SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, June 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The headquarters of the College of Civil Engineers, Canals and Ports of Santa Cruz de Tenerife will host next Wednesday, June 14, the presentation of the book ‘Juan Alfredo Amigó and José Luis Olcina. Obra con César Manrique’ by the economist and journalist Mario Alberto Perdomo.
In this book, with a foreword by José María Fernández Palacios, professor of Ecology at the University of La Laguna (ULL), Perdomo talks about the figure of the artist from Lanzarote and the importance he had when it came to betting on respectful constructions and designs. with nature and local architecture, integrating them into the landscape and always respecting foreign elements.
To enhance the figure of César Manrique and his work, the author of the book does a great deal of research, compiling oral testimonies from the people with whom César Manrique surrounded himself to carry out his projects (engineers, surveyors, boss, of works, contractors, etc.), as well as documents referring to the projects that were entrusted to him, but that for some reason were never carried out.
To do this, Mario Alberto Perdomo draws on the testimony of two engineers based in Tenerife, Juan Alfredo Amigó and José Luis Olcina, with whom Manrique established a great friendship and professional collaboration, sharing a large number of projects in the 1970s and 1980s. past. In this sense, Amigó and Olcina were in charge of translating the sketches of the genius from Lanzarote on plans, as well as defining the budgets, materials, resistance calculations, design of electrical systems, plumbing, among other tasks.
The book also includes information on the construction and design of the swimming pools and Lake Martiánez in Puerto de La Cruz, which have become a symbol of the city and are visited each year by more than 400,000 people.
Another document rescued by the author is the anecdote that the engineers tell him about the moment in which they visited the Basilica of Candelaria with the aim of providing an urban solution to the huge empty square that precedes the temple, an action that they never carried out anymore. that Manrique suggested starting by demolishing the basilica, because he considered it horrible. The comment upset the authorities who immediately broke the collaboration with the artist from Lanzarote.
Perdomo also collects in this research work projects that were never carried out, such as the El Confital maritime park project in Gran Canaria, among others.
BIOGRAPHY OF MARIO ALBERTO PERDOMO
Mario Alberto Perdomo Aparicio (Arrecife, 1959) is an economist. He was co-founder of the El Guincho Cultural and Ecological Association (Lanzarote) at the end of the 80s of the last century. Between 1988 and 1990 he directed the Department of Culture of the Cabildo de Lanzarote. He has practiced journalism in different local and regional media. His field of concern focuses on urban and territorial planning, the environment and the externalities of the economy, urban spaces, culture in a broad sense and communication. He has been a patron of the César Manrique Foundation since 1990.
Among his latest editorial works is the book ‘Luis Morales Padrón’ (Islas de la memoria Collection, Fundación César Manrique, Lanzarote, 2017), as well as one of the texts from the exhibition catalog ‘Memories of Water’ entitled ‘Manuel Díaz Rijo , chronicle of desalinated water in Lanzarote’ (Cabildo de Lanzarote, Lanzarote, 2018). He collaborated in the catalog of the exhibition ‘Universo Manrique’ (Atlantic Center for Modern Art, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2019) with texts on the process of carrying out the public work of César Manrique in Lanzarote.
