Organized by Rubén’s family and friends Margalló-Ecologistes collaboration in Acció Elx and the commemorative event dedicated to Rubén Sempere is being prepared at Casal d’Elx-ACPV, Casal, Carrer Sant Jordi, 2. On November 10, 2023 at 19:00.
There will be a photography exhibition featuring photographs taken by Rubén and photographs of different authors featuring Rubén. Multimedia projection of Rubén’s images and a compilation of actions and demonstrations environment, pacifism and social justice. Musical performance by Sarah Mirete and Pablo Gonzáles, members of the band “Zarzagán”. Conversations and words of friends.
Rubén Sempere (1945-2023) died in Elche on 27 June 2023, aged 78. Rubén was one of the founding members of the Margalló-Ecologistes in Acció Elx, as well as the Club of Friends of Unesco, the Committee of Solidarity with Latin America, Entre Pobles and other influences related to the environmental, political and cultural situation of the city. An advocate of the Valencian language and passionate about hiking. He is very close to his friend Andreu Castillejos and a frequent collaborator of Esbart Zero. If Rubén helped us organize the exhibits we saved, the paintings would be neater than ever; with a simple clip or latch The slightest deviation of the frame to the right or left was corrected. Rubén was a real toolbox.
In September 2006, Ruben, Castillejos, Paco Miron and I went on a beautiful road trip in Morocco in Paco’s caravan. This time, it’s a trip that has nothing to do with work. Visiting people Paco knows. To be very well received. We were in TattiouineIn the foothills of the Atlas, in the palm groves of Tafilalet and in the dunes of Merzouga.
The small village of Tattiouine, about nine kilometers from Midel, was an authentic Christmas nativity scene that we all fell in love with. It consisted of approximately 20 families scattered in adobe houses in the area, without running water or electricity. And he is surrounded by fowls and flocks of all kinds. Andreu and Rubén were keeping to themselves and making plans for after retirement: Rubén was going to set up a bicycle wheel repair shop. For now, once he arrived in Elche, he would devote himself to collecting old bicycles, repairing them, and sending them to Tattiouine. When we retired we would all come back to live there for a while and teach them how to patch bike tires. We all agreed. Andreu and I would paint a collection of landscapes that, no matter how beautiful they were, could be taken away from us. We dream and we dream.
Image used in the brochure discretion Rubén belongs to that trip. Taken from a group photo of us posing with a large family of 16. They invited us to dinner that day. roasted goat meat. We started eating as all the men sat around the large plate of chopped meat. At one point I noticed that Rubén to my right wasn’t eating meat or talking. I asked him how things were going, and he covered his mouth with his hand and said it was bad: He didn’t know which piece of meat he took, but that didn’t happen; Everything was twisting and turning and I couldn’t break down or swallow. He hoped everyone was distracted so he could take it out of his mouth and put it in his pocket. I tell him Paco Miron He was on my left and told me: “The piece Ruben is carrying in his mouth is a goat’s penis.”
The stenciled street graffiti we dedicated to Rubén in the event’s informative brochure is inspired in a context by the aesthetics of popular heroes we have seen so many times on the walls of the streets. traditional graffiti. Our favorite activist already appears in our imagination as a mold of Che or Sandino, a graffiti act of remembrance and tribute. Thanks to our friend Sergio Van Hul For excellent image conversion work under such difficult conditions. Two paintings were made: one for the Margalló-Ecologistes headquarters in Acció Elx, the other for Casal d’Elx-ACPV, which Rubén frequently visited. To be continued…