Modern artists seize Church

A very modern church

The Romanesque church of Sant Roc in Farrera unveils urban art to the rhythm of rap and DJs || Religious carvings share space with installations, posters and photos.

Music from the altar of DJ Earth, between religious carvings and photos.

It has been more than two decades since the Centre d'Art i Natura (CAN) put the village of Farrera on the artistic map of Catalonia. Now, a singular exhibition-performance in the small Romanesque temple of Sant Roc in this town in the Pallars Sobirà region is likely to continue to be a talking point. Since last Sunday, the religious carvings of the church have been sharing the 'stage' with a group of works by six urban artists, three of them from Lleida, who work in different techniques and styles of the visual arts: Aka Modesto, La Ira Món Mort, Núria Rosselló (Basuralandia), the Barcelona artists Kamil Escruela and Alfonso de Castro and the Colombian artist Stinkfish.

The exhibition, entitled Tradicions i Contradiccions, was inaugurated on Sunday afternoon and can be visited until the end of April, always by appointment via instagram (@galeriaefimeralleida). The presentation, which was attended by around a hundred residents of Farrera and other towns in the region, featured musical performances by the feminist rap duo Ainhara & Fenixe, the group The Punky Unicorns and a performance by Mextizarap, as well as a final session by DJ Earth, who turned the small presbytery and altar into an improvised stage. The local residents themselves take care of the church (which depends on the parish of Llavorsí), which only fulfils its religious function one day a year, on the day of the patron saint, Sant Roc, during the Festa Major de Farrera, on the weekend of 15 August.

For this reason, "the majority are of the opinion that, given the lack of interest shown by the church in the conservation of the church itself, it is the local residents who should make use of this space and decide what cultural activities it can host", explained the art collector and historian Adrià Codina, who has a collection of modern and contemporary art of more than 2,000 pieces, to SEGRE. Aka Modesto, known for his graffiti and messages on abandoned mattresses, tunes the door of a police car, while Stinkfish presents his posters with thorns and spikes interpellating the stigmata and arrows of the martyrdom of Sant Sebastià; La Ira transforms religious works and Núria Rosselló continues to show her attraction to rubbish.

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The Diocese blasts back

On 29th March last, a small group of people calling themselves "artists", without any prior communication or authorisation (neither from the Mayor, nor from the Rector, nor from the Diocese of Urgell), improperly entered the Church of Sant Roc de Farrera (Pallars Sobirà), placed a series of supposed "works of art" and staged a performance incompatible with the purposes of the temple, offending the religious feelings of the Catholic faithful.

The neighbours reported the facts to the Diocese, complaining about the occupation and having received threats of damage to the church and attempts of coercion by these people. For this reason, the Bishopric contacted the Mayor of the town and, by common agreement, it was decided to close the church to ensure that it would not be occupied again.

In a gesture of goodwill on the part of the Diocese, these people were approached to facilitate the removal of their works on 21 April. Due to an incident, the volunteers who were to open the church were unable to travel to Farrera on that day, of which the interested parties were notified in advance, and it was agreed that the works would be removed on Tuesday 25th.

When the volunteers from the Diocese opened the church today, they found that these people had threatened to occupy the church and not leave it. They also threatened to cause damage to the entrance door, with expressions and attitudes that violate the fundamental right to religious freedom and the right to private property.

We deplore the threats, coercion, and the spectacle that they want to create before the media, seeking to give echo to a criminal activity. It is not a question of censorship, nor of victims, but of private individuals who want to unduly appropriate a building that is not theirs, which was built with the donations and efforts of the Christian neighbours of Farrera.

The Diocese has the duty to watch over and guarantee that no private individual can appropriate a church that is the property of the Church, destined for the exercise of the fundamental right to religious freedom and worship, and which is at the service of the whole town and not of a number of private individuals. For all these reasons, he has been forced to report the facts to the Mossos d'Esquadra and reserves the right to take the appropriate legal action.

La Seu d'Urgell, 25th April 2023

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