update: Josep Pujiula, save the Argelaguer site

picture courtesy of Rafa Castells

Recently, I several times have updated my original post (January 9, 2009) about Josep Pujiula, who since the eighties  has been active in constructing an outsider art environment on the banks of the Fluvia river near the community of Argelaguer in Catalonia, Spain.

Local authorities early 2012 have decided that the high-rising wooden structures were not safe, especially in the case of fire, and ordered the dismantling of these constructs.

Next video (may 10, 2012), a news item on Catalonian tv, shows Pujiula busy in tearing down the structures (fragment starts at 2'40").

March 2013 an international petition has been organized to ask the local authorities to save the site, at least those parts of it with constructs like ponds, fountains and sculptures, made mainly from solid materials like steel and concrete.

Now it appears that on April 3, 2013 the Agència Catalana de l'Aigua (the Catalonian water authority) has ruled that all still existing constructs should be removed, so that the area along the river returns to its original state.

Inhabitants from Argalaguer and other interested parties have issued a Manifest (May 13, 2013), to save the site.

The Manifest (translated into english) says: 

1. The Argelaguer cabins constitute an architectural, cultural and social heritage with a great beauty and sentimental value

(click here to read the full text, as republished in OEE-texts)