TRIBUTE TO VICENT ANDRÉS ESTELLÉS, POET OF THE PEOPLE

Video of the event

If Vicent Andrés Estellés (Burjassot, September 4, 1924 – Valencia, March 27, 1993) had been a plastic artist, I would have put him between Realism and Expressionism. Probably as prolific as he was as a writer.
Perhaps for this reason, the Estellés that Jaume Plensa sees is not the same one that admires Antoni Miró. Furthermore, let us not forget that Estellés, in the Mural of the Valencian Country, tries to pay homage to a group of writers and visual artitsts through the poetic word. Our poet already said that, during his writing, in addition to Neruda and Baudelaire, he was accompanied by Picasso's Guernica, the Poster for the Congress of Catalan Culture by Joan Miró, and the memory of the murals by David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera.
But let's start with two Estellesian learnings from his youth, because he projected his hands on bread as a baker and on precious metals as a goldsmith before replacing them with radical realities transfigured into poetic words as a result of instinctual obsessions of sex and death.
Despite everything, we cannot ignore that the poetic work of V.A.E. it has a spatial dimension with a strong topographic component that goes beyond the literary representation of spaces and places. We can see this in the omnipresence of its spatial images and in an approach to interpretative itineraries of meanings. As well as in the poetic and discursive functions of places. There are his dazzling interpretations of the house, the urban world, the country… To articulate a poetic and political discourse.
Until now, the «plastic» Estellés. I leave the way open for an investigation of the influence of the plastic arts on the poet.
Next, the link between the Catalan sculptor Jaume Plensa and Estellés; and between our poet and the plastic artist Antoni Miró.
In 1956, Estellés composed the twenty-one poems that make up L'Hotel París, although the book did not see the light until 1974, when it was published by Edicions 62. But it was not until 1984 that one of those copies fell into the hands of Plensa, which then he lived in Berlin. He was so fascinated by the power of his verses that he decided to draw, paint and interpret them immediately. Thirty years later, he honored him by releasing an artist's book: a box that collects this very powerful text and the creations of the sculptor, Plensa / Estellés / Paris Hotel.
Plensa himself remembers how he contacted the poet through Valencian friends. Once introduced, they went to Malvarrosa to smoke and drink. The sculptor admits that he has never tried to meet the artists who have interested him. Estellés was an exception: he needed to meet the man and he has never regretted it. He assures that thew Valencian's work has accompanied him all his life and considers that Hotel París is a fundamental book of poetry. The problem is that Estellés is little known outside of home… And hidden by his leftist ideology. However, although the poet gave it permission to create the artist's book, the publisher did not give it to him. He had to wait. According to Plensa, what he has in common with the poet is the «mediterranean» which is not a country, but a place, a state of mind, an approach to the very particular reality of our environment, a place where things are not they touch, but they caress each other…
In the end, Jaume Plensa said of Estellés that, «as a good Valencian, he was a wild man and as a good poet he had no idea about art. He only knew about life».
As for Antoni Miró, I will limit myself to reading what V.A.E. wrote about him and his family:
TO THE FRIEND ANTONI MIRÓ
After recovering from the May crisis, I write
the first poem to friend Antoni Miró.
the name of friendship
I will tell you in plain words.
toni miró
sofia
ausias.
are the names of permanent affection,
of love,
of friendship for a lifetime.
I have shared bread and salt with them
and now I'm the happy man, thinking we're friends
lovers,
friends.
now I have written this and I am happy,
because I know tghat in a place of alcoi,
on the road that goes towards ibi,
they live in the «sopalmo» farmhouse, they make love,
they make bread and slice it, at the table with friends.
and I am happy about that, about their existence,
I find myself old and screwed, locked in my house,
I can't go to alcoi, we call each other often,
like that time I called him on the phone just because
sofia told me,
how to do the escalivada.
toni miró, painter,
that I met in alicante
and I tried in altea
I admire him and it's a lot
what I appreciate him as a person,
and more
as a painter.
I know how much and what his honesty is,
creo saber cuánto es su amor,
por lo que hace, I think I know how much his love is,
for the beings that accompany him,
sofia,
ausias.
and I want to leave the testimony here,
of my friendship and
my deep,
sweetly felt,
admiration.
because, painter,
has known how to do,
the best work of art.
life with sofia and ausias.
I finish, then, and close.
good day,
see you around.
any day I will be at the farmhouse.
and I will eat vegetables, vegetables products.
sofia.
good day toni.