Along the Costa Brava in northern Spain, in the little seaside vilage of Portlligat, sits the house that became Salvador DalÃ’s main residence in 1930. It started off as a small fisherman’s hut. Then Dalà went to work on the structure, renovating it little by little over the next 40 years, creating a living, breathing, labyrinthine home that reflects the artist’s one-of-a-kind aesthetic. Writing about the house, the author Joseph Pla once said:
The decoration of the house is surprising, extraordinary. Perhaps the most exact adjective would be: never-before-seen. I do not believe that there is anything like it, in this country or in any other…. DalÃ’s house is completely unexpected…. It contains nothing more than memories, obsessions. The fixed ideas of its owners. There is nothing traditional, nor inherited, nor repeated, nor copied here. All is indecipherable personal mythology…. There are art works (by the painter), Russian things (of Mrs. Gala), stuffed animals, staircases of geological walls going up and down, books (strange for such people), the commonplace and the refined, etc.
For many, it’s a long trip to Portlligat, and only eight people can visit the house at a time. So today we’re featuring a video tour of DalÃ’s Spanish home. The interior shots begin around the 1:30 mark. If you love taxidermy, you won’t be wasting your time. H/TÂ @MatthiasRascher
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It’s always interesting to see how someone would never refer to Scotish people as ‘British’ or Scotland as UK, even though they politically belong to the kingdom of UK.
However when it comes to the kingdom of Spain, everyone is Spanish. I’m aware that Catalans also politically belong to Spain – altough for terribly different reasons than Scotland belongs to UK, ie. a violent invasion rather than a peaceful treaty.
It is not false that both Dalà and Josep Pla were politically Spanish citizens, however, since both their works were huge contributions to Catalan culture and they both defended that (although sometimes not evident and using symbolism – remember it was dictatorship times), I believe it would be a bit more appropiate to bother to mention the word “catalan” or “Catalonia” in the article, together with the word “Spanish” and “Spain”, if you want.
Just an observation, I encounter this not so considerate “problem” pretty often.