Rodríguez Uribes, who is also president of the Jacobeo Council, said that in the official program there are already more than thirty activities, so "we are ready to start the celebration in the spring" of this year.
"The program is the result of an intense collaboration between all the members of the Jacobean Council," said the minister, who thanked the autonomous communities that make up this body and the Associations of Friends and the Association of Municipalities of the Camino de Santiago on "Understand the potential of a commemoration of this kind for the structuring of the territory and the social, cultural and tourist revitalization".
To extend the celebration of the Jubilee Year, Rodríguez Uribes has announced the creation of a working group within the Sectorial Conference of Culture so that all autonomous communities can make their contributions to the commemoration.
For its part, the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, highlighted the creation of another specific work group on the occasion of the Holy Year Jacobeo "in which all autonomous communities are also collaborating in the dissemination of this extraordinary tourist cultural resource ".
The Minister of Culture and Sports has highlighted as a parallel action to the official program, the development of the 'Xacobeo Program for the conservation and enhancement of cultural property', prepared in coordination with the Xunta de Galicia and the Santiago Cathedral Foundation, initiated in 2019 , which entails an investment until 2022 of 30 million euros in cultural assets of Galicia.
The Spanish illustration reinvents the image of Xacobeo
The new image of the commemoration has already been reflected in the Xacobeo 2021 website and in the Jacobean Historietas project, which will be the transmission thread of the program of activities of the Jacobean Council.
Driven by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Historietas Jacobeas has been a project curated by the writer and cultural manager José Tono Martínez and the illustrator and cartoonist Pere Joan. For its development, a set of sixteen Spanish illustrators has been commissioned to create a contemporary Jacobean iconography, giving rise to posters, postcards and cartoons about concepts, myths and other narratives of the Camino de Santiago.
Among those creators, all from different generations and backgrounds, are Juan Berrio, Calpurnio, José Domingo, IRati FG, Miguel Gallardo, Ana Galvañ, Elena Ibáñez, Raquel Lagartos and Julio C. Iglesias, Miguelanxo Prado, Pepa Prieto, Sonia Pulido, Antonia Santolaya and Mikel Valverde.
These posters will be distributed from this spring through the shelters and include a space for pilgrims to leave their messages.
The web will be the main showcase of the commemoration in which you can browse through the creations of the illustrators. In addition, from the page you can download the posters, comics and a collection of stickers to share on WhatsApp for free. The website will also feature the El Camino window today where you can see the testimonies of people who have made the Camino such as, for example, the interview with David Ferrer with which the section is inaugurated.
On the other hand, the logo used in the Holy Years 1999, 2004 and 2010 has also been redesigned in order to update some aspects of the brand and facilitate its application to digital environments without losing identity.
Projects and activities for the cultural revitalization of the Camino
The Minister of Culture and Sports highlighted in the presentation that the program is "very complete both in the variety of disciplines and its wide presence in the territory. It includes all kinds of activities of cultural revitalization in the different communities that crosses the Way , from exhibitions to concerts or scenic shows, conferences or publications ".
Among the projects and activities are the actions for the cultural revitalization of the Camino. Cycles of street shows will be organized and the Camino Escena Norte project will be promoted, a cultural exchange itinerary initiated in 2019 that takes the historical route of the Camino de Santiago del Norte as a reference for a scenic program.
The joint program will include a special edition of the Tierra de cine festival, in which amateur directors will shoot their films on the Camino de Santiago, the Camino de estrellas project with outreach and astronomical observation activities linked to the Camino.
On the other hand, the Jacobean Council will continue its heritage education work around the Camino with the creation of a new interactive pedagogical book on the Northern Roads, which will complete the collection started with Sophie on the Camino and the Fabio Notebook for the Camino French.
The Milestones of the Road project will also be resumed, which had its first edition in 2010, in which the autonomous communities of the Jacobean Council will present a selection of relevant monuments for their great Jacobean significance in a special campaign to disseminate their public visit.
And the National Library of Spain, will exhibit in December 2020 the Jacobeas Comics exhibition, shows that it will tour through different Jacobean municipalities and during 2021. It will display sketches and originals of the work done by the illustrators along with previous images to underline the evolution of the Jacobean iconography.
Tourist revitalization and reception
The Jacobean Council will also carry out a set of actions for the tourist dissemination of this cultural itinerary and the reception of visitors and pilgrims. The objective is to achieve an improvement in the provision of services and the reduction of environmental impact. The importance of the sustainability of the Camino being one of the transversal axes of the commemoration has been highlighted.
On the occasion of the Holy Year, the autonomous communities of the Camino will facilitate the opening of monuments through agreements with the Church. On the other hand, informative brochures will be prepared on the singular natural spaces, El Camino Verde, and a Jacobean gastronomic passport-brochure.
Internationally, the project to specialize during this year the Spanish Tourist Office in Rome on the Camino de Santiago stands out.
An open and participatory program
The official program of the commemoration has an open and participatory nature, so a form has been enabled in the electronic headquarters of the Ministry of Culture and Sports so that the public and private entities that wish may submit their proposals.
All projects included in the official program will be disseminated in the Xacobeo 2021 website.
