the same incarnation as the one
in the MuVIM exhibit we saw a few days ago, the Virgin (or Mother or Madonna) of
the Dispossessed or Homeless. She’s a patron of the city. The homeless are
gathered around her, clinging to her robes for protection. We do see homeless
here in Valencia. One guy I noticed the other day had a sign that read, ‘I live
in the street.’
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| Pont del Mar: Madonna of the Homeless? |
We walked along the other side of the river to the next bridge, the Bridge of Flowers. It’s a modern two-laner with banks of potted flowers from
one end to the other on each side and wooden-decked walkways with benches. In past years, the floral displays have looked a little ragged,
but they’ve obviously spent more money on flowers and maintenance this year. It
looks very lush and densely packed.
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| Bridge of Flowers |
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| Bridge of Flowers |
Back on the city side, we went down into the riverbed park
and walked along to the next bridge, the Pont de l'Exposició. We went back up on
the far side, then crossed the bridge to the city. This one was designed by Santiago
Calatrava, the Valencia-born but internationally famous architect responsible for much of Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences. He also designed Brookfield
Place (formerly BCE Place) in Toronto, where the Hockey Hall of Fame is.
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| Pont de l'Exposició |
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| Pont de l'Exposició |
The bridge is also known as the Puente de la Peineta.
A peineta is a decorative comb with a tiara that Spanish lades wore
traditionally with their mantillas. The nickname is a reference to the ribbed
arch on top of the bridge – which does look a bit like a peineta.
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| Pont de l'Exposició |
The next day, Friday, I went for a run in the morning.
I rode a bike down Peris y Valero to the Turia, jogged along it as far as IVAM,
then grabbed a bike and cycled back along Guillem de Castro – over 7 kilometers
altogether but not even 4 running.
Later in the morning we walked to the University of
Valencia’s La Nau Cultural Centre. It’s a lovely old building (1497) in the
heart of the city. Today it’s mostly used for art exhibits, public lectures and
music. It has a very nice columned cloister.
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| La Nau Cultural Centre, University of Valencia |
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| La Nau Cultural Centre, University of Valencia |
We had come for the art exhibits, of which there are
currently three. We looked at two of them. The first, “From Yesterday to Today:250 years of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos,” juxtaposed some of
the historic works from the Valencian art academy’s collection – mostly mediocre
18th century paintings – with work by current academicians. The modern stuff was
definitely more compelling. There was some interesting photography, including
the lead image for the show, a very nice large-scale photo by Joaquín Bérchez
Gómez of the Palacio de la Minería in Mexico city. It’s entitled “Eurydice
descends definitively to the world of the dead.”
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| Joaquín Bérchez Gómez: "Eurydice descends definitively to the world of the dead" |
The other show celebrated female illustrators.
Illustration is taken much more seriously in the Spanish art world than it is
in North America. Unfortunately, the commentary in all the exhibits at this
venue, was in Valencian and Spanish only, so most of the context of the show
was lost on us. The work itself didn’t seem good enough to my eye to warrant
the serious attention. Some of it was interesting and edgy, but a lot of it
seemed to be just workmanlike commercial art.
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| Paula Sanz Caballero |
The third exhbit we’ll go back for another time. It
celebrates the 70th anniversary of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. It uses the results of a 2005 Amnesty International project in which Spanish
artists created illustrations for each of the declaration’s 30 articles. The
results were made into a book in 2005. They were also used to create the posters
featured in this show.
We did go out for another walk later in the day, after
a rare afternoon game of Scrabble. We walked up to Central Park, thinking we
might find a protected place to sit in the sun and read for a bit. It wasn’t to
be. There was no place in the park it wasn’t windy and too cool for sitting. It’s
worth pointing out, though, that this weather doesn’t stop the Valencians
sitting out at the cafes over a beer or glass of wine, even if there’s no sun
or gas heater. They just bundle up. We went home.
On Saturday, we had a long Skype with Caitlin, then
set out about 3 o’clock for IVAM, the modern art museum. We biked from a few blocks from our flat to the museum, most of it along the Xativa-Guillem de Castro bikeway.
Entry is free at IVAM from 3 to 7 on Saturdays. We’ve been chipping away at the current exhibits, doing one each time we visit. This time we looked at “Julio González’s constellations: Between Representation and abstraction.” Barcelona-born González, an early 20th century abstract sculptor who worked mostly in metal, is IVAM’s great specialty. The museum owns a lot of his art and displays it often. This show has been on since 2017. Another is coming up later in the year. We saw one about his daughter, also a celebrated artist, the last time we were here.
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| IVAM: Julio González |
The work on display in this show, as the title
suggests, shows the overlap between the representational and abstract in González’s
work. Some of it is almost impressionist – a piece of flat steel cleverly curled
at the edges and with cutouts that somehow powerfully evokes a human face. But
most of the work was full-on abstract. He was heavily influenced by cubism.
Karen surprised herself and me again by liking some of it. I’ve always liked
modern sculpture. I haven’t been terribly fussy about any of the stuff by this
guy I’ve seen before, but there were some fun pieces in this show.
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| IVAM: Julio González, Cactus Man |
We walked back through Carmén and, of course, found more to photograph.
Today was another cool, windy – but sunny – day. We
were just about to go out for a walk into the centre to check out the “special”
market at Plaza Redonda when Caitlin and Louis Skyped, so we spent 40 minutes
or so chatting and watching our grandson do his tricks. Then we went for our walk.
The market at Plaza Redonda was a bust, just cheesy manufactured products for
the most part. And the flea market at the nearby Central Market was what it
always is: junky clothes, toys and knickknacks.
At another little square in behind La Lonja de la Seda (the medieval silk exchange) people were dancing to recordings of vintage jazz. We walked along beside La Lonja and I added to my collection of shots of its brilliant gargoyles. Some of them, I have learned (from Wikipedia – where else?) may not actually be gargoyles, strictly speaking. Gargoyles, from a word meaning throat, were architectural features for draining water away from the stone fronts of buildings. These don't look like they're hooked up to any water removal system.
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| La Lonja de la Seda |
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| La Lonja de la Seda |
The square across from city hall was set up for
another fair or market of some kind. It appeared to be purveyors of
products related to the region’s natural parks, of which Valencia has a few in
its hinterlands. Most of the booths were selling food from these areas. The place was
jammed – Spaniards do love to gather in crowds, especially if there's food involved. You couldn’t get near many of the booths. Some looked like they might have been giving out free samples.
Back in Ruzafa, we discovered another “special”
market. This one was the best of the bunch by a consideable margin. Stalls were
set up on four or five blocks near the Ruzafa market. They were selling
artisanal cheese, honey, olives, processed meats and quite nice crafts and
jewelry. We’re not sure if it’s a one-of or a regular Sunday thing.
It also appeared to be the saint day at the local
church. They had set up an effigy of the saint outside and people were lining
up to touch it. (No, we din’t line up.) There
was also something going on at a couple of the local Fallas brotherhoods. At
one down a street from the market, a small crowd had gathered. There were
people dressed up in Fallas costumes and food was being prepared on the street.
Walking home, we passed the headquarters of another Fallas brotherhood were
they were preparing food. (This is one of the things the brotherhoods do during
the big Fallas festival in March, cook over open fires on the street, usually
paella.) We’re wondering if this is some important day in the pre-Fallas calendar.
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