Memories… with this article we open a new category in our blog. From time to time we will look back and we will add a piece of history about the roots of familiafeliz to the common memory of the internet. There was a form of life before the rise of the internet, yeap!
In May 2000 we started to build the dragon on the wall of our house. It became later a symbol for the spirit and mission of our spanish home.
To understand the allegory of the dragon on the wall we have to step back to 1979. At this time Juan was a high school student and he was invited by the teacher to prepare a lecture about the greek philosophers Sokrates / Platon. By preparing the lecture he fall in love with greek mythology and the way of storytelling. At the same time he was studying chinese IGING and the rich animal-based chinese mythology. The chinese dragon Long is a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people.
In 1986 Antje, Juan and a lot of family members and friends started to rebuild the ruine in the Calle Las Parras 19 in Cervera del Maestre. In the begining Juan was looking local TV in some lonely evenings to get used to listen Castellano. He was really surprised to watch spanish TV. Nearly every news about foreign countries was about a country in Latin America. In every news he watched minimum one notice about Cuba and Castro… Europe… european politics… that didn’t happened in Spain TV at that time.
Fourteen years later we arrived at the top of the house and decided to add a big sculpture on the highest wall. This sculpture should deliver its own story, the story of outstanding people and beautiful memories of community life. And it should give a hint on the future, of the house, of the village and of Spain.
The dragon is placed around the chimney shaft. The dragon enjoy the warm temperature of the place. He is looking over the highest terrasse of the house and he is facing the north.
The dragon, as a chinese symbol for power, strength and good luck, is looking to the future of Spain. This future will be much more defined by what happened in Europe (in the north).
Based on the concept and a raw design Martina – a beautiful mind and professional german stage designer located in Cologne – worked out the body of the dragon in detail. On a roadtrip to the south – to visit the castle of Alcala de Xivert in the Sierra d’Irta – Gabi, Antje and Juan passed a place of an truck accident on the national road N340. Beside the street they harvested a lot of broken blue ceramic pieces.
After 3 weeks of work the top of the wall and the dragon became alive. Short after this the people from Cervera del Maestre named the house CASAdelDRAGON.
When we curated the first exhibition in the gallery of the dragon house in 2007, we decided to use the image of the dragon for the invitation card, as a common brand for the new art gallery in the village of Cervera del Maestre.
By delivering invitation cards in the region (Amposta, Alcanar, Vinaros, Benicarlo, Peniscola, Morella) we discovered that the house was well-kown from its sculpture on the wall.
A lot of guests enjoyed the first exhibition in the gallery. Many of them helped a lot in the last weeks before the opening. Some people where thinking that we quoted the history of the local dragon FARAM. It was not the case. The dragon on the top of CASAdelDRAGON is a more mindful, wise and peaceful version. In fact we added a new dragon to the history of the village and many years later the local youth started to celebrate their dragons in a yearly festival.
Since 2007 the CASAdelDRAGON organised more than 30 exhibitions localy and in other european countries together with professional art partners. The dragon is still looking to the north and is giving us a hint, from where we will receive our future.
The dragon is also a brave and strong commitment to Cervera del Maestre. Over the last 50 years the wonderful citizens of this village welcomed foreigners from all over the world and more than 100 people from different nationalities (France, Belgium, Netherlands, England, Poland, Ukraine, Norway, Bulgaria, Romania, Germany, Sweden, Russia, Australia, Switzerland…) decided to settle in the village. The spanish home of familiafeliz is bounded to the house of the dragon and all its visitors and guests. In Chinese culture, excellent and outstanding people are compared to a dragon. Our dragon welcomed more than 100 visitors per year, some where attracted by art, education or community life, others by gardening or bio construction. Some stayed for days, others for months. A lot of them became friend with the mindful dragon on the wall. All of them where really outstanding people. They created CASAdelDRAGON as a community work, with the dragon on the top.