Crowfunding campaign to finance monument honoring Silverio Franconetti

The group ‘Promonumento Silverio Franconetti’, born as a result of the research undertaken by Luis Javier Vázquez, and whose members include TecnoTurismo and the visual artist Miguel Ángel Muñoz, seeks to pay a historical debt in flamenco

15 October, 2019

20:09

Expoflamenco

TecnoTurismo, a company specialized in the organization and promotion of the local tourism in Seville’s countryside, has been working for several months with the visual artist Miguel Ángel Muñoz and the researcher Luis Javier Vázquez in the preparation of a crowdfunding campaign for the creation of a monument honoring Silverio Franconetti, one of the most important flamenco artists of the 19^th century and considered by pioneering flamencologist Demófilo as the creator of the flamenco genre.

To this effect, together with the support of a group called Promonumento Silverio Franconetti made up by lovers of culture and flamenco, they’ve launched a crowdfunding campaign to take place in the next forty days with the goal of financing an ambitious project which seeks to acknowledge the importance Silverio had in the land where he was born, grew up and developed his great work in behalf of the popularization of flamenco, an art declared Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. It’s a historical debt that can paid with the collaboration of flamenco aficionados, artists and public and private entities on the 130^th anniversary of Franconetti’s death.

The monument

The main element of the monument will be a life-size statue of Franconetti made by the artist Miguel Ángel Muñoz, born in Morón de la Frontera. The main goal of the crowdfunding campaign, launched on verkami.com, is to raise enough money to make a monument in bust format, although they hope to raise enough funds to make a full-body statue. The bust would be made of bronze and would rest on a pedestal with a plaque as legend. In case enough money is raised for the full-body sculpture, it would rest on a pedestal with a plaque and two side reliefs.

The monument is conceived to be located at a yet-to-be-determined public space. In this case, Abel Caín Rodríguez, TecnoTurismo manager, points out that “the intention is to put this monument in one of the places where Silverio Franconetti undertook his priceless contribution to flamenco”. Rodríguez states that “this is a non-profit crowdfunding campaign. The goal is to cover the cost of making the monument, which will be made when that goal is met”. He ads that, as and Andalusian company in the tourism industry, which owes so much to this art, he believes it’s their duty to contribute to the launching of this campaign, so the historical debt that the world of flamenco owes to Silverio can be paid.

Presentations and lectures

The crowdfunding campaign will be presented in cities like Seville, Madrid, Ronda, Cádiz, Jerez and Morón de la Frontera, among others, where Franconetti lived, grew up and left his influence since the mid 19^th century. These presentations will include lectures and dissertations by experts on Silverio’s life and works.

Such is the case of Luis Javier Vázquez, author of the book Silverio Franconetti y los Fillos. Un viaje por la historia del flamenco, released a year ago. This was a self-published book which rekindled the memory of Fraconetti, whom previously had been honored in 1963 at first edition of the Gazpacho Andaluz, the flamenco festival of Morón de la Frontera, which honored him again this year.

Supporters

In this sense, the crowdfunding campaign already has many national and international supporters endorsing this initiative, and which will also contribute never-seen-before works about the cantaor and entrepreneur from Seville, such as the opera Silverio by José Luis Ortiz Nuevo and documents from the archive of Juan Ayala Oya.

Flamenco critics and journalists such as Manuel Martín Martín and Manuel Bohórquez, the academic Luis Suárez, the musicologist Faustino Nuñez, the writer and radio broadcaster Javier Osuna, the researcher Estela Zatania, the professor Cristina Cruces and the researcher Ramón Soler have already contributed to this campaign, as well as the journalist Ángeles Cruzado, the researcher Guillermo Castro Buendía, the aficionado Juan Ayala and the Seville-based Japanese flamenco correspondent Kyoko Shikaze. The campaign is also supported by the director of the Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla, Antonio Zoido Naranjo, and former directors J. Luis Ortiz Nuevo and Manuel Herrera Rodas.

Among the artists who are contributing to this campaign are the director of Seville’s Casa de la Guitarra, José Luis Postigo, cantaor Raúl Montesinos, guitarist Antonio Gámez, lyricist Manuel Melado, actor José Scalzo Gigliotti, as well as others who will be revealed as the campaign progresses.

Peñas flamencas and other institutions have also joined this initiative, while overseas this campaign to create a monument honoring Silverio Franconetti launched by the group Promonumento Silverio Franconetti has also been endorsed by flamenco organizations in Italy, France, Belgium, United States, Argentina and Japan.

Crowfunding website
For more information, please call 643.232.161 (Abel Caín Rodríguez) / 658.314.441 (Miguel A. Muñoz)