If Alive was an art show exhibited at the Museu de l’Empordà, Gerona, in the spring of 2003, while Anna Capella was director of the museum. It had as its main subject the beginning of preparations, twenty-three years in advance, for a birthday party scheduled to happen at the museum’s facilities on the 10th of January, 2026. Manuel Saiz, the author of this book will, if alive, be sixty-five that day.
If Alive fue una exposición que se presentó en el Museu de l’Empordà (Gerona) en primavera 2003, cuando Anna Capella dirigía la institución. Tenía como motivo principal el comienzo de los preparativos,con veintitrés años de antelación, de una fiesta de cumpleaños que se ha de celebrar en las instalaciones del museo el 10 de enero de 2026. Manuel Saiz, el autor de este libro, cumplirá ese día, if alive, sesenta y cinco años.
If Alive (Si sóc viu) Del 20 de juny al 14 de setembre de 2003
Vídeo camera: Juande Jarillo
Treball en ferro: Roberto Pajares
Disseny catàleg: bis]
Coordinació: Eva Blanch i Anna Capella
Maquillatge: Eva Quílez
Fotografia: Jordi Puig
The Invite
If Alive Expectations
# 1 golf
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# 2 hospital
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# 3 homeless
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Make up: Eva Quilez
Photography: Jordi Puig
Digital manipulations: Juande Jarillo
Let's Think Positive
Iron, neon light
Width 226 cm, Height 40 cm
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Iron work: Roberto Pajares
Neon: Setulux (Barcelona)
Twenty Years Later
Video. DVcam. 14 min.
A 14 minutes video showing the process of making up the artist to look 65. Edited as a fictional documentary.
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The party is scheduled for 8 pm on the 10th of January 2026. Along the years of the project some arrangements for the success of the party are being made.
There is a list of 230 guests. Many of them may not make it to the date, or may have forgotten by then. I continue inviting people I meet. In this form guest may update their attendance expectations.
The party will take place at the Museu L’Empordà, in the Catalonian town of Figueres. The reservation of the venue was made in 2003, twenty three years in advance.
I wrote a letter to the direction of the Museum asking for the permission to use the facilities of the Museum the 10th of January of 2026 in relation with this exhibition. The reply is an official commitment of the Museum to host my 65 year old party. It passed the direction board of the Museum, presided by the mayor of the city.
Request
10 May 2003
Mr Joan Armangué Ribas
President of the Consortium of the Museum of the Ampurdan
Ramblas, 2
17600 Figueras
Dear Mr Joan Armangué Ribas,
I am writing to you to request your collaboration in the execution of the artistic project on which I am working and which I wish to present as an exhibition in the Museum of the Ampurdan in Figueras next June.
The show revolves around an idea of the future, understood here as individual expectations about the length and condition of life. To reflect on this theme, I have decided to focus the subject of the exhibition on the preparation of a birthday party at a date which is far enough in the future to make it a risky venture but within present possibilities of life expectancy. This party would take place on 10th January 2026, on the occasion of my sixty-fifth birthday, and it would give a lot of meaning to the project if the celebration could take place in the same spaces of the museum in which the project is now being presented.
I would like to ask you for the corresponding permission to use the museum’s facilities to host this event.
Thank you for you attention and I hope this project is of interest to you and makes it possible for the museum to commit itself to the hosting of this celebration.
Yours sincerely
Manuel Saiz
Commitment
R/N:JM/decrees 2003
Subject: Use of Exhibition Room
Museum of the Ampurdan
Manuel Saiz
11 Rowhill Mansions,
Rowhill Road
London E5 8ED – UK
On 9 June 2003, The Presidency of the Consortium of the Museum of the Ampurdan has decided the following Decree:
“In relation to the request by Manuel Saiz who, acting on his own behalf, has applied for the use of the temporary exhibition room of the Museum of the Ampurdan on the 10th January 2026, in order to celebrate his birthday.
Considering that this request is linked to the execution of the project which Manuel Saiz is presenting in the same space of the Museum of the Ampurdan from the 20th June to 31st August of this year.
Considering the peculiar and exceptional nature of the request, which has been submitted for the approval of the Full Council of the Consortium of the Museum of the Ampurdan, through information from the Museum Director, this Presidency has RESOLVED:
1.- To authorise the use of the temporary exhibition room of the Museum of the Ampurdan by Manuel Saiz on 10th January 2026.
2.- Not to charge for the hire of the temporary exhibitions room in the event that, at that time, there were to be fiscal regulations of the Consortium which might apply any regulatory charge for the commercial use of the room.
3.- That this authorisation shall be binding on the body responsible for the management of the building, committing them to allow the use of this space in the conditions and with the equipment that the room normally may have available at such a time.
4.- That the applicant promises only to use the room for the purpose for which he has requested it and for no other, and to submit the programme of activities to be presented, in writing, at least three months before the given date.
5.- To communicate this agreement to the applicant”.
We hereby communicate the above to you for your information and for the corresponding purposes.
Josep M. Marcé Company
Secretary-Auditor
Figueras, 9th June 2003
There will be wine served at the party, which is reserved and following its process of again since 2006. The guest will taste a very especial red and white Viña Tondonia 2006, by Bodegas López Heredia. www.lopezdeheredia.com
