Almost two years ago, we gathered right in this same spot, "Racó de la Calma" or “Quiet Corner”, to inaugurate the reopening of the Cau Ferrat and Maricel Museum after an intense and thorough reform process. Already at that time, just on the threshold of Christmas. we recited a good verse J.V Foix I am exalted by everything new, I'm in love with everything old to define what we were offered by some museums that were able to recover the essence of their legacy adapting it to current needs and future.
Today -in the opening of this wonderful exhibition about Ramon Casas, his world and his time- we will reaffirm the commitment of our museums as an excellent showcase of all the heritage contained in their collections. But at the same time, just for being an active dynamizer of the vibrant cultural life of Sitges nowadays.
This exhibition that opened today confirms it clearly. Ramon Casas, a much longed modernity is the desired central exhibition of the Year Ramon Casas, a rich and suggestive walk through the work of the genius of modernism which interacts with other artists who influenced him or whom he influenced. An exhibition of first level, which allowed taking to Sitges paintings from some of the most prestigious European galleries.
The fact that the main event of the Year Ramon Casas takes place in Sitges is no accident.
- First, because our museums accumulate a complete collection of his work: Cau Ferrat and Maricel Museum have 100 pieces of Ramon Casas, including oil paintings, drawings and posters. Undoubtedly, this is a significant collection, which offers a full scale of art from the turn of the century in our country.
- Second point, because Ramon Casas played a role in the cultural history of Sitges, near Santiago Rusiñol and Charles Deering. Casas was the owner of Can Rocamora, the building now integrated in the ensemble of Cau Ferrat and Maricel Museum, and made continuous trips to our town, more or less regularly.
- But in addition to historical coherence reasons, the central exhibition of the Year Ramon Casas in Sitges is possible because our town now has a museum displaying the artistic past as it was, but doing so in the most demanding conditions of rigor, quality and positioning.
The organization of an exhibition of this magnitude would not have been possible without the strategic vision and work capacity of the Heritage Consortium of Sitges. Neither would have been possible without some installations perfectly equipped from a point of view of conservation, security and accessibility. We are referring to Cau Ferrat and Maricel Museum.
Almost two years since reopening, Cau Ferrat and Maricel Museum have more than fulfilled its main mission as art museums that hold collections of significant heritage value. But at the same time, they have also become a channel of cultural revitalization of Sitges of extraordinary value ... quantitative but especially qualitative.
In a town like ours that lives on tourism statistics are important. And for this reason, during the last 22 and half months, the Cau Ferrat and the Maricel Museum have received 68,000 visitors and 1,500 groups. A matter of satisfaction that illustrates attraction capacity.
At the same time, in a town like ours, who actually lives from tourism but which boasts its status as capital of the arts, statistics are not all. The organization of this exhibition allows us to locate Sitges at the forefront of the national cultural scene. We do it with satisfaction and enthusiasm, but also with the conviction that culture is the best face that Sitges has offer to the world. We did it over a hundred years at the time of Casas and Rusiñol, and we make it now with the legacy that we inherited for the service of the city and the arts.
