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The Canary Island’s biggest fortnightly English newspaper read by thousands of tourists & residents Edition # 577
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8th - 22nd November 2008
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www.islandconnections.eu
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Food for thought Photo credit: Phil Crean
Modern art is the bread and butter of Tenerife’s new gallery! Education
Teachers warn minister Teachers have warned the education minister that the decision to call off the planned three-day strike in November should not be interpreted as a sign of weakness. The
T
he opening of the TEA, Tenerife’s gallery of modern art, was a crowded affair, with representatives from all walks of Canarian life in attendance. This was one of the events of the social calendar, and a very welcome change from the bad news recently dominating the headlines. Good too to see that the world of art and culture is
allowed to thrive despite economic worries. The building housing the TEA, the Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, was designed by the prestigious Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron with Virgilio Gutierrez and aims to become a leading example of contemporary architecture. The TEA, located in Santa Cruz’s restored old quarter on the right bank of the Barranco de Santos, next to the Museum of
Man and Nature, is also hoping to evolve as the cultural and artistic reference point for the island. A functional space, it houses a number of permanent exhibitions, including a collection of works by Tenerife surrealist Oscar Domínguez, Tenerife’s main public library, as well as a cinema, a coffee shop and a multitude of exhibition and meeting spaces. On the opening night regional president Paulino Rivero said “the
existence of communal spaces such as this underlines our diversity and our culture”. Cabildo president Ricardo Melchior spoke of the transformation of the space into a point of reference, with exhibition pieces coming from the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Modern Art Institute in Valencia and Rome’s Gallery of Modern Art, to name but some. There is also an exhibition dedicated to the works of English surrealist Sir Roland
Penrose (1900-1984). And as for the performance art on the opening night? Bemused, curious, hungry? Most of the invited guests were unsure how to react to the baguettewearing men and women who passed among them handing out morsels as they passed. Under the direction of ‘the Bread man’, Tatsumi Orimoto they certainly gave the assembled masses food for thought, if nothing else.
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teachers insist that the fight to secure a pay increase in line with other civil servants goes on and the late U-turn on the strike was for purely strategic reasons. “Normal business will not resume in schools until the government sits down and discusses our demands in earnest” said a union spokesman.The strike was called off when many teachers made it known that they were not prepared to stay away for three days due to the financial repercussions on their wage packets.
Interview
Sue Thain British Consul for Lanzarote Pages 6-7