Art and Nature in Lanzarote. The influence of César Manrique on identity construction and Island tourism. Dissertation to obtain the Doctor Title in Philosophy at the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz presented by Maria Giulia Pezzi at the Institute of European Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology First Reviewer: Ao-Univ.-Professor Dr. Helmut Eberhart Second Reviewer: P. D. Dr. Adelheid Schrutka-Rechtenstamm 2013 ÖNORM A 2662 – Äußere Gestaltung von Hochschulschriften INDEX INTRODUCTION 8 PART ONE: LANZAROTE 1. Lanzarote 22 1.1 Historical facts 23 1.2 Topography and Climate 25 1.2 Census 28 1.3 Economy 34 2. Tourist development and tourist profile 37 2.1 Development of tourism in the Canary Islands 37 2.1.1 Development of tourism in Lanzarote 41 2.1.1.1 PIOT – Plan Insular de Ordenación del Territorio 47 2.1.1.2 Lanzarote as UNESCO Biosphere Reserve 55 2.2 Tourism profile of Lanzarote 59 2.2.1 Sustainable tourism 59 2.2.2 Other relevant forms of tourism on the Island 63 2 Ecotourism 63 Leisure Tourism 64 Cultural tourism 65 2.3 General considerations about tourists in Lanzarote 66 3. César Manrique 72 3.1 Biography 72 3.1.1 Early Phase: “shepherd of wind and volcanoes” 72 3.1.2 1960’s-1980’s: Lanzarote as “obra turistica total” (total tourist 73 art-work) 3.1.3 1980’s: “Momento de parar”. Sustainability and activism 75 3.2 Works 76 3.2.1 The centers for Art, Culture and Tourism 76 1964 Cueva de los verdes 78 1966 Jameos del Agua 79 1968 Casa/Museo el Campesino 80 1970 Restaurant El Diablo (Parque de Timanfaya) 82 1973 Restaurant Mirador del Rio 84 1976 MIAC - „Museo internacional de Arte Contemporaneo“, 86 Castillo de San José, Arrecife 1990 Jardin de Cactus“ (1966) 87 3 3.3 Fundación César Manrique 88 PART TWO: ANTHROPOLOGY OF TOURISM 4. History of the discipline 94 4.1 Defining “tourism” 94 4.2 An Anthropological view on “tourism” 96 4.3 Host & Guest theory 98 5. Host Pole: Anthropology of tourism 101 5.1 Analysis of the tourist impact 101 5.1.1 Tourism as a “total social fact” 101 5.1.2 Modernization vs tradition 102 5.1.3 Changes in aesthetic criteria 104 5.1.4 Changes in gender, status and age relationships 105 5.1.5 Changes in ethical values 107 6. Guest Pole: Anthropology of tourists 109 6.1 Defining “tourists” 109 6.2 The tourist and the traveller 110 4 6.3 Bad tourists vs good tourists 112 6.4 Host/non host – guest/non guest 114 7. Tourists’ travel motivations 116 7.1 Psychological theory 116 7.2 Anthropological theories 117 7.2.1 Leisure theory 118 7.2.2 Experiential theory 120 7.2.3 Tourism as rite of passage 121 7.2.4 Travel as experience 124 7.2.5 The tourist career: different approaches 125 PART THREE: THE “LANZAROTE BRAND” AND THE “MANRIQUE TRADE-MARK” 8. Tourist imagery and the problem of authenticity 130 8.1 The tourist gaze 130 8.1.1 Postcards and travel pictures 132 8.1.2 Catalogues, travel guides and travel magazines 142 8.2 Souvenirs 146 8.3 Re-thinking authenticity 160 5 8.4 Branding places 165 8.4.1 The “Lanzarote brand” and the “Manrique trade-mark” 169 9. Resistance strategies 183 9.1 Back regions vs front regions 183 9.2 Protests and demonstrations 186 9.2.1 “Momento de parar” (“Time to stop”) 1985 187 9.2.2 “Lanzarote se está muriendo” (“Lanzarote is dying”) 1986 191 9.2.3 The “Playa de los Pocillos demonstration” in 1988 195 9.3 “No a las petroleras, sí a las renovables” 197 9.4 Corruption in Lanzarote 205 10. What future for Lanzarote? 209 CONCLUSIONS 218 BIBLIOGRAPHY 230 SOURCES 235 INTERNET SOURCES 238 PICTURES INDEX 244 TABLES INDEX 249 AKNOLEDGEMENTS 251 6 «A César Manrique, pastor de vientos y volcanes» «To César Manrique, shepherd of winds and volcanoes» Rafael Alberti, Tahíche, Lanzarote, 31.05.1979 7 INTRODUCTION I was still a teenager the first time I heard about Lanzarote. In the 1990s the Island wasn’t very popular as a holiday destination in Italy, but a family friend from England had just been there on vacation and once he returned he told us about what a wonderful place it was and that it felt like “having been on the Moon”. I remember having been fascinated by his stories and by the pictures he showed us, to the extent that I made a vow to visit Lanzarote myself as soon as a chance would come up. In 2005, after I got my Bachelor’s Degree in Media Sciences, I decided that the time had come, booked a flight to Lanzarote and finally visited the Island I had dreamt about so much. Months later I started a Master’s Degree in Anthropology and Ethnology and one of the first courses I attended was “Anthropology of tourism”. Silvia Barberani, my