Day: April 14, 2014

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The Apparatus

Mireia Mainer, as she is known by the members of the Apparatus except for Francesc Bastida who knows her real name, is also involved in the process of assimilating the inevitable circumstances of her life. She knows she could live for a long time in that village located in the Segrià region under the name of Mirelha Arnal and the excuse of a remote working. She is used to move and survive. Loneliness is not a situation to be worried about. Therefore, she preferred not to accept the possibility to hide herself in the safe house at Mallorca street and left Barcelona without Marta.

Mireia agreed to be part of the apparatus, seven years ago, thanks to the ability of Francesc Bastida to hide, with a veneer of morality and ideology, the criminal activities of the group. And money. At that time, the Apparatus was a group of ten people at the most, organized to commit specialised robberies. An important number of these assaults were commissioned. Mireia’s resources, her speciality, the reason why the Apparatus needed a person like her, were her knowledge of Gothic and Romanesque art.

Mireia Mainer was educated since she was a child among nuns, in the religious fervor of the monastery of Ferreira de Panton. At the end of high school she was sent to Rome to continue her studies of sacred art. Her inclination was not born under the protection of the monastery, surrounded by habits, prayers and rosaries. Mireia’s fire was ignited with the revealing experience of contemplating the arc of San Xoán de Panxón, a calling that led her to specialize in Ottonian art and the relations between the Byzantine Empire and the Kingdom of the Suebi. It was in Rome where she found Francesc, or rather, where Francesc could finally find her.

Therefore, the aim of the Apparatus would be an antique dealer in London. The function of Mireia, to validate the accuracy, the authenticity of the object to remove. So brief was the presentation of the work by Francesc Bastida in a cafe at Via Tacitus. It was summer, she had finished her academic life and Dr. Mireia Mainer had no alternative plan, had nothing to lose.

retícula ilustrada

And now, seven years later, she was far away from Galicia, far from Rome, in a house, part of the perfect urban grid designed at the time by an Enlightened architect.

14

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O Aparato

Mireia Mainer, así é coñecida polos membros do Aparato agás Jaume Bastida que sabe o seu verdadeiro nome, tamén está inmersa no proceso de dixerir as circunstancias inevitables da súa vida. Sabe que podería vivir durante un tempo considerable naquela vila do Segrià, baixo o nome de Mirelha Arnal e a escusa dun traballo a distancia. Está afeita a moverse, a sobrevivir, a soidade non é unha situación que lamente en exceso. Por iso preferiu non aceptar a posibilidade de agocharse no piso franco da rúa Mallorca e marchou de Barcelona sen a compaña de Marta.

Mireia accedeu á proposta de formar parte do Aparato polo seu propio interese e non grazas ás capacidades de Francesc Bastida para disimular, cun verniz de moral e ideoloxía, as actividades delitivas do grupo. Daquela o Aparato era un grupo non moi numeroso, como moito seis persoas, que se organizaba para cometer roubos especializados. Unha importante cantidade deses asaltos profesionais, case a metade, eran por encargo. Os recursos de Mireia, a súa especialidade, a razón pola que o Aparato necesitaba unha persoa coma ela, eran os seus coñecementos de arte románica e gótica.

Mireia Mainer foi educada dende nena entre monxas, no fervor relixioso do mosteiro de Ferreira de Pantón, e ao rematar o bacharelato foi enviada a Roma para continuar os seus estudos de arte sacro. A súa inclinación non naceu baixo o amparo do mosteiro, rodeada de hábitos, pregarias e rosarios. O lume de Mireia acendeuse coa experiencia reveladora da contemplación do arco de San Xoán de Panxón, vocación que a levou a especializarse en arte otoniano e nas relacións entre o Imperio Bizantino e o Reino Suevo.

retícula ilustrada

E agora estaba, anos despois, lonxe de Galicia, lonxe de Roma, nunha casa que forma parte da perfecta retícula urbana deseñada no seu día por un arquitecto ilustrado.