“It was just a white cylinder, I don't know if that's heritage. Some say that it is ”, Okuda (Óscar San Miguel, 39) thus solves the cultural controversy of the summer, that of the touristification of the Ajo lighthouse , in the eastern part of Cantabria. A month ago Miguel Ángel Revilla, president of the community, announced that the Cantabrian artist would decorate this 1930 construction in his own way and more than 70 meters high, recognized as an element of the Cantabrian industrial heritage. "I don't know how many colors we will use, a hundred and something," says Okuda by phone, during a day in which he is dedicated to answering calls from the media on site.
The costume of colors that the Cantabrian artist will apply to the lighthouse will serve, says Revilla, to recover the environment in which it is found, where there are "two cows grazing in a grass burned by the saltpeter", he explained on the day of the presentation of the "cylinder Decorated. "It is as if the Louvre were to dress the Venus de Milo with a ready-to-wear" , summarizes Santiago Sánchez Beitia, professor of Architecture at the University of the Basque Country (UPV) and responsible for cataloging the 191 lighthouses that exist in Spain.
Only eight of these lighthouses are protected as Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), but the “heritage value” of all of them is recognized by the Ministry of Culture, which in 2017 commissioned Sánchez Beitia with the catalog of protected lighthouses. The expert explains that the lighthouse contains all the elements that constitute an Industrial Property, in which architecture, technology (the lighting system) and the worker participate. That is to say, it is a good that brings together material qualities (constructive values) and immaterial (the office of lighthouse keeper).
“What is happening in Ajo is a real nonsense, an outrage, a shit. They try to value an element that already has it ”, he explains. For him, the lighthouses are a "signaling factory". These assets "need to be asked the right questions to discover the intrinsic wisdom of the building, the place and its own being," says the Ministry of Culture in the National Plan for Industrial Heritage. Instead, a bad question can cause "loss of working memory, narrative vitality, and physical specificity."
For the groups that defend the heritage of Cantabria, this Okuda project would be a bad question: it attacks the material and immaterial dimension of the lighthouse because it erases the social, political, economic and cultural contents with which it is associated. And Izquierda Unida has registered with the city council an instance in which it claims the stoppage of the works for being "a violation of the urban regulation that protects the patrimonial value of the building." In addition, they ensure that the work has not received a municipal license and has the majority rejection of the population.
The color white, Revilla believes, may "like someone", but he does not see "any attraction". "For color tastes", settled the debate on the protection of the lighthouse claimed by groups such as Cantabria No Se Vende (CNSV). Three days, thanks to the help of three people who began painting on Monday, is how long it has taken to hide the white under the designs and the palette of colors typical of the Santander. The project, they say from the artist's team, will cost 40,000 euros. A money that, as the Cantabrian president has clarified, is destined to turn the lighthouse into a “tourist asset”.
"Such policies will contribute to touristification and the destruction of the environment and the tangible and intangible heritage of Cantabria," the CNSV denounces. They point out that the lighthouses are handed over by the port authorities to the civil administrations, with the obligation not to alter the constitution of the element. “If the structure of the building is reformed, it must always be for the preservation of the lighthouse. And in this case it is not the justification declared by the government, but the tourist claim ”, they indicate from the citizen association.
In fact, the Ministry of Culture clarifies that the industrial heritage when it is museumized or interpreted "is a good tourist product". The success of the preservation of industrial heritage depends largely on the possibilities of contributing to local development, they add. However, Revilla does not plan an interpretation center, but rather to create an "asset to attract visitors", who take photos and share them on their social networks.
"After this project I hate politics"
But Okuda doesn't care about the purpose: “I really don't care. It is a commission. I am interested in the contrast with nature, the sea and working in my land. How politicians want to use my work is their problem, not mine ”, explains Okuda. She also acknowledges that she was unaware that the contract with the Port Authority, which owns the lighthouse, limits the life of its design to eight years. It is extendable year by year, starting from the fourth. "The bureaucracy does not take away my sleep, it is my team who is in charge of closing the contract," he says. Although she clarifies that "I would have preferred it to be a design forever." In Russia he made one of these in a 22-story building, and in New York he painted the facade of the Desigual store .
“The work on the lighthouse is part of my usual animal iconography and of the multiculturalism that I claim by including the colors of many flags. In the end, I build a universal flag that eliminates borders ”, he explains about the meaning of his work. So do you consider yourself a political artist? “I am not a political artist and I hate politics after this project. The controversy that has arisen is a fight between parties, which has nothing to do with me. And it surprises me because it is my land. It's the first time something like this has happened to me. I have intervened cylindrical structures in Sicily or California. This only happens in Spain ”, says Okuda, although he prefers not to elaborate on this reasoning.
Alberto Santamaría (Torrelavega, Cantabria, 1976) is a professor of Art Theory at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Salamanca and defines Okuda as “a symptom” of the claim that contemporary art has become. “What Okuda does is an art that does not bother, inane. It is very useful for politicians like Revilla, who have made it their fetish. Okuda is like Siri [Apple's assistant], it only has predictable responses and this makes it very attractive to politicians. He is nothing more than an exterior decorator and he should consider whether he wants to continue on that path ”, clarifies the essayist who will publish Politics of Sensitivity in September . Romantic lines and cultural criticism (AKAL).
“I am not a decorator. I'm an artist. The lighthouse will bring positivism and inspiration, which is what I do all over the world ”, says Okuda, who has found unexpected freedom in social networks to deploy his international projects. “Thanks to them, I don't depend on traditional structures and I can have the upper hand, in addition to serving my followers. In fact, every day hundreds of them tag me on Instagram, in my works from all over the world, ”says the artist. For Alberto Santamaría, networks such as Instagram are a “pretty shabby” instrument, which serves to “spread superficial discourses” and “personal brands”.