Cal Tor, an 18th-century building with a haystack and working dairy cow barn, houses a stimulating cultural project in a town with fewer than 50 people. Músser or Mussa, one of the six population centers of the municipality of Lles de Cerdanya, maintains three cattle farms; This 2023 closed the only inn that worked, and it has neither a bar nor shops. But the residents can boast of Entorns, the space for creation and residency of artists opened in Cal Tor thanks to the drive of Maragda Farràs, a graduate in Industrial Design Engineering.
Maragda grew up in La Seu d’Urgell; at the age of 18 she moved to Barcelona to study at the Escola Elisava; She continued training in Monterrey, in Mexico, and back in Catalonia she did a Master’s in Photography and Artistic Production while working in a digital marketing agency. And her covid arrived, which on the one hand disrupted her plans to embark on a long journey but, on the other, encouraged her entrepreneurial spirit.
As a child, she spent a few weeks in the summer at Cal Tor, owned by some great-uncles, now deceased and without descendants. His mother had invested many hours in fixing the property, polishing the old wooden floors and repairing damage, which made it easier for him to disconnect from everything in September 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, and settle in this great house to develop his idea. , a workshop and also a residence for artists and artisans specialized in sustainable forms of work.
“Once here I thought about how to reformulate this site. I have always done many things and I designed the space and the furniture myself, I have helped the pallets in the works and I have looked for grants; At the University they don’t teach you how to get public aid or how to do this type of project ”, she reflects. The fact that he was so intensely involved in updating Cal Tor has made it easier for him to integrate into the village. “Seeing me breaking stone every day has made them respect me, the neighbors understand that physical labor is dignifying even though they don’t really understand what we do here,” she adds.
She is also the manager and artistic director of Entorns. Everything is in her hands and she insists that if she has been able to materialize her dream it is thanks to her family support.
Maragda receives La Vanguardia at the beginning of July, the same day that Vicent Orts, one of the invited residents, puts the final touches on his work, a table made with old beams, recovering wood from different buildings. Vicent invites to discuss the temporality of the materials. The link that Maragda seeks between his guests is this commitment to reuse. Everything is usable and scrap pieces can make beautiful and practical objects. The lesson has been well learned by the inhabitants of Músser and other towns in the area who have sent them beams with a lot of character and walnut and poplar logs.
“What I want is to bring contemporary culture to Músser, what it is about is that we have it and that whoever wants it consumes it, art should not be elitist, it should be more democratic,” he says. He is happy when the artists who settle for a season in Cal Tor manage to involve the population in their projects. The ceramists Alicia Santamaria and Vanessa Donoso have passed through Entorns; the pianist Marta Cascales; singer Ariana Abecasis; the designer Marta Torrent, who uses metal and wood waste, or the aforementioned Vicent Orts, among others. Coming soon will be the Lebanese Ely Daou and the French Charlotte Bracho.
Maragda has carried out a meticulous search for grants in order to have resources to be able to award scholarships. She has resorted to Next Generation funds and the Generalitat, and has partnered with Can Serrat, the El Bruc farmhouse that houses one of the oldest residency programs for artists and writers, to undertake joint initiatives. In addition to working with calls that seek to bring creators for several weeks, with all expenses paid and a small salary, it also offers the possibility of renting a room for people who are looking for an inspiring, quiet place surrounded by nature. With a view to 2024, he is considering launching a contest to work with the Músser farmers.
He is excited that painters, cabinetmakers or designers involve the neighbors in their assemblies. This is the case of Vanesa Donoso. “She works with local clay, she taught people to make the pieces of tableware and to enamel them, then she collected recipes from the participants and they put together a meal using the objects they had made. That is the objective, to create a community and make everyone participate in contemporary art, fleeing from elitism ”, she insists.
Maragda, 27, has contributed to injecting vitality into this town in Cerdanya de Lleida, at more than 1,300 meters above sea level. Families that dedicate themselves to traditional activities, mainly cattle raising, and retirees mix with younger people of very diverse profiles, from a writer, to a yoga teacher or a mountain guide. “A little while ago a baby was born and there are two children who go to school in Montellà. Living here gives me a lot of peace, I have the freedom to do things that I couldn’t in the city, we all know each other. We do our social life in the mountains, ”she comments.
In summer there are only a couple of cows left in the Cal Tor stable, the other eight graze in the meadows. The care of the cattle is not his responsibility, but rather that of two neighbors who have leased the family pastures and the part of the house destined for the animals.
The space is so large, with an open-air workshop, a garden with vigorous aromatic plants and relaxing views of the Sierra del Cadí, that Maragda and the residents can spend whole days without feeling the need to go outside. In fact, more cows than people roam the streets of Músser, he points out ironically.
