Article published in ABC Sevilla
The streets of Utrera can be contemplated under the perspective of a time traveler who wants to enter in contact with some historical characters through its monuments. It is possible to contemplate the neighborhood of San Maria through the eyes of Rodrigo Caro, the Via Marciala accompanied by the watchful eye of Clemente de la Cuadra, or feel the activity of La Vereda in the company of St. John Bosco. Around the next January 31 -the date on which in 1821 Abbé Marchena died-, the town will also have with the presence in its streets, a monument dedicated to Abate Marchena, in this case made by the prestigious artist Jordi Díez from Valladolid, who has tried to capture in an artistic work the indomitable character of the intellectual from Utrera.
This is the final colophon to the called “Cultural Year Abate Marchena”, which throughout the past 2018 has tried to rescue from oblivion the figure of the intellectual from Utrera, who actively participated in the French Revolution and translated into Spanish some of the most important writers illustrated French. In this way the streets of the town , will host a permanent tribute to this character, who disappeared practically from history, suffering the enormous burden of what is a real “black legend” .
Recently, several members of the municipal corporation, with the mayor José María Villalobos at the head, have accompanied the artist who has been commissioned to make the monument, on a visit through the streets of the town, in order to find the best location for this permanent memorial to Abate Marchena.
Jordi Díez, already has practically finished this work that will join the list of illustrious characters that stand out in the streets of Utrera. He is a sculptor with a extensive experience, he studied Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid and has specialized since 2007 in works made exclusively with steel. It is worth mentioning works such as the sculptural interpretation of the Loewe bag “Amazona” for the window of the store that this brand has in the Gran Via in Madrid or the exclusive cutlery elements commissioned by the restaurant “El Celler de Can Roca”. He has worked on art projects in places such as San Francisco, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Singapore.
One of the main difficulties that arise when approaching a figure like Abbé Marchena, which are even more extreme for a visual artist, is that although the Literature has bequeathed us many physical descriptions of the Utreran -most of them focused on the numerous defects he had-, no portrait of his face has reached our days. The artist acknowledged that he has faced in this case a very special commission, saying that “I had never done a monument without a face, the expressiveness of the sculpture has been passed to other areas, it has been a challenge expressive very peculiar and special for me. The character’s power was due more to his intelligence than to his physical presence.”
Magnetism
Literature has bequeathed us the image of Abbé Marchena as a short, ungainly and even hunchbacked character, so in this case Jordi Díez has ensured that “we will not find in this project a sculpture made following the canons of proportion of Classical Greece, where the historical characters were always represented with athletic bodies because in this case it was very important to achieve in the work a magnetic disproportion , because it was a very magnetic character.
Jordi Díez has made incursions in the different materials with which sculptors usually work, carrying out projects made of stone, wood, terracotta or bronze. Just over a decade ago he focused on the world of steel, ensuring that “I came to this material almost by elimination, when I used structures for large monuments, I was struck by how really everything was already in the structure. That’s why I look for the synthesis, the energy and power that emanates from within, I try to model with the air”.
In the case of the monument to Abbé Marchena, which follows the line of the sculptor’s most current production, Díez has introduced a novelty, as he recognizes that he has used as a model “the naked body of a friend who I am convinced was physically like the Abbé. It is a naked body that then I have dressed, with a concept that can be related to the technique of the Greek sculpture of wet cloths”.
From the moment he received the commission from the City Council of Utrera, Jordi Díez began to read and research in relation to the most important chapters of the life of Abbé Marchena, with the aim of capturing in this work his most pronounced personality traits. Thus began a relationship that was to give the artist a very good time, as he himself confirms: “I have enjoyed it very much, I have worked in a very fluid way, and when you make a sculpture of a character you admire, from a certain moment it seems that this character is already visiting you and is in the workshop with you. I have become very good friends with Abbé Marchena“.
