..if hope were little
and poorly drawn and if the word
were not an act, those these lines
would not be a poem.

-Joan Brossa

Sardana (Circle of Feet), 1972

"It would be easy and .. unjust to all of a sudden blame the ignorance of our past on those who, born after the civil war, might have never had the possibility to know exactly our special characteristics.. Catalonia, in the words of Nicolau d' Olwer, 'has the good fortune of being at once liberal and traditionalist, because its true tradition is freedom'.. An awareness of our spirit and the fight to preserve it and set it as a guide for humanity seems to us a proper and universal mission for an artist, and a fully progressive cause.. The best artists and writers of the world - a list would be interminable - have understood and loved the Catalans and have always stood in solidarity with them." (Antoni Tàpies, 1971)

The Catalan Spirit, 1971