professor at the time, carried out a study on tourism in Kastellorizo, a Greek Island, and while reading her book and getting to know the subject better, I kept thinking that Lanzarote would make a marvellous subject of research. I have been lucky enough to be able to turn this intuition into reality and this work is the result of my research and field work, which took place between September 2011 and May 2012, but also of about ten years of readings, collection of information, trips to the Canary Islands and, more in general, a love and fascination for this place. Lanzarote is one of the seven Islands to form the Canary Islands Archipelago, which is one of Spain’s autonomous regions and is situated in the Atlantic Ocean. Lanzarote is the northernmost Island and its east coast faces Morocco, which is only approximately 150 km away. The origin of the Archipelago is volcanic, a fact that highly influenced not only its topography, but also its climate and its history. 8 Lanzarote was inhabited by a Stone-Age population, called Majos, untill 1402, when the French explorer Jean de Bethencourt landed on the Island for the first time, leading a military expedition to the Canaries. The conquest of the Island took two years, at the end of which Bethencourt recognized the King of Castile, Henry III, as King of Lanzarote, to thank him for the support given during the campaign. The Majos population was quickly decimated by war and diseases, and as of today no descendent is known to be alive. The most important historical event that has affected the Island, though, is considered to be the series of volcanic eruptions which took place in the 18th and 19th centuries and completely changed the outlook of the Island, creating the area of the Montaña del Fuego (Fire Mountain) in Timanfaya, for example, which was later turned into a national park, one of the most frequently visited tourist attractions, which was given the title of UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1993. These eruptions left the soil of Lanzarote covered with lava and ashes, leaving little room or possibilities for farming the land. This situation led the inhabitants to experiment new ways of farming and producing other goods, such as onions, potatoes, wine and barrilla plant. The vineyards of La Geria, for example, are still very popular for their original conformation and characteristic appearance. A series of unfavorable economic conjunctures and climatic changes caused drought and famine at the beginning of the 20th century, with the result that most of the population left the Island, emigrating mainly to South America. It was also clear that a renewal of the economy was necessary, and from the 1950s on Lanzarote started its transformation into a tourist destination, in the wake of what had been happening on other Canary Islands – i.e. Tenerife and Gran Canaria – since the 1930s. Tourism development on the Island, however, followed a path that was unusual for the times, and partly also for current times, since it was never left to develop “naturally” like in many other places, according to the needs of the tourist market. It was strictly regulated from the beginning, thanks to the visionary plan of the Lanzarote-born artist César Manrique (1919-1992), who was the first to understand that the unique 9 geological conformation and fragile environment of the Island could become its greater strength. He also decided to turn Lanzarote into his biggest artwork. César Manrique was an artist, painter, sculptor, architect and ecologist. Born in Lanzarote in 1919, he soon left the Island to attend an Art Academy in Madrid, where he also started building a solid reputation as a talented artist. In 1964 he decided to move to New York to gain new inspiration and to advertise his works overseas. He remained in the US for just a couple of years, but this trip had a great influence on his later works and outlook on life. First, coming from a small Island and from Franco’s Spain, he was highly impressed by the modernity and by the architecture of New York, though not always in a positive way, since he experienced for the first time the potential of modernization in changing the original character of a place. Second, he became acquainted with Pop Art and the work of Andy Warhol, with whom he had a chance to work. Pop Art was of great inspiration for him, especially because it gave him the idea of making art fruition democratic, but also because it aimed at the elevation of trivial/everyday life objects to art objects, potentially turning everything into an artwork.