Carlos Granés picks up the award in Guadalajara for El puño invisible

"A useful book, easy to read but difficult to forget." Fernando Savater, philosopher and writer, thus defined the work Elpuñoinvisible. Arte, revoluciónyunsiglodecambiosculturales(Taurus) The invisible fist. Art, revolution, and a century of cultural change (Taurus) by Colombian anthropologist Carlos Granés Maya (Bogota, 1975), which on Sunday night received the Third International Isabel Polanco Essay Prize in Guadalajara . The book traces, with cinematic skill, the avant-garde art of the twentieth century and argues that while political revolutions of the last century may have failed, the cultural revolutions succeeded and continue to shape our present.

The president of the Fundación Santillana and PRISA group, Ignacio Polanco, presented the award - endowed with $100,000 (75,000 euros) and a sculpture by Martín Chirino - to Granes during the International Book Fair of Guadalajara. Polanco stressed the commitment of the publishing group that he heads to Spanish-language culture and its vocation to be a leader in Latin America, where it is present in over 20 countries.

Savater called Granés' book, which beat off competition from over 145 other manuscripts from a dozen countries, "a haven from the sound and fury of the twentieth century, a brilliant and vibrant reflection on an extraordinary century in which much of what was gained and lost now makes up our world. "

The award-winning author explained that the book emerged when he asked himself what made up the revolutionary impulse, "what motivated a group of individuals to challenge reality, to try to bring heaven down to earth." He then conceived of a work that would cover politics, religion and art. He started at the end and suddenly had an insight that changed all his plans, as he discovered that " the rebellion and transgression of the avant-garde had not been buried by history, but had merely mutated, and was present in our attitudes today, in what we like and what we don't, even in what we watch on television. "

And what then are the pros and cons of the legacy of the avant-garde? "The positive outcome," says Granés, "has been the ever widening margins of freedom since the 1950s. The negative has been the emphasis on the self, which has degenerated into selfishness and a lack of interest in public affairs that has eroded the social fabric. "

Granés shares this elegy for social democracy with Tony Judt (Ill Fares the Land, Taurus), the late British political scientist. "I've read everything that has been published in Spanish by Judt, starting with his monumental Postwar and he has influenced me a lot. And yes, I agree with his criticism of 1968 and the spoiled children whose social anxiety was not being able to make love in their college dorms while in the countries of Eastern Europe, people were struggling for the freedom of truth. "

The Colombian anthropologist first arrived in Madrid 11 years ago to study at the Universidad Complutense. His high expectations were soon  dashed. "I hated it from the moment I arrived  until I graduated. The study system, the routine of lectures that kills passion and curiosity. I didn't like it at all." Since last October Granés has been working as the Vargas Llosa Chair at the Cervantes Virtual Library Foundation, sponsored by Banco Santander, and he has no plans to write a sequel. "I thought I would focus on Latin America but there are all these very different worlds. The Mexican muralists, the Brazilian tropicalism ... It would have been an immense work."

Source: EL PAÍS