The Art&Paraula Foundation has recovered the olive grove of Cal Coixa, in the municipality of Espolla, to turn it into a free outdoor mountain library. The space, one and a half hectares and owned by the parents of the Ros sisters, combines reading, book lending, and cultural activities in a setting that the entity began to activate in 2022 and where it promoted the first actions in 2023.
The project is born with a double idea that is unusual in an olive grove. On the one hand, to restore terraces, trees, and fountains. On the other hand, to use books as a meeting point in a rural environment, with lending without administrative control and based on each visitor noting in a notebook if they take a copy.
The recovered olive grove allows reading and taking books on loan
The foundation has rebuilt dry stone walls, restored trees, created a vegetable garden, and dignified three fountains. Among them is the Font de l'Olivar, which the neighbor Agustí Mallart had already restored in the sixties.
In addition, the site has three wooden cabinets decorated by the local sculptor Jaume Giró. Inside there are children's and young adult literature books, poetry, and adult fiction.
Oriol Homs, sociologist and one of the founders of Art&Paraula, explains how the space works.
"Everyone can open, read, and return the book to its place or, if they wish, take it on loan and leave it noted in a notebook they will find" - Oriol Homs, sociologist and founder of the Art&Paraula Foundation
The entity was created in February 2021 by businessman and writer Josep Maria Goñi, pedagogue and writer Roser Ros, teacher Mònica Ros, and Homs himself. The project operates on a non-profit basis and has about sixty volunteers.
In Espolla, poetry sessions have already been held with children from the town, who recited haikus inspired by the work of Martí i Pol within the olive grove. Roser Ros, pedagogue and writer, recalls that this activity was "a very emotional act."
The foundation adds eleven sites and prepares two events in Espolla
Art&Paraula has replicated this literary site model in Espinavessa, in Cabanelles, Garrigàs, Crespià, l'Argentera, Vidrà, in Osona, as well as Mallorca, Aragón, and Valencia. With these locations and that of Cal Coixa, the network reaches a total of eleven spaces.
Homs details that the foundation seeks active people in each area, asks them what they need, and provides support with its own resources or with aid it locates. The entity wants to expand the project this year with a focus on l'Alt Empordà and maintains contacts in Catalunya Nord for cross-border initiatives.
The immediate calendar in Espolla includes an activity on Friday, May 22, with the presence of oral storyteller Albert Estengre, director of the Arenys de Contes festival.
Afterwards, there will be a tribute to the pedagogue Antoni Balmanya and his wife Maria Carlas. Josep Maria Goñi, businessman, writer, and founder of the entity, maintains that it will be an event in which the entire town will participate.
Roser Ros places part of the meaning of that call in Maria Carlas, considering that her figure has disappeared from collective memory despite being a teacher and a daughter of Espolla. The event will also include a theatricalized dialogue between Balmanya and Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, the participation of the Grallers d'Espolla, and a poetry reading by a Basque author.
The event will be held on Saturday, June 13, with the participation of writer Joan Vergés and Pere Solà, a professor at the University of Barcelona.