In its origins, one was a theater-circus-cinema and the other a tank for the storage of crude oil. Today, however, both venues, the Cuyás Theater in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and El Tanque, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, are two cultural landmarks in the Canary Islands celebrating their birthday. The room in the capital of Gran Canaria celebrates 120 years since the first cinematographic projection that hosted the facilities on which the Cuyás currently stands, while the imposing Santacrucero container celebrates five decades at the service of avant-garde proposals in disciplines such as art and music. On the occasion of both anniversaries and, above all, for the role that these spaces have played for decades in bringing culture closer to the society of the islands, eight professionals from different cultural fields of the Archipelago recall their relationship with these two locations without which it would be impossible understand the development and dissemination of creative activity in the Canary Islands.
Although at first glance the origins of the Tanque and the Cuyás Theater seem to have nothing in common, especially since there is almost a century of distance between the birth of one and the other, the history of the two spaces begins with the same objective: to satisfy at very different times, the demand for culture and leisure from an increasingly cosmopolitan population, eager to enjoy new experiences.
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 1898, when the Cuyás theatre-circus-cinema was officially inaugurated, and Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1997, the year in which the activity of the Tank began, have in common that both capitals were experiencing times of growth and modernization. Under the umbrella provided by the economic boom of the 1990s, Tenerife is facing a transformation process that radically changes the island and especially its capital. One hundred years before, it is the city of Las Palmas where this metamorphosis of the urban landscape takes place, also as a consequence of a period of prosperity.
Thus, on April 28, 1898, the Cuyás theater-circus-cinema was officially inaugurated on Viera y Clavijo street in the capital, an initiative that businessman Salvador Cuyás had taken 20 years to complete. Focused on its first stage in the circus show, especially the equestrian, although it also hosted cockfights and ram fights, in the second decade of the last century it opened the range of its programming. In 1902, the first cinematographic projection took place within its walls. These were not films, but pieces where almost documentary-type scenes of urban images in motion and without sound were shown —the sound film would not arrive until 1927—, but the high risk of fire involved in handling the highly flammable celluloid materialized on June 16, 1908. After almost a decade of great popularity, the Teatro Circo reduced its good run to ashes until a few years later, when it reopened.
The Battle of the Tank
The birth of the El Tanque Cultural Space, in the chicharrera capital, which was always on the tightrope, is not without drama. Its history as an imposing container of art and music has been plagued with obstacles from the very moment in which the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Refinery began to dismantle its colleagues who, in the mid-nineties, were still littering the landscape of Cabo Llanos, the area called to be the future of a capital that wanted to leave behind its connection with this industry.
At the end of the 90s of the last century, what we know today as El Tanque was one more of the group of deposits that served for years for refining crude oil, specifically number 69. Little by little they were dismantled to make way for the growth of the capital to the south. The architect Fernando Menis discovered its potential, almost by chance, in October 1995. It was a space with exceptional spatial, lighting and sound conditions located on what was then known as Calle 70. Next to it there was still another warehouse standing, 68 Soon after, it was also dismantled.
The Tenerife architect knew that the Cabildo de Tenerife, which at that time was chaired by his brother, the late Adán Martín, needed a place to organize exhibitions whose opening could be done quickly and without too much cost. Three years passed in which the insular institution organized up to eight different cultural events in El Tanque, but the date for the dismantling of the structure arrived and they had to negotiate with Ferrovial, the company that had bought these lands, to get them to pass into the hands of the island institution.
From that moment, and until El Tanque was finally declared an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) by the Government of the Canary Islands in May 2014, the danger of its disappearance was constant. There were, in total, almost 20 years of uncertainty during which a platform was created in favor of its maintenance with support such as the Nobel Prize winner José Saramago.
In the case of the Cuyás theater-circus-cinema, several decades —and activities— also passed before the theater became the cultural reference we know today. In 1933 the new Cuyás Cinema was inaugurated, which remained until its closure in 1987, harassed by the irruption of home video and the appearance of multiplexes.
