An exhibition covers the 45-year history of El Almacen
In February 23, 1974, César Manrique, in collaboration with Pepe Dámaso, Gerardo Fontes and Luis Ibáñez, had the idea of creating a space for artistic encounter and experimentation in an old abandoned warehouse in the Lanzarote capital that had been the headquarters of the School of Arts and Crafts.
That event ended up opening its doors with the name of “Polidimensional Center El Almacén”, nobody could imagine that this initiative linked to the contemporary cultural avant-garde would mark the future of the artistic panorama of Lanzarote in the future.
1974’s Arrecife was the one of a small city of an island that was abre to the tourist phenomenon, located in the periphery of the cultural panorama of Canaries where the echoes of the prohibitions and the censures of the Francoism still beat. There was no precedent for a laboratory for the artistic vanguards of this type in the nearby regional environment.
The exhibition that opens its doors this Friday seeks to add value, addressing that historical moment, the atmosphere, the circumstances and the spirit impressed by Manrique that led The Warehouse to become not only a meeting point for many creators and foreign cultural agents and local, but also in a center that generates artistic experiences that would turn it into a space of cultural reference outside of Lanzarote. Proof of this is that today, 45 years later, El Almacén is not only a historical and emblematic landmark of the island’s culture, but also continues to be committed to being one of the driving forces of Lanzarote’s artistic contemporaneity.
