Urbanities,
Vol. 3
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No 2
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November 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
20
I think of tourism in Lanzarote as the result of a branding strategy, which not only
deals with economic factors, but also with the necessary (re)signification of a tourist
destination to position it in the tourist market and to attract certain kinds of tourists. It is
evident that Manrique’s work influenced the marketing of Lanzarote as an Island with no
equals. There, tourists have authentic and unmediated experience with extraordinary
expressions of nature that are exalted in his work. This setting ensures not only the kind of
tourists who will choose the Island as their destination, but also what can be built on the
Island, in accordance with the image that by local law must be maintained.
Discussing place-branding theory in anthropology, however, requires a more general
definition of the concept of what John Urry defined as the ‘tourist gaze’ (Urry 1990).
Together with the homonymous work by Urry, I have also used other sources, such as works
of anthropologists who are currently involved with the study of the value that the concept of
place-branding has for the study of identity processes and anthropology of tourism (See Timm
Knudsen, Waade 2010, de Santa Ana 2004; Silver 1993).
Due to the character of the research itself, this article is based primarily on in-depth
bibliographical research and on fieldwork undertaken between September 2011 and May
2012, in an attempt to discover and describe Lanzarotes brand image.
César Manrique
César Manrique was an artist, painter, sculptor, architect and ecologist. Born in Lanzarote in
1919, he soon left the Island to attend an Art Academy in Madrid, where he also started
building a solid reputation as a talented artist. In 1964 he decided to move to New York City
to gain new inspiration and to advertise his works overseas. He remained in the US for only a
couple of years, but this trip had a great influence on his later works and outlook on life.
Firstly, coming from a small Island and from Franco’s Spain, he was highly impressed
by the modernity and architecture of the city, though not always in a positive way, since he
experienced for the first time the negative potential of modernization in changing the original
character of a place. Secondly, he became acquainted with Pop Art and the work of Andy
Warhol, with whom he had a chance to work. Pop Art was a great inspiration for him,
especially because it gave him the idea of making art production democratic, but also because
it aimed at the elevation of trivial/everyday life objects to art objects, potentially turning
everything into a work of art.
Once he moved back to Lanzarote in the mid-1960s Manrique started working on his
installations, elaborating an aesthetic ideal which he called ‘Art-Nature/Nature-Art’ and
presupposed the acquisition of environmental awareness through art. He dedicated the last
phase of his life mainly to ecological activism, criticizing the progressive deterioration of
Lanzarote landscape due to uncontrolled tourism development.
Seven of the main artworks by Manrique can be seen in Lanzarote. They are, Cueva
de los Verdes, Jameos del Agua, Casa/Museo el Campesino, Restaurante el Diablo,
Restaurante Mirador del Río, MIAC – Castillo de San José, Jardin de Cactus. These locations
are managed by the organization ‘Centres for Art, Culture and Tourism’, created by the