During those 50 years it was a reference room in the city, which barely underwent a reform in 1965, notable for the inclusion of a mural by Felo Monzón, which would later succumb to different wallpapers, before being rediscovered in 1993.
The Cabildo of Gran Canaria acquired the property in 1989 and would undertake its rehabilitation by calling a project competition won by Luis Correa Suárez with Q-Jazz, who respected the idea of the rationalist architect Miguel Martín-Fernández de la Torre, commissioned in the 1930s. to reform the original building.
Finally, the Cuyás reopened its doors in 1999 as a theater, with the play Dear Poets by Francisco Rabal, and it has been running that way until today. “I remember when I visited the works of what would be the stage of the new Cuyás theater with a tremendous illusion for what the space was going to mean for the cultural development of our Community”, recalls the Lanzarote theater director, based in Madrid, Quino Falero. «I have been able to renew that illusion in each project that I have created in Cuyás because the theater team has always made me feel at home. And I always feel very proud when colleagues speak to me on the Peninsula about the excellence of the work in their facilities”, he adds on the occasion of the anniversary of the Canarian room.
Jumping off the Island, the praise for the role that El Tanque has played in the cultural life of Santa Cruz de Tenerife leads Víctor Pablo Pérez, honorary conductor of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, to affirm that it is “a unique and essential space for avant-garde art in a city that loves and respects its historical memory and its industrial past, converted today into the culture of the future».
El Tanque faces its future with a renewed image. In recent months and after the stoppage of the pandemic, the Government of the Canary Islands has taken the opportunity to adapt the exterior of the building and complete the project that Menis devised for this cultural facility: a garden of banana trees has covered the surrounding lot with green. The cultural project, once it seems to have finally been pardoned and saved from disappearance, appears exciting. “This year, as a result of the work we have done abroad, the idea is to relaunch the space with its own programming and several cycles,” says the Deputy Minister of Culture of the Government of the Canary Islands, Juan Márquez. «On the one hand, we are preparing a continuous program for family audiences, thinking of the little ones and outer space. On the other hand, we are preparing an alternative music cycle, with special attention to the new music emerging in the Canary Islands, and a plastic and visual arts project within El Tanque».
“I always listened to my father talk about the Cuyás Theater,” recalls theater director and businessman Israel Reyes. “I have been lucky enough to experience first-hand its inauguration as a Theater in 1999, in which Tony Molowny and I collected Ikea armchairs to furnish the still-empty dressing rooms,” he adds.
The also screenwriter mentions that “being part of its programming with the most ambitious productions undertaken since Clapso, Forgive me Bonita but Lucas loved me or La Mousetrap, allowed us to dream and project ourselves.” The actor José Luis de Madariaga, who was part of the cast of La Ratonera, which premiered at the Cuyás, confesses that his role as Commander Metcalf is, along with his participation in Alceste and Seven Good Men, all in the theater of Gran Canaria, one of his best professional experiences. “That’s why Cuyás means so much to me,” he acknowledges. In addition, it highlights “the interesting programming and the commitment to Canarian companies.”
About El Tanque, Pura Marquez, artist, co-director of Keroxen and vice-president of the Association of Friends of the Tank, assures that “participating in the team that watches over and works for its conservation and sharing and enjoying 200 concerts inside it has been one of the best experiences of my life. In that sense, it coincides with the feeling that actress Yanely Hernández feels for Cuyas: «As an actress, the fascination I feel when I get on stage is multiplied when it has been on that stage. It is a privilege to put myself in the shoes of different characters in one of the leading theaters in the country. I fondly remember the days when I was able to say: Tonight I perform at Cuyás».
The plastic artist Miriam Durango, former president of the Circle of Fine Arts of Tenerife, admits that she cannot imagine her life “without El Tanque”, a “unique and singular” space that has marked “the cultural life of Santa Cruz as the ideal recipient of avant-garde art ». Finally, Martín Rivero, Canary Islands Prize for Journalism, highlights that “in order to win over all the interests that wanted to demolish El Tanque, there were two very important circumstances: Dulce’s stubbornness and persistence and that originally she had the support of a rare avis of politics as was Adán Martín ».
