In line with the launch of your latest book, what does beauty mean to you?
I feel very comfortable with the saying by English poet John Keats: “Beauty is truth, truth is beauty; this is all you know and know you need”. Beauty is truth. And therefore, lies can never be beautiful.
As you know Viccarbe has grown a lot these years thanks to exporting its Mediterranean concept in a unique way to enhance collaboration and optimism. What does it mean to you to be Mediterranean?
Living without haste. Embracing that we only have the present time, this little moment together, this warmth. Every now and then, in the ‘Guía Hedonista’ Yearbook we return to Octavio Paz’s mantra: “Happiness is a little chair in the sun”. The freshness in white blankets, a glass of white wine, small fish on the shore, beach platforms on which to lay a towel and a book, after-lunch conversations until the evening, the coolness of the sunset. As Mediterraneans, we’re luckier that you can imagine.
Is being a hedonist born or made?
The disposition for pleasure and joy is a gift from the gods, from providence, from genetics or from “whatever faith you want to relate”. I envy those who are born with it – I am not. In my case, hedonism is the result of an obsessive, incessant and conscious search. Daniel Titinger says, “I write so I don’t feel sad”. This happens to me with beauty. I search for it as when it is around, life is brighter.
What do you believe the future of living and/or working spaces will look like? Where are we heading, Jesús?
I sometimes have a bad day and then I imagine a future full of tiny houses without kitchens, soulless spaces, mass-produced objects made by a grotesque artificial intelligence. Other days – such as today, without going any further – I imagine it with large windows, fresh flowers, and noble materials. This morning I watched the sunrise on our little glassed-in terrace, Carla Morrison playing in the background, my wife’s brushes, canvases, and watercolors on the table (of course by Viccarbe ❤️). At first, these tools bothered me – now I love the stains they leave on the wood, I feel it lived. There is also a candle. Next to me, on the pale pink Maarten chair, one of my cats sleeps. This is home.
I have always thought that the solution to all evils lies in reading. Why should we read your new book “Buscaba la Belleza“?
The last thing I would do would be recommending you read my novel. For that matter I have my good friend Víctor Carrasco. He believed in this book from the very beginning, he believed (above all) when I doubted, he believed until the end and today I have finally the published piece. You were right my friend. In short: THANK YOU.
