From the article by the art critic, cartoonist and painter Feliu Elies, Joan Sacs, (Barcelona, 1878-1948) a Mirador (January 22, 1933). In the year just ended, two anniversaries coincided for Isabel Llorach and Dolsa (Barcelona, 1874-1954): the 150th anniversary of her birth and the 70th anniversary of her death. Llorach stood out until before the 1936 war in Barcelona’s cultural and social life with patronage initiatives and at the head of the legendary Conferentia Club.
There is an exemplary lady in Barcelona who alone would redeem the worldly elite of which she is a part from the inveterate lightness and emptiness, if by chance this elite felt the need for redemption. The lady in question, Isabel Llorach, also deserves the thanks of other social classes for her efficient Barcelonaism: efficient because she is intelligent. If anyone had doubts, we would tell them about the latest feat performed by the Barcelona player, and they would be immediately convinced. We are referring to the creation of the board of trustees for the restoration of Carrer de Montcada. This is very important, not only because of the value of such a restoration, but because of the repercussion that such an undertaking would have on our urbanism, on the archaeological aspect of Barcelona’s urbanism, which is the most precious and most valuable aspect since many points of view. While talking about the senselessness of our archeological urbanism, this other perfect Barcelonan who is Joan Rogent told me: Barcelona bada. And, indeed, we retracted examples of our urban negligence and soon they added up terribly – in such a way that in the next twenty years the current generation will consume perhaps more archaeological destruction than those generated in the 19th century, until now the most destructive in the history of Catalonia Companies like the one started in Barcelona by Miss Isabel Llorach, and like the one run throughout Catalonia by the Amics de l’Art Vell entity, can do a lot to counter that blind urbanism and other anti-archaeological barbarities that are not necessary details because we all know or fear them; but this countermeasure will not be very effective or very fast if corporations and individuals do not support it. In the restoration work of Carrer de Montcada, for example, the City Council should facilitate the company and even help it. And, if the City Council were bolder and smarter than it has shown in these matters now and always, it would even have to make the restoration work its own. First of all, because it represents a more valuable and urgent improvement for the city than other very recent and eccentric ones that cost the eyes of the face. (…) Barcelona really sucks. Now as before our city does not know what it possesses and, like the savages, cheapens with childish exuberance the pure gold of its ancient buildings for any modern patch of plaster or painted cardboard. Where modernization is needed, it is carried out timidly or grudgingly; and where the conservation of ancient and noble architecture is needed, destructive urbanizations are planned and built. So who knows if Isabel Llorach’s feat will mark the milestone that separates the very long archaeologist’s quest for a new era of orientation and sensitivity in the annals of Barcelona’s urban planning… and if this way we will recover from other rude misdirections.
Source: www.ara.cat
