Fer L'aleta, El Museu Casteller De Catalunya a Valls I El Procés De
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Hold up your hand, the Catalan Human Tower Museum in Valls and the heritage process of the castellers RESEARCH 323 Hold up your hand, the Catalan Human Tower Museum in Valls and the heritage process of the castellers Introduction human towers, and become a stable Alexandre beacon of this intangible practice. Rebollo Sánchez arta Casals, The hitherto unsuccessful idea for a Holds a degree in the wife of the casteller museum originally surfaced history from Rovira i Virgili University and famous cellist half a century ago, making it necessary a Master’s in Cultural Pau Casals, to look at the activity’s chronological Heritage Management justified the evolution, the actors involved, and the and Museum Studies from the University of Barcelona. He has worked as a passion her formal changes that have been made. curator in the Conca de Barberà county husband from El Vendrell had for the However, there is also the question of museum and has collaborated with the world of the casteller, the human tower how this intangible heritage can be dis- museography company, Molècula, the M Museum of Rural Life, and the Catalan builders, by saying that, for him, they played in a museographic form, and Human Tower Museum in Valls. were the soul of the nation. Indeed, the challenges posed by the manage- over the past half century castells have ment of such heritage. become, even more so, an ineffable the museum’s own history to how this symbol of Catalan identity and cul- Likewise, the decision to place the entity is seen by member of the Valls ture, breaking out from the Camp de museum in the city of Valls is a community, as well as what its arrival Tarragona and Penedès area, spread- response to the semiotic characteris- in the old quarter of the city will mean. ing throughout Catalonia, and even tic of the castells, but within the city beyond. This popularisation of tower the fact that the old quarter has been The Human Tower Builder building has led to a huge increase in designated as its home, opens up a new Museum, more than half a the number of groups practising the topic of debate. The area is partially century of projects pastime as well as diades – the special depopulated and has visible structural The Museu Casteller is somewhat of days where the groups come together degradation, but efforts are being made a paradox, since despite not being up to build castells. This has happened in to remedy this situation, including the and running it has almost sixty years parallel to the process of granting the siting of the Museu Casteller. It will of history. practice heritage status, something that be interesting, then, to see whether or was particularly supported by govern- not urban regeneration or remodel- By going through local periodicals such mental bodies and the community of ling is possible through the creation of as Juventud, Cultura, La Crònica de castellers, and which reached a peak cultural spaces. This is an act techni- l’Alt Camp (digitised by the Alt Camp in 2010, when human towers were cally known as gentrification and has Regional Archive and available online) included in UNESCO’s Representa- recently been undertaken by several, and newspapers such as El Vallenc, as tive List of Intangible Cultural Heritage relatively nearby, cities, like Paris, Bar- well as other national publications such of Humanity. As part of the dynamic of celona, Bilbao and Santander. as Destino and La Vanguàrdia, you can assessing the heritage value of castells, construct an accurate timeline of the the creation of a museum or cultural In short, it involves laying on the table relationship between Valls and the institution to become a permanent the network of cultural, social, urban Museu Casteller. emblem of the tradition has featured and cultural processes in Valls that is prominently: the Museu Casteller de being woven around the Museu Castel- The idea of building a museum cen- Catalunya, based in the town of Valls. ler de Catalunya as a focus point, from tre dedicated to human towers, and This work is devoted to the new cen- Keywords: Intangible heritage, museums, human towers, castells, gentrification tre, soon to be added to Catalonia’s Paraules clau: patrimoni immaterial, museus, castells, gentrificació museum map, which should focus the heritage activity surrounding these Palabras clave: patrimonio inmaterial, museos, castells, gentrificación 324 RESEARCH Revista d’Etnologia de Catalunya December 2017 Núm. 42 The new square created inside the Museu Casteller (May 2017). ALEX REBOLLO more specifically the Xiquets de Valls Català Roca must be considered one of esting to see how this exhibition was group, was first mentioned in print in the project’s main supporters. just the first museographic