24 february 2016
On Tuesday 23 February in the Joan Fuster assembly hall, Faculty of Geography and History of the Universitat de València, took place the screening of the first and second chapters of the documentary webseries “El brillo de La Ceramo” (“The brightness of La Ceramo”), the old ceramics factory of Benicalap. A documentary that highlights the value of the emblematic factory and its ceramic production that will also be available in YouTube.
“El brillo de la Ceramo” was possible thanks to the work of different groups such as CaminArt, the Asociación de Patrimonio Industrial Valenciano (APIVA) and the Círculo por la Defensa y Difusión del Patrimonio.
The webseries has currently four chapters oriented to explain the story about the metallic reflection technique, the mark of its ceramic production in the eclectic and modernistic buildings of Valencia, the testimonies of people who worked there and the work of the associations for its recover and recognition of value.
The webseries is starred by some of the workers of the factory, its last owner, and the representatives of the three identities that carried out this initiative, a multidisciplinary team composed by the architect Diana Sánchez and art historians such as César Guardeño, Sara Soriano and Esteban Longares.
The promoters explain that with this documentary they aim to keep La Ceramo in our minds, and that the citizens know the importance of this factory that was active since 1889 until 1992, and in whose ovens were made many of the ceramic pieces decorating modernist buildings such as the Estación del Norte train station, the Central Market or the Market of Colón, among others. “Without the ceramic production of La Ceramo we wouldn’t understand the history of the Valencian ceramic of the last century and a half, nor the modernism or eclecticism of the city”, they say.
Thus, it is aimed not only to highlight the value from the architectural point of view, but also to show the importance of its activity and production for the recent history of Valencia. The tiles and wall tiles factory, located in the Burjassot avenue, is important due to its ethnological value, its neomudejar façade and the Moorish ovens, of a great patrimonial value, where the metallic reflection ceramic pieces were fired, a medieval technique recovered by José Ros, promoter of La Ceramo.
This audiovisual project, produced by Alberto Rey Proyectos, comes under the title “El brillo de La Ceramo” and has been financed thanks to the donations of the attendees to the routes organised by the promotors of the documentary. For this reason, the names of these people will appear at the end of the final chapter of the documentary series.
