The Facts of the Valencian Miracle

THE FACTS OF THE VALENCIAN MIRACLE 'PAPAUONK TABLE IT HAS TAKEN VALENCIANDESIGN TEN YEARS TO GET UP TO DATE. THANKSTO CONTINUOUS PROMOTION AND PUBLICIZING BY THE AUTONOMOUS GOVERNMENT, VALENCIANDESIGN AND INDUSTRY CAN TODAY APPROACH THE FOREIGN MARKETS CONFIDENTLY. 'LFERATURA" BOOKSHUF ELlSEU T. CLlMENT JOURNALIST FOR THE MAGAZINE "EL TEMPSn ndustry should not buy culture, tors range the length of the country two years earlier, exhaustively re- but be culture", said the ltalian from north to south: the ceramics of Al- viewed the design situation in Valencia. designer Ettore Sottsass on one cora, Vila-real and Castelló alternates It advocated the application of design occasion. Perhaps in the case of the with the toy sector in Ibi and the textile in the production of the País Valencia as País Valencia this statement fits the indus- sector in Alcoi; there are shoes in Elda, a competitive factor, so as to bring local trial situation of the last ten years more Novelda and Elx, and furniture in Valen- manufactures up to European standards than in any other geographical region. cia and Paterna. Faced with this unusual while still maintaining their own charac- Design, in the case of Valencia, far from industrial structure, design is therefore ter and spirit. The autonomous govern- developing naturally, following what we one of the fundamental instruments in ment's initiative -the publication of the might cal1 a "normal" course of growth the work the autonomous government "Zero Report" and its support for de- and maturation, has been the obiect of has been carrying out for ten years to sign as a revitalizing factor- came on a carefully calculated political opera- relaunch industry. top of the birth of the Valencian Small tion. The autonomous government has and Medium-sized Business lnstitute staked a lot on this field so as to acti- 1984- 1994: ten years of progress. (IMPIVAI. vate an industry rich .in tradition and va- In the annals of the Valencian economy, While since 1978 the timid attempts to riety but until now not very competitive 1984 represents the starting point for a give a boost to Valencian industry had on foreign markets. What Joan Lerma, programme to bring cohesion and or- come from an lnstitute for Industrial Pro- President of the Generalitat Valenciana, der and, especially, to renew the Valen- motion which depended on the Cham- once called the "Valencian miracle" is cian industrial fabric. In 1985, the "Zero ber of Commerce, after 1984 the De- today, in 1994, a reality. Report", signed by a group of design- partment of Industry, Trade and Tourism It's true that the País Valencia has an ers headed by José Descalzo and akin promoted and publicized design, established and well consolidated in- to the "White paper on design" pub- amongst other things, through this new dustrial structure. The production sec- lished by the Generalitat de Catalunya body. At the moment of its creation, the lnstitute was faced with a choice: the promoted a design competition at the ing in the field of Valencian design that modernization of the industrial fabric same time as it strategically reinforced could be called a comprehensive label, could either come about through the the Furniture Fair in existence since nothing to hold it together and give it creation of large companies with public 1963. And in 1992 the investment in the cohesion it needs if we are to speak money or by stimulating the competi- research by the four universities of a definite style. After ten years of tiveness of the Small and Medium-sized reached the sum of 1,O1 7 million pesetas. hard work, the Valencian mosaic has Companies, an option which has un- In 1985, the IMPIVA, in its commitment still not taken shape. doubtedly been the more fruitful. to modernization, launched the "Valen- On the other hand, and especially since Alongside the technological up-grading cia Innovació" prizes for business, in the beginning of the nineties, there has of the small and medium-sized compa- which industrial design plays an impor- been a definite professionalization of nies, the IMPIVA favoured the creation tant part. Valencian designers, which has led to in 1985 of the Association of Professio- the abandonment of experimental crea- nal Designers of Valencia IADPV) so as The Valencian Mosaic tion and an increase of individuation. to have a valid and plural interlocutor. Design in the País Valencid can, at During the last years of the Franco re- The ADPV, now renamed the Designers times, be a delicate subject. The lack of gime and much of the eighties, Valencian Association of the Valencian Community consistent models or of written work by design took on a group morphology. In (ADCV), is directed by the veteran Na- designers to bring harmony to the field 1972, the group Caps i Mans appeared cho Lavernia -a member of the former and bind it together in a more or less in Alacant, formed by Juan José Belda, La Nave group- and has 145 profes- solid, more or less stable movement is Eduardo Albors, Carlos Albert and Jor- sional members. In view of this general evident in the present fragmentary sit- ge Luna, and a year later the emblem- situation, the lnternational Trade Fair uation. Apart from institutional mea- atic Nuc saw the light of day, a partner- (FMI) and the four Valencian universities sures to renew Valencian industry and ship of four of the most representative . could hardly fail to support it. The FMI make it fully competitive, there is noth- Valencian designers today in terms of 'THE TOMR OF ..." their work and continuity: Daniel Nebot, zález. The importance of La Nave lay in partnerships of the previous decade, Luis Adelantado, Vicent Martinez and a number of aspects. For one thing, leaving a mosaic on the drawing board Lola Castelló. there was its mixed nature, covering not which has not yet taken shape even The IPl's work of promoting and publi- only industrial design but also providing today, but from which certain constants cizing design from 1978 on started to the leading graphic work of the moment can be extrapolated. The designers, give results at the beginning of the (for example, Daniel Nebot's graphics); carried along by the industrial break- eighties. 1984 is therefore the break- for another, its size (it managed to through of the last decade, haven't lost through point for this incipient field. Apart bring together up to 11 designers) their bearings before the "titanic task" from the creation of the IMPIVA, the made La Nave the only solidly estab- -as the President of the Generalitat Triseño group emerged, a trio made up lished "para-institutional" group of the Valenciana Joan Lerma calls it- of of Gemma Furió, Anna Gutiérrez and eighties (apart from the ACDV). the last ten years. On the contrary, Gabriel Folqués, as well as the emblem- However, the pace of the industrial re- they have successfully combined cre- atic group La Nave. La Nave was until newal carried out by the IMPIVA left no ative genius with saleability in designs 1991, the year it broke up, a point of room for this "promiscuous" type of which in the case of the furniture are reference -a landmark if you like- for partnership, undoubtedly an experi- warm, sinuous and, sometimes, organic young people working in industrial or ment heavily influenced by postmodern (see Lola Castelló's "Papallona" ta- graphic design in Valencia. A result of frivolity. Growth was the prime obiec- ble), or functional and maiestic in the the merger of Caps i Mans and the tive; competitiveness, a version; and de- case of Vicent Martinez's creations and young Enebecé -set up in 1981 by Lo- sign, a means. lndividualization pre- his "Literatura" bookcase, of which renzo Company, Daniel Nebot and vailed more and more over group work more than 15,000 have been sold al1 Paco Bascuñan-, La Nave also included as professionalizationand specialization over the world, mainly executed in a the professionals Carlos Bento, Sandra increased. This is why the nineties saw material with a centuries-old tradition: Figuerola, Marisa Gallén and Luis Gon- the break-up of al1 the professional wood. .

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