Free-D

Some words inadvertently become intensifiers. They appear to have an objective, descriptive value but they speak to our more emotive sensibilities. Words that have slipped into our collective sub- conscious like low-fat, terrorist, asylum seeker create their own prejudices and bend our opinions, even though we have no idea of the real measure of what’s being suggested. One such word is international. International conference… International businessman… International reputation… The Festival that has just begun in Salamanca is the International Festival of Arts of Castilla y León. I look at the website. It’s a strange affair.

Some quasi-Anime babe smears herself with blue paint which has in turn transmuted on her shoulder into the form of a blue frog. OK, I suppose the blue frog represents Salamanca, but God knows who the babe is. Then as I try to navigate around, the menu features attach themselves to strange amoeba like shapes – eggs or Apple Mac screens? I can’t be sure – and float around in a random dance. Finally I extract a programme and like last year, it features an impressive array of international artists… ah that word! International. The Festival boasts artists from 18 different countries. What does it tell us? The festival is going to be exotic, expensive, eccentric…

The organisers’ intentions are clear: to lift Salamanca and the whole region by creating an arts festival to rival or at least match that of Edinburgh, Avignon or Athens. It’s a tall order. Coincidentally both Edinburgh and Avignon began in the same year – way back in 1947 – in the wake of the Second World War with a spirit of renewal and a desperate need to repair the havoc wrought by conflict. Athens is the baby of the bunch, founded in 1955. Their vast experience and well-earned reputation apart, a major difference between these veterans and Salamanca’s festival, is the role that politics plays.

Avignon and Edinburgh

Certainly Avignon and Edinburgh began as initiatives by the artists themselves and as their reputations grew the local politicians were forced to increase their support. The events in Salamanca have come about through the splendid efforts of Fundación Siglo, which nevertheless remains the cultural arm of the Junta de Castilla y León. This may seem insignificant for the moment, but in the long term there are certain implications. The Festival is totally at the whim of budgets defined by the politicians (although Iberia and Peugeot are cited as sponsors their role is irrelevant in the long term).

The project that has been launched is admirably ambitious and extravagant, and I assume that the justification is that once its reputation has been earned, the money that it generates through additional sponsorship and increased tourism will pay its way. At minimum, this is an enormous gamble and also somewhat flawed: I’m not sure how much the grafting of an international festival on the rather conservative skin of Salamanca, will really attract that many new visitors.

The money may be better spent enhancing the presentation of the treasures that Salamanca already contains. I don’t want to be a doomsayer but I fear that within a couple of years the Junta will question such an enormous expense and pull the plug. I hope not because the principle at least and the prospect of Salamanca becoming increasingly “international” delights me.