What have you done, Empar?
Last Monday Empar Moliner (1) did her usual segment on Els Matins de TV3 (Mornings on TV3), this time with the tone of a very funny and pointed artistic performance. It´s hard to find opinion segments on TV that work in such a visual way. When there is a certain provocative intention, it´s important that there is a solid argument and a consistent narrative thread. To smear a photo of the king with feces or burn a Spanish flag for no other reason than to protest against what it represents implies a poverty of wit and philosophical emptiness. It´s simple and vulgar.
In contrast, on her television performance Empar gave to protest a poetry and a story that made it inevitable to give in to this woman’s teasing instinct.
On Els Matins Empar posed the question of what affected families should do after the Constitutional Court had annulled the Catalan law that guarantee energy supply to struggling families. Moliner suggested that they should heat their homes with whatever they had close at hand --for example, a book. She picked up one that, behold, was a copy of the Spanish Constitution. Empar kept tearing out pages from the book and throwing them into a metal barrel with delicious suspense.
You could not help but to watch with a smile. Finally, she picked up a ball of paper from the bottom of the barrel and brought it close to a burning match. Once the bonfire was going, she threw in the full copy. An irreverent and perfect act of protest, ideally suited to shock those who are forever talking of democracy, but are always ready to mutilate free speech.
Beyond provocation, there was a deeper message. The warmth that the Constitutional Court (TC) denied to families in need is eventually provided by the flames of the lighted pages of the book they so defend. Provocation always requires talent. Empar is telling us that, if a body such as the TC does not take into account the most basic needs of people without resources, the Constitution serves very little purpose. A printed book of laws is not a national symbol. There are thousands of wrinkled, scribbled-in copies in the bottom of law students´ backpacks. It´s a simple reference manual, printed to be used. To burn it is not a criminal offense and it is an act of literary and television creation permitted by article 20 of the very same book: the right to free speech. The pity, and what must be kept in mind, is that —once again— the pleasure of some to be outraged does not stem from the symbolic value of the Constitution but, rather, from the pleasure of being able to fire on what truly bothers them, once again: TV3, the Catalan public TV network.
________
(1) N.T. Catalan writer and media personality Empar Moliner is known in Catalonia for her wit and on-screen antics. She is a regular contributor on TV and radio shows.
