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Paco Rabal was a Spanish actor, screenwriter and filmmaker from Águilas, a prodigal son of the southern Murcia municipality who starred in many movies across his career, spanning from the 1960s up to his death in 2001, and who worked with acclaimed directors such as Luis Buñuel.

 

That’s why the town is now opening a new “Paco Rabal Interpretation Centre” to promote the figure of Paco Rabal, as a professional actor and director, as well as to promote tourism and culture in Águilas and to keep the memory of the great man alive.

 

The Mayor of Águilas, Mari Carmen Moreno, and the Councillor for Culture, Maido Simó, recently visited the works of the Paco Rabal Interpretation Centre, which are now in their final phase.

 

The project comes under the Sustainable and Integrated Urban Development Strategy for Águilas, and so us 80% co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Pluri-regional Operational Programme of Spain 2014-2020. In all, there is a budget of around 110,000 euros for the creation of the new Interpretation Centre.

 

The 159-metre space, located on the first floor of the Casa de la Cultura in Águilas (which also, coincidentally, carries the name of the actor) and designed by Javier Esquiva in collaboration with Diana Jusdado and Santa-Cruz Arquitectura, has the general objective of telling the story of the actor’s career in a didactic and experiential way.

 

To do this, it relies largely on contemporary museum supports and establishes two main areas: “Paco Rabal. The Man” and “Paco Rabal. The actor”, which will facilitate the understanding of the information about his life while emphasising the union between two inseparable facets of his character.

 

Inside the hall, the exhibition space will be divided into seven content units: “Paco Rabal. His origins”; “Paco Rabal. His relationships”; “Paco Rabal. Heart of Murcia and soul of a poet”; “Paco Rabal and the theatre”; “Paco Rabal and the cinema”; “Paco Rabal and television”; and “Paco Rabal, award-winning actor”.

 

As for the design of this space, it has been decided that all the walls will be finished in a discreet black colour, as will the existing pillars of the building, creating a sort of black box space that serves better to highlight the museographic part by means of audiovisual projections on walls and in the central part of the canvases, as well as the dramatic lighting by means of spotlights to display the original elements exhibited on the walls and in showcases.

 

If all goes ahead as planned, the Paco Rabal Interpretation Centre should be inaugurated before Christmas.

 

 

Image 1: Ayuntamiento de Águilas

Image 2: Wikimedia commons