Barcelona is one of the world's destinations for skaters. It is because of its climate, which allows skating all year round; because of its walls and ground, with nooks and crannies that arouse passions; because of a permissive police control, and, finally, because of the possibility of drinking on the street, a factor that fascinates those who come from the United States. This is explained by Sören Manzoni, a skateboard collector who has curated the exhibition Fusta i rodes at Casa Seat, dedicated to reviewing the history of this urban icon.
Fusta i rodes, which can be visited until the end of February, begins its journey with the most rudimentary scooters, made with a board, a wooden box, a stick and little else. To convert these scooters into skateboards, surfers from the United States had to appear, who sought to surf the asphalt when they had no waves and mounted wheels from old skates on wooden boards, after removing the handlebars. A wall full of boards with surf decorations summarizes these origins, in the 40s, with slogans such as Roll-n-Surf. Among these boards, there is one for which Manzoni has been offered up to 8,000 euros.
In Spain, skateboards took longer to arrive and it was necessary to wait until the 70s. It is not known exactly where the first ones arrived, but Catalonia and the Basque Country are well positioned to take that title, thanks to the appearance of companies such as the Catalan Volador and Vecar and the Basque Sancheski, the first to produce skateboards in series in the country. Catalonia also takes the lead by having the first skatepark in Spain, in Arenys de Munt, which dates back to 1979.
From there, the exhibition jumps to a typical 80s teenager's room, where Manzoni would like to sleep one day, accompanied by ET. It represents the moment when skate becomes a symbol for young people and invades their daily lives. As it was expensive to get one, they were the object of robberies on more than one occasion, according to the curator. Fusta i rodes also has space for the 90s, with a prominent area for the film Kids, which marked Manzoni, radiocassettes, pinballs and arcades. There is also a neon sign of the mythical Nasty Mondays of Apolo, a detail that is explained by the fact that Manzoni was the creator of this party. What this object may hold is hinted at with a final chapter dedicated to Back to the Future and Matel's futuristic skateboard, with which it was promised to be able to fly.
Manzoni's "Diogenes of beautiful things"
The exhibition at Casa Seat is a small sample of everything Manzoni has been collecting for 25 years in a 200-square-meter garage in Poblenou, where he no longer even knows what's there. "Everything is very crammed," he summarizes. He mainly keeps skateboards, with more than 1,000 specimens, but you can also find pinballs, radio-cassettes, toys, and lunchboxes. Manzoni has bought 80% of the pieces in flea markets like Encants or has picked them up from the trash.
Manzoni defines this imperative need to keep objects that he is passionate about as his "Diogenes for beautiful things." He maintains that he does it because he has the ability to read objects differently and look for their beautiful part and not just the useful one. All this started when he was very young, and his brother and he began to save the drink cans they found. Such was the collection that there came a time when their parents asked them to throw them away, but his brother ended up rescuing his can collection.
Although objects have been accumulating in the Poblenou garage for years, Manzoni did not start sharing them with others until last year. That's when he opened his Manzoni's Garage to the public, the first skate museum in Spain. Manzoni realized that collecting was good, but that being able to show it also had its own charm. "The orgasm is being able to show what you have," he argues.
On the same day of the inauguration of Fusta i rodes at Casa Seat, Manzoni was already setting more ambitious exhibition goals, such as opening a skate museum with the collaboration of the Barcelona City Council. "It would be fantastic," he confessed. For now, he has not yet contacted the council to propose it.