Closing of the exhibition Ramon Casas in Sitges

Speech on the occasion of the presentation of the facsimile edition of Desde El Molino and the closing of the exhibition Ramon Casas, modernity desired, we organized Maricel Museum from 16 November 2016 and 19 February 2017.

From El Molí gather different chronicles from Paris that Rusiñol wrote for La Vanguardia to explain the vital experiences of artists at Montmartre, leaving no details for the imagination. No matter if it's just a portrait of Catalan artist that used to visit the Moulin de la Galette, as the shadows plays at Cabaret Chat Noir, or night like at Montmartre, tavern songs or the can-can dance. One of such chronicles, written and drawn in first person, today would be call self-fiction. They are, as explained in the presentation text, the self-biography of the bohemian life of Santiago Rusiñol and Ramon Casas.

Rusiñol describes his experiences in Paris with a style that describes the work of both friends, in a direct, real and we could say sentimental. Ramon Casas illustrated with a drawing pulse and will that approaches photojounalism, a very swift and expressive style. Written between 1890 and 1892, corresponding to the years that culminate the aesthetic complicity of both artists.

Between 1890 and 1892, something important happens also in the life of Rusiñol and also for us, because he and Casas in Paris are making incursions in Barcelona to present their new pictures both at exhibition halls and all sorts of cultural happenings. This was the reason why Casas came to paint in Sitges during the fall of 1891, he was curious about the patis that Casas commented to him, and at the same time he was going to Vilanova to watch the Greco at the Museum of Victor Balaguer.

This is why From the Mill also has references to Sitges. Specifically, in the tenth chapter, entitled "Impressions of an arrival", one arrival after discovering our town, Because Rusiñol writes that "when (....? you leave those beaches in Sitges (...) when you leave that eternal sweetness in the ambiance with not fakeness whatsoever and you have breathed and inspired it, when you leave a land that apart from being our land, it's also because it's good land (....) you can truly complain and use it as pretext to warm your spirits." And that January 1892 is now exactly 125 years in our past. Not a long while ago Rusiñol pronounced his first speech in Sitges, saying good bye to all those that received him so warmly:

" " My friend, I was a man that was walking around the world, following trails and jumping streams and dales when I met a land that was more sunny than the rest, were the sky was bluer, the sea was bluer and also the houses were white and with no snow and everything was green and blossoming, and I decided to stop. (...) But I will say aloud what my pictures won't say so everybody can hear me, and I will say with my breast full of enthusiasm. That France could have many millions, but they could never buy a land like this, were the wine is malaria, the coast is gold, the sky is light, women are fire and everything swims in an atmosphere of life and friendship.

Also during his first stay he wrote an article about the nostalgia of two homelands, in which deeply affected by the emigration of people from Sitges to America, he places yearning for you homeland in first person, already divided between the attraction to sun and the light of Sitges and the grey mist from Paris representing modernity that he still wants to assimilate, but that he will drop to build a house that will be also be an atelier and a museum in Sitges.

Meanwhile, we must take time to savor his Parisian chronicles, this grey Paris covered by fog but so attractive for the fight for art and freedom in which, as well as Rusiñol, both end wining, importing it as the legacy of modernity to the Catalonia of their times.

Budget: more social measures, greater economic revitalization and increased investment

A few weeks ago, the Municipal Council carried out the initial approval of the budget for City of Sitges 2017. It took only six votes against 21 of the full house, in a clear sign that shows that it was a mainstream document that shared a wide political consensus and the willingness to negotiate of government and almost all municipal groups that in one way or another, reached  agreements that have been reflected on the budget. In early March, the Full House must agree on the final approval of the budget that will come into force automatically.

The budget for 2017 is over 42 million € and involves an increase of 2% compared to last year. The items that recorded this increase were those of Social Welfare, Culture, Sports, Education and Public Roads. The increase in these items is designed to implement the planned action in the Mandate Plan, prepared by the two local groups that currently make up the government of the City (PDeCAT and DC, on one hand, and ERC on the other).

Among the actions contained in the budget are the beginning of long-awaited projects, such as the construction of school Agnès de Sitges, which is possible thanks to an agreement between the City Council and the Catalan Government, which specifies that the new building will be built between the 2017 and 2019. The budget also includes other important investments, such as a new rugby field, which will give a definitive answer to the situation of temporary facilities that characterized this sport in Sitges since its inception 25 years ago. Also, there are other important activities, such as the necessary reform of the different sections of the Promenade, the reform of the Town Hall, improvements in the field of Aiguadolç municipal football field, the new civic center of Les Botigues or improving access to Garraf, among other projects aimed at improving infrastructure facilities and the map of the town.

The budget also includes a social action plan aimed at preventive actions on the most disadvantaged groups, but also to intervene in situations of greatest need. These are actions that are part of our program silos people, which last year brought 600,000 extra enabling social services. This year, we increased investments and the number of professionals working in this field. Objective: people.

Meanwhile, the budget foresees an increase in investments in public roads, perfectly aware of the problem we have in this area, especially during the summer months. Last year, we increased items for cleaning services almost half a million Euros, this year we envisaged a special endowment for gardening services to improve green areas of the municipality.

There is very relevant budget item in 2017: municipal spending per inhabitant in Sitges amounted to 1419.53 Euros, well above the national average in the municipalities having between 25,000 and 30,000 inhabitants which are 1098.32 Euros. The investment per inhabitant in Sitges amounts to 86.21 Euros, while the national average is 61.20 Euros.

And all this increase in budgetary resources does not increase debt, just the opposite. In 2017 we will reduce the debt of the City Hall placing it significantly below the national average, despite the difficult scenario of municipal finances in 2011 when debt level was excessive.

It is a good budget and to make it really effective, the challenge we have now is to improve processes and municipal management. If we succeed, we would have been able to reverse in a few years a very severe situation to a moderately favorable one.