Much emotion was experienced this afternoon in the act of homage to Josep Maria Benet i Jornet in the Sculpture garden, on the Montjuïc mountain, before a group of friends, family and acquaintances. The Barcelona city council has wanted to pay tribute to the figure of the Catalan playwright who died from coronavirus in April 2020, just on the day he would have turned 81. “We do not forget it,” said the mayor of the city, Ada Colau, in a ceremony led by the theater director Toni Casares, which was attended and speeches by Carlota Benet, daughter of Papitu, as Benet was affectionately called i Jornet, as well as the playwrights and friends Sergi Belbel and Josep M. Miró.
Colau has defined Benet i Jornet as “a benchmark figure in theater and television” in Catalonia who also left “in a context of enormous difficulty in the world of theater” because the restrictions of the pandemic “forced the curtain down “. The mayor mentioned that during the confinement it was evident that “culture is fundamental, it makes us better people, freer and happier.”
Benet i Jornet was a reference figure in theater and television
Benet i Jornet was “pioneer”, “innovative”, possessed a “great talent” and “was generous with the younger generations”, has affirmed Colau, who has emphasized the efforts of the playwright so that “culture reaches everything the world and not be elitist. ” “My generation grew up with his series,” he said in reference to the creator of the successful Poble Nou or Nissaga de poder, who had suffered from Alzheimer’s for some years and was admitted to a residence in Lleida. “No one but him could show us that we can also get excited, laugh and be passionate about stories from here, made here and with people from here.”
Colau has made mention of the “terrible year” that was 2020, which left “a void” and took, among others, the writers Carlos Ruiz Zafón, also honored last Thursday at the Saló de Cent of the Barcelona city council, or Juan Marsé , died on July 18 of last year at the age of 87.
Carlota Benet during the tribute ceremony to her father
The mayor has finished her parliament by encouraging citizens to pay tribute to her by going to the theater now that it has become clear that “culture is not only safe but it is a fundamental right.”
Carlota Benet has taken the witness of Colau very excited and has assured that her father “would have loved this tribute even if he had said that he did not deserve it” and has said that the secular ceremony that “celebrates life” is the occasion to tell him goodbye because when he died it couldn’t be done. Despite the initial controversy on Twitter in which Carlota demanded a tribute to her father from the consistory, she and Colau had words of mutual gratitude in a day of “nerves and excitement.”
Benet has insisted “on how much my father did to explain our city. My father was deeply from Barcelona, you cannot understand it without Barcelona and he would never have lived anywhere else”. Carlota has affirmed that her father was a good person and with a “festive spirit”, that he planned to live to be 120, but that “fate played a trick on him”. Still, he never gave up and left his mark. “Thank you for loving me,” he concluded, addressing his father.
My father was deeply from Barcelona, you cannot understand it without Barcelona and he would never have lived anywhere else
During the tribute ceremony, which lasted an hour and a quarter, dramatized readings of Benet i Jornet texts were carried out by Jordi Boixaderas, Emma Vilarasau and Lluís Soler, and live music by the pianists Albert Guinovart was played. and Andreu Gallén.
Likewise, videos have been projected with images of the writer throughout his life, and others with messages from colleagues who have not been able to attend the tribute in person, such as Sharon Feldman, who has highlighted above all the “humanity and generosity” of Benet i Jornet , who won the Josep Maria de Sagarra award with “Una vella, coneguda olor”, in 1963, starting a prolific career, with around fifty theatrical texts to his credit, with which he obtained numerous awards, such as the Honor Prize of Catalan Letters in 2013.
Sharon Feldman has highlighted the “humanity and generosity” of Benet i Jornet, who won the Josep Maria de Sagarra prize with ‘Una vella, coneguda olor’, in 1963
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