Tatxo Benet did what Tatxo Benet does: he attended the Esmorzars de Forquilla without a structured and meticulously prepared narrative (don't think that's a criticism), in that eclectic format that the Barcelona Chamber has established with personalities who talk about aspects collateral to business. In a pleasant breakfast to start the day, he demonstrated his natural eclecticism, with his business clairvoyance and his journalistic militancy.
The Mediapro executive arrived without papers, unlike his predecessors Pep Martorell and Antoni Gutierrez-Rubí, but he was not at all hesitant in the flow of his discourse, which was a continuous mix of autobiographical narrative through his businesses and investments and his collateral vision of the world we live in (he looks back a lot to interpret today). He doesn't distinguish work from leisure; he defines both as "the jobs I do" (everything is work, everything is leisure, everything is experience, everything sounds like passion).
The first great statement he made, a life phrase, before the clock hand reached nine in the morning, was that, in the business world, planning is overrated (he has not planned anything in this life, "if you're great at improvising, why plan," Xavier Molinas told him when they were both at la Corpo). He admits to having relied much more on intuition than on strategy in his professional career, although later in his speech, it is recognized that there is a backbone strategy, a lot of vision, and the ability to manage the present with quick script changes, if necessary. Mediapro is defined by one concept, which is what has identified and differentiated his company from the competition: the (broad) creation of audiovisual content in an outsourced way.
This argumentative line comes from decoding and understanding the history of television (that brown line furniture that is beginning to be a vestige of the past), something that was a monolithic business (on the sender's side) and the totemic connector with the world (TV was the only audiovisual and asynchronous medium), understood in a broad sense (call it a screen, although he doesn't); now it has become a multitude of different formats that need conglomerates around content emitters to produce them.
From that concept, reflections and maxims arrive that explain his vision of the audiovisual business: First: "We are not a production company," because a production company means nothing (he tried to explain it to Núñez when the soccer executive asked him for his definition): it is a "generic uncategorized in itself." Second: the specialization of audiovisual production creates dependence when the client abuses their condition (for this reason, Mediapro never specialized in anything other than creating all kinds of content). Third: they looked at the world and not the national market, in that way, their second headquarters was not Madrid; the last one is London. In short, their business is audiovisual in generic terms, their space is the screen, whatever it may be, wherever it may be (although football has been their leverage and their greatest advocate of their dimensional capacity to be a differential provider). If a client gives you their screen, which is the connection with their audience, they give you their greatest treasure, and therefore, their trust.
He does not separate ideology from personal and professional decisions, although he shows himself capable of navigating life as a couple with someone who can be as antagonistic to him as a notary from León who speaks to him in Castilian, two antithetical people who share life and make that the nexus of their union. He remembers that some old colleagues in the profession, in the world of journalism in the eighties, warned him not to do it, and he admits that it hasn't gone so badly for him.
Tatxo Benet's approach to artistic work starts from the informative and historical search for the artist and their manifestationThe main reflection that emerges from his conversation ishis journalistic gaze in every vital decision.The structuring of Mediapro comes from his knowledge, as a journalist, and that of his partners, Gerard and Jaume, who were lucky enough to understand that TV3 was their school in this business. Tatxo worked as a writer, news anchor, editor, or negotiated extra premiums with media agencies ("all the papers of the aucaat an initiatory moment).
He does not consider himself a collector (although his words later positively contradict him), because a collector, according to him, must have a method (an idea or concept that structures their collection). His approach to the art world is also journalistic, even more surprising, since his approach to a work stems from the informative and historical search for the artist and their manifestation. He might not buy a work, but fall in love and see his ambition fulfilled just by the documentation process of it (he collects stories).
The Museum of the Prohibited (naming also created by Toni Segarra as The Mediapro Studio) was born from the seed of criticism of his purchase of Santiago Sierra's work at Arco, to become the format in which he filled his collection with artists who had created all kinds of works that would be repressed by the censorship of any ideological politician (from Feijoo to Colau, passing through Trias), with a broad and deep spectrum. Therefore, his collection, converted into a museum, showed that he was not a dogmatist in the censurable act, but rather that he seeks the stories behind the art, those that define the work he buys (therefore, there is concept, and he is a collector). But, above all, he seeks the journalistic narrative. Without the work there is no story, although that is not what interests him most. He is a collector of works who seeks stories with a journalistic eye. He has no qualms behind his work (I believe that the emotionality behind the concept means that he can also be contradicted).
For Tatxo Benet, the company is above peopleHe arrives at 23 years old atEl Periódico, again the journalist within, andstarts buying books at the Ona bookstoreby proximity; from there, a relationship with the owner of the business arises. The bookstore moves to Gran de Gràcia and he starts buying from Montse (the owner) by phone (because he can't find a place to park the car nearby). One day she calls him because he owes her a little over 100 euros. From there, to financing her, and soon after, to becoming a partner. Finding a new location, to turn it into a differential project, with the indirect intervention of his wife (they know that notaries always have relevant information in real estate matters), he found the premises and, again with Toni Segarra in between, defined the experience of the 21st-century bookstore.
Tatxo is a synthesis of concepts that structure a will to do things; he will never retire, he will always have ideas or (journalistic) reasons to imagine things to do. He is clear, concise, decisive, daring, ambitious, which is why he has a clairvoyant leadership that he analyzes with professional vocation and executes without fear of making mistakes. He says goodbye by saying that he will not create another company, because he won't have time (we can doubt this, if he has the idea or the journalist in him resurfaces to defend something he considers relevant).
In his company, the only one left to renew is himself (said by himself). It is not a threat (it cannot be from his own mouth), but rather an understanding that the company is above people; the work is greater than the artist (he is concerned that people are prepared for his departure).
The format, once again, did not disappoint: the small group of guests that Indra, the technology consultancy collaborating with the chamber initiative, did not hesitate to challenge and question Tatxo, who was loquacious in his answers (always direct) that challenged him personally (he is an independentist, but does not make a flag of it in business; he has always gotten along well with Javier Tebas, for professional interests) even if his bookstore is accused of being sectarian (its mission is to try to ensure that its buyers have 100% chance of buying a book in Catalan when they enter it, that is its contribution to Catalan culture).
Tourism (the great noise of Barcelona) is going to be the guarantor of the success of its museum (bad despite some). He does things in personal code, he became a bookseller for Montse and Iolanda, that's why Ona will not expand as a chain (Tatxo will measure very well the energy to dedicate to his new adventures). Madrid is not all of Spain, the Madrid press is too militant in its capital status (La Revuelta is a product of its non-producer that has shown that ideologically it does not drink from anyone, even if someone finances it).