He shares it with Enzo Trepiccione, an Italian artist with a partisan soul.
The councilor of Vox in Elda, José Francisco Mateos, does not want to be insensitive or indifferent to the drama of theimmigration, which is turning the Mediterranean into a cemetery for those seeking a better life in Europe.
Mateos, flaunting his creative and personal freedom beyond his political dimension, has decided to express his social rejection through a pictorial exhibition that he presents with the Italian artist Enzo Trepiccione. Aexpositionof abstract plastic arts, not to use, with the name «Exodus», which opens at eight o’clock in the afternoon next Friday at the Elda Footwear Museum. Videos will be shown with stories of the evolution of the African continent and a performance that will revolve around the poem “Los angeles del mar”, by Antonio Porpetta.
“The angels of the sea”
«The angels of the sea, when night falls, / gently drag the drowned / to friendly beaches, / and there they clean their bodies of algae and jellyfish / and comb their hair carefully / so that they do not seem so dead / and their mothers , when you see them, / don’t think about death », says the first verse of the poet Elda.
Clearlycontrastwith the position that Abascal’s party maintains on theillegal immigration, the Elder councilor wants to denounce, through his paintings, “the dramatic theme that we live in the Mare Nostrum, an insurmountable border for many people who cannot reach the coast in search of a better destination.” Mateos and his friend Trepiccione, an artist with the soul of a partisan, transmit with their proposal a subliminal message to sensitize society about a tragedy that is experienced on a daily basis. A message of humanity embodied in the life jackets and blankets with which Red Cross volunteers receive immigrants arriving in Spain after an uncertain journey of several days and long nights. Hence the black color scheme that predominates in the exhibition. Sober tones that only breaks the brightly colored mural made by three girls of 8 and 5 years and 20 months. “A work in which the hope and innocence of the youngest prevail in order to alleviate the drama of immigration,” the authors highlight.
Controversy
Mateos does not want to enterpolitical controversiesfor defending a position so far removed from the Vox postulates. Here we are Enzo and I opening our hearts to a serious problem. At the age of 68, already retired and without being a professional in politics, I do not renounce my freedom and I am no longer giving my life for any reason. But neither do I want my artistic proposal to be understood as a provocation or a challenge to my party because it neither is nor pretends to be. I am not a fundamentalist of anything, it is not easy to locate nor do I believe that there is any politician in this country who, sincerely, agrees with everything that their executives advocate “, the only mayor of Vox in Elda sincerely gives an example:” there are many militants of the Socialist Party who are outraged at their leader Pedro Sánchez for having agreed to a government that has opened the doors to the independentistas and has washed the face of the terrorists ».
He insists on putting aside his political status although his partner in “Exodus”, the creator and restorer Enzo Trepiccione, is much clearer. “Artists should not speak but transmit emotions but art does not build walls and, unfortunately, there are already too many walls in our society,” he points out, recalling the reflection of the philosopher Pasolini when he warns that there will be no peace in the world as long as there is only one man who tries to subdue another man. “The theme of theimmigrationIt touches me a lot. I have seen many people in Italy asking and sleeping on the street. But I have great hope in the new generations. We must educate the little ones in the values of freedom, equality, solidarity and tolerance because with them everything can change in the future, “he trusts.
The opening of the exhibition will feature the participation of three immigrants from the Red Cross reception center in Elda. They will relate their experiences and interact with the public. “Even if someone wants to empathize with the other, they can put a blanket over them to experience the fear that refugees have when they are rescued after risking their lives in the Mediterranean,” explain two artists united by a friendship that has doubled their political differences.
But they are not alone. The exhibition includes the Santa Pola Museum of the Sea, the Elda Red Cross and the Footwear Museum. Its director, Loles Esteve, regretted yesterday that «we have become used to the fact that boats continue to arrive on our coasts. It is something that should not be happening and what is reflected in “Exodus” are stories of courage of people who leave thelifetimeon the road chasing a dream.
«And in the longest instant / they saw how their lives moved away, sank, / in the silent trembling of the waters, / and with their lives their memory went, / and in their memory everything they loved / or could love, and his pain was great … », sing the verses of« The angels of the sea ».
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