act relating November 1958, when the local maga- to the world of the castellers, not only zine Semanario Juventud de Valls ran a Although the display room for the in Valls but throughout Catalonia. small article entitled “Un Museo de los Xiquets de Valls group never came Four years later, in 1968, the city of Xiquets de Valls”, explaining the desire about, it did give rise to the February Tarragona picked up the baton at the to reserve a room in one of the town’s 1964 exhibition entitled “Vida e historia Santa Tecla festival, with a new human public buildings as a place to exhibit de los Xiquets de Valls y de los castells tower exhibition at Casa Castellarnau. photographs, trophies, souvenirs, and en general”, the life and history of the In this case, the casteller groups of Valls, other objects related to castells. The ini- Xiquets de Valls and of human towers in El Vendrell, Vilafranca del Penedès, and tiative was lauded from the pages of the general, set up specifically to raise funds L’Arboç all participated, as well as those magazine Destino, in January 1959, by for the monument to the Xiquets de from Tarragona itself. It was a remark- the photographer from Valls, Pere Cat- Valls that the county town of Alt Camp able achievement as it broke away from alà Roca. Indeed, as of that moment, wanted to build. It is, however, inter- the local character of the earlier exhibi- Lately, castells, or human towers, have En paral·lel a la patrimonialització dels Últimamente se ha producido un proce- been strengthened as a symbol of the castells, darrerament s’ha esdevingut un so de afirmación y patrimonialización de Catalan identity in parallel to them being procés de consolidació d’aquests com a los castells como símbolo de la identidad raised to heritage status, attaining the símbol de la identitat catalana, els quals catalana. Estos han obtenido los máxi- highest official distinction as Intangible han assolit els màxims distintius oficials mos distintivos oficiales y han sido de- Cultural Heritage of Humanity as rec- i han estat declarats Patrimoni Cultural clarados Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial ognised by UNESCO. Because of this, Immaterial de la Humanitat per la UNES- de la Humanidad por la UNESCO. Por there is a need for a central base where CO. Per això els cal una seu estable on eso necesitan una sede estable donde this pastime can be permanently exhib- mostrar-ne la pràctica permanentment: mostrar su práctica: el Museo Casteller ited: the Museu Casteller de Catalunya, el Museu Casteller de Catalunya de de Cataluña de Valls. El artículo repasa in Valls. The article reviews the history of Valls. L’article repassa la trajectòria del la trayectoria del museo (ideado hace the museum (conceived more than half a museu (ideat fa més de mig segle) i la más de medio siglo) y su inclusión en century ago) as well as its inclusion in the seva inclusió en el procés de patrimonia- el proceso de patrimonialización de los heritage status process of castells and lització dels castells, així com el vessant castells, así como la vertiente de regene- the urban regeneration involved in it be- de regeneració urbanística que suposa ración urbana que supone ubicarlo en el ing situated in the old quarter in Valls. ubicar-lo al Barri Antic de Valls. Barrio Antiguo de Valls. Hold up your hand, the Catalan Human Tower Museum in Valls and the heritage process of the castellers RESEARCH 325 tion in Valls, and took strides towards setting, proposed for installation, by However, the end of the century was a universality that would become the the groups in Valls. (Department of also tainted by disagreements about key to the project. The report on the Culture, 1984: 94) the location of the museum: while the exhibition in the Diario Español was city council stood firmly behind Ca written by a journalist from Tarragona, As a result, the Catalan Government, Segarra, the Catalan Government’s Lluís Mezquida (under the pseudonym through the Museum Service, inter- Ministry of Culture was looking for of Petrofilo) who, seeing the success, vened with the intention of revitalising other options, highlighting the short- advocated for the creation of a folk the project. Therefore, in 1984, Daniel comings of the building in Plaça del museum in Tarragona – without doubt Ventura Solé, a painter from Valls, was Blat. At the start of the new century, the predecessor of the current Casa de appointed director and a large exhibi- alternative proposals arose, among la Festa – where the castellers had their tion on the museum was held in the which was a suggestion to use the old own space. old Sant Roc Hospital. The display was military barracks that was then being accompanied by the official presenta- occupied the Narcís Oller secondary Years later, in 1976, in the context of tion ceremony for the museum pro- school.