The La Farinera Plaque

After a Flourishing Collection of Articles, most of Them Published in the ‘Diari’ and Subsequently Gathered in a Booklet Edited by Bibliòfils De Tarragona, ‘Seven Articles and a Cat’, We Managed to Transfer the ‘Tarragona Tapestry’

In 2007, we managed to transfer the Tarragona Tapestry, by Joan Miró and Josep Royo, created in 1970, owned by the Red Cross of Tarragona, from the Museum of History to the Museum of Modern Art, with the invaluable collaboration of the then Vice President of the Provincial Council, Albert Vallvé, the director of the MAMT, Rosa Ricomà, and the director of the Museum of History, Lluís Balart.
All this had begun some time ago, when the journalist and theater critic Joan de Sagarra came to Tarragona to see two of my exhibitions. Leaving the Old Town Hall, Joan told me he was interested in visiting Casa Castellarnau, as he is a descendant of this noble lineage. I was delighted to accompany him. As soon as we entered Casa Castellarnau / Museum of the History of the City, I wished I could have disappeared. Before us, the Tarragona Tapestry, covered in dust and crushed behind a glass, with its sides exposed. Joan asked me what it was, and I explained to him that he shouldn’t think of commenting in any of his articles about his visit to Tarragona, and referring to the deplorable state of conservation of such an emblematic work, which bears the name of Tarragona inscribed in its DNA and which was a gift of gratitude from the artist to Dr. Orozco, who operated on his daughter after a serious accident.

The arrival of the Tapestry at the Museum of Modern Art, which met all the conditions for its conservation, was celebrated by everyone. Josep Royo, who had created it from some drawings and a canvas by the master, dedicated himself passionately to restoring its original splendor. Meanwhile, the MAMT, in collaboration with the Joan Miró Foundation, worked to organize an ambitious exhibition of tapestries and ‘sobreteixims’ created by Miró & Royo, at La Farinera in Tarragona. And I, with Josep Royo, was preparing a text for a book that was later co-published by the Provincial Council, the MAMT, and Viena Edicions, from the Tamarit collection: La Farinera de Tarragona, the loom of the world, with a prologue by Rosa Maria Malet, director of the Miró Foundation. This book brings together for the first time the complete cataloging of all the works created by the two masters.

On the day of the presentation, the then acting Councillor for Culture of the City Council, Begoña Floria, in her speech, committed to installing a commemorative plaque on the exterior wall of the building constructed on the site where La Farinera once stood, the old flour mill in Tarragona which, being disused, became the workspace for Miró & Royo, and for a team formed by advanced students of the Tapestry Workshop, which Josep directed at the former School of Art, today the Museum of Modern Art. A space from which magnificent works emerged that are now in collections worldwide, including the Tapestry of the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, that of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and the unfortunately destroyed Grand Tapestry of the World Trade Center in New York. Josep and I decided that the plaque should be something different from the usual and, therefore, we would create an original that spoke of what this prodigious space had been, to later cast it in bronze. I chose a magnificent piece of found wood, which I had stored like a treasure in my workshop. I wrote a brief text that I conveyed to those interested and, once approved, I carved it onto the wood. It cost much more than I thought; the old wood, a construction plank, had extremely hard and treacherous grains, but I finally managed it. On the left side, I prepared a small loom, perhaps the smallest in the world, so that Josep Royo could make some tapestry knots there, of the kind that distinguish him, and which led Miró to grant him his full trust, and the Ministry of Culture to award him the National Tapestry Prize. The plaque, with everyone’s approval, left my workshop for the foundry. A few days later, they sent the quote: two thousand euros. Casting a piece in bronze always entails problems, a plaque even more so. The casting price seemed more than reasonable to me. But a month passed, then two, and more, and receiving no response from the City Council, I asked for it back. After some time, when due to the ravages of the crisis my foundation project fell apart and I had to close the workshop, I donated the plaque, along with the collection of works of my authorship, to the Museum of Modern Art. Later, the Tarragona Art Center was renamed El Teler de Llum (The Loom of Light) and adopted the spirit of Miró & Royo’s La Farinera as its figurehead. Through its management, they asked me for access to the plaque, with the intention of having it cast and installed. And once again, this time from the MAMT, it traveled to the foundry, awaiting a new quote. Despite a few years having passed, the amount quoted for the casting was the same. And, once again, the plaque remained month after month at the foundry, and after a polite reminder, it rested for a few months in a City Council Culture office.

Royo and I decided not to charge anything, so that the blessed plaque could finally be cast. And nothing at all. Silence. After more than a year, the original La Farinera plaque returned to the Museum of Modern Art. I would appreciate it if, should they decide to cast it someday, they would let me know. I pray to Aphrodite that they do not put one of those funerary plaques that I have seen installed recently, replacing some of those I had designed. It’s better not to put anything there. In any case, La Farinera, which at the time received no attention from the city, despite being one of its most brilliant stages of international projection, will forever remain reflected as in a mirror in the magnificent photographs by Català-Roca, and in the hazy, fortunately written, memory of the History of Contemporary Art.