«Picasso's 'Guernica' is a curious piece of graffiti»
Albert Boadella has just published 'Young man, don't piss me off'. /
"The Reina Sofía looks like an art funeral home," says the writer, who charges against the childishness of progressives in his new book 'Young man, don't piss me off'
Fed up with the puritanism of Spanish society, the playwright and writer Albert Boadell, founder of the theater group Els Joglars, dispatches himself at ease in 'Young man, don't piss me off' (Ediciones B), a book against liberals. With a grumpy tone, a teacher transmits to a university student the truths of an artist fed up with the nonsense of postmodernity. Boadella vindicates tradition in art and attacks false idols.
-How do you see the Albert Boadella of today to the Boadella who was young and perhaps progressive?
We've all been stupid at some point. But in spite of everything, it is curious that I was never especially progressive in my tastes, I remember the horrifying art house movies that progressives liked so much. I was always very conservative, I even didn't like the Beatles, they had disgusting long hair. Now I am more open than when I was 18 years old.
–When was the last time you visited the Reina Sofía Museum?
-Years ago, not many, but a few. It looks like an art funeral home to me. The buildings of the contemporary art museums are interesting. The Reina Sofia is disastrous. It was an old hospital, in line with what is inside. Those museums house... jokes. In his works there is no deep work of years, what I call craftsmanship.
black and white
–What inspires you in 'Guernica'?
-It's a curious graffiti. Man, if I think that it is the death of Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, it seems a little more logical to me. For that purpose it was painted. It has nothing to do with what happened in Guernica. It is a black and white painting, without perspective or relief. It is a 'boutade' of Picasso, who paints wonderfully in his early days and at times makes works of great interest. But 90% of his work is pure commercialism, a pure desire to be better known.
–And what do you think of contemporary art?
-Is a gotcha. It has nothing to do with art, but with financial issues. People buy a Pollock like the one he buys a 60-meter yacht, which gives an idea of the money he has, it's an exhibition. They are icons that people venerate as they did relics, which at least had more grace and poetry.
«When I was young I didn't like the Beatles, they had disgusting long hair»
–And do you include Dalí among those swindlers?
-No, Dalí is different, he worked a lot on his paintings. Dalí had the ambition to paint like a Renaissance artist. He said that he was the worst Renaissance of the Renaissance. He had his own style, he knew drawing techniques perfectly, which he did marvelously well.
-Reading your book, you don't seem to like the theater that is currently being done.
I am interested in theater as an art. That is why in the last 12 years of my life, since I left Els Joglars, I have dedicated myself to words and music. Art should touch the senses. But the theater that is done today is pregnant with psychology and sociology, a literary theater, with very little action and emotion.
–Doesn't he even save Juan Mayorga, for example?
-Mayorga writes well, he's a good man of letters, but I don't think his is an art theater. His work is very interesting. It is very well done from a literary point of view and it is interesting sociologically speaking. But it represents little of what our trade is as an art.
–Els Joglars was harassed by the Church as a result of the play 'Teledeum'. Why three years ago did he accept an award from Become Heard?
-It's an award given to me for freedom of expression. I have absolutely nothing against this organization that defends its ideals, with which I do not agree with many things. Refusing the award would have been unspeakably rude. But 'Teledeum' was not a play against religion. It was a satire on the modernization of the rites; Deep down, he claimed the return of Latin.
-As an opponent of Catalan nationalism, have you become a Spanish nationalist?
– Spanish nationalism practically does not exist, it was destroyed by Franco with that exaggerated idea of the “empire towards God”. It is true that there is the nationalism of Vox, but it is a minority. Spain has endured something unheard of: a government that has agreed with those who are willing to destroy Spain as a nation.
