Whatever they do, the Cultivados are artists. They stand revealed by their enthusiasm for life. They are of both essence and substance. The Cultivados have a profound and unhurried pace. They live by their ethical commitment at both an individual and social level.
In this section, the Cultivados come to the fore. They tell us of their ways of cultivating the world through cookery, literature, painting, cinema, travelling, sculpture, philosophy, agriculture, poetry, photography...
Once upon a time there lived Manuel, the storyteller, not any old storyteller, oh no. Manuel was and is the best of storytellers because Manuel doesn’t choose any old story, oh no. Manuel only tells the very best stories… Shall I tell you again? Once upon a time there lived Manuel…
Enthusiasm and determination are the words that define our indefatigable friend
VIÁTICO
Aunque dicen que el último pijama
carece de bolsillos, por si acaso
te diré lo que llevo para el paso
del agua, hacia la Luz que me reclama:
los ojos de mis hijas; las estrellas;
mi música; la voz de la montaña,
y tu olor de salvaje rosa huraña,
y tu alma dulce, bella entre las bellas.
(Fernando Lanzas)
Felipe and his group “La Mala Reputación” in Seville.
When asked what he did for a living, Georges Brassens would always repy with a smile and say “Nothing. I do nothing”. Said by a man who didn’t stop working for one single minute during his life. I didn’t find Georges Brassens, he found me. The most important message from the life of Brassens which helps me cultivate myself every day is “Work on your life and don’t do anything else. Art will come by itself.”
Es para ti esta canción
Amigo que por compasión
Me diste algo de leña por-
que el frío en mi vida entró
Madera que me diste cuan-
do los santos del lugar,
la gente de buena intención,
Cerraban su puerta al amor
Fue algo de leña y nada más
Pero mi cuerpo calentó
Y sigue ardiendo en mi interior
Como un fuego eterno de paz
…
(Excerpt from Chanson pour L´Auverniat by Georges Brassens, translated by Felipe del Cuvillo)
“I cultivate cultivated friendships, people with dignity and poetry in their lives”
Eu sou Su Song
Há muito tempo atrás meu ancestral
De quem não guardo mágoa
Inventou o horário com seu relógio d’água.
Nunca perco a hora, pois vivo no trabalho
Apesar do relógio,
Presente da direção, por ter me dedicado
Há tempos ter parado.
Todo dia sem descanso, não tenh’ora pra parar
Estou sempre no horário
Na fábrica de relógios onde trabalho
Só preciso d’um bule de chá.
Mauricio Vieira
www.cronopios.com.br/site/poesia.asp?id=5079
Juan Carlos is the director of the Sadhana Centre in Seville
A maternidade
nada em mim é memória de antes
depois de você
desacostumada de mim mesma
tudo o que diz me soa estranho
e intrigada
eu faço garça entendê-lo
não é como se houvesse uma existência depois da sua
não é como se houvesse uma existência antes de você
você nasceu
eu nasci junto
e só agora me foi concedido envelhecer
eu não me ressinto
quando o tempo passa
é que o tempo passa
Pedro Mora at home: La Fábrica in Moratilla de los Meleros.
“La Cultivada brings to mind the fragrance of my childhood, a kitchen with white furniture and tea plates with olive oil, bread and sugar. Today when I recall that wondrous, perfumed image it is as a conscious act of love towards my mother.”
www.pedromora.es
“Just like the olive tree, I adore the sun and the warmth of true sentiments which lead us to flower both fully and constantly.”
www.victoriabermejo.com
A friend describes in words a photograph he has taken and which he cannot show me, and an image arises within me of which I make a drawing on paper.
The Cultivated painter.
Driving around a city, I catch sight of two young people talking while sitting opposite one another on a stone bench, with the gesture I have been looking for without success during the months I have been sketching around that idea. Two different moments in time to which, a posteriori, I can trace the birth of a painting. I paint the visions I imagine. I give concrete shape to what is nothing more than the flash of an idea in my head. The idea germinates, emerges into the light as does a tiny shoot breaking through its seed hull. An so I begin the process of cultivation which may last weeks, months or years until it grows and develops into an adult painting. I am to feed it with thoughts to complete it, with the choosing of the right materials, with decisions on which will be the hues of its palette, which elements are to compose it and which to dismiss,… and I must stain my hands with colour, like the farmer with the earth, colours which, as are ochres, are the earth itself. I will listen to the advice given by others who also cultivate painting, both living and dead, since as I was born of my parents, my ideas are born of my culture. I am to be constant with the attention I dedicate to my painting, and I must also know when to let it rest, just as we must let cultivated land lie fallow from time to time and respect the cycles of fertility marked by the seasons. And one day I will have before me an adult painting which will have evolved just like a tree. Perhaps its shade will offer coolness to the viewer, comforting and accompanying them on their journey. By cultivating that tree which is my painting, I will also have cultivated my care and consideration, patience, industriousness, exactitude, spontaneity and improvisation; I will have valued what the earth offers me when the light changes on its skin, and I will have learned to appreciate the art that so many before have cultivated. The cultivation of painting through the years will have cultivated me.
Laughter: our Destiny.
Tranquility and Freedom.
Name: Paul Cezanne
Place of Birth: Aix en Provence
Place and date of these confidences: 19th January 1866, on the second floor of 30 Rue Saint Louis, Paris. Day of 27th birthday.
~ Favourite colour: General harmony.
~ Favourite smell: The smell of fields.
~ Highest virtue: Friendship.
~ Favourite activity: To paint.
~ Greatest aspiration: Certainty.
~ Favourite food: Potatoes with olive oil.
~ A phrase with which you identify: “Lord, you have made me powerful and solitary. Let me sleep the sleep of the earth.” Alfred de Vigny.
www.slowcezanne.blogspot.com
