Show celebrating Cecilia Giménez, who achieved unwanted global fame, premieres in Las Vegas this weekend
A composite of the Ecce Homo fresco of Christ before, left, and after the restoration, right.to save the Ecce Homo painting – which had been painted on one of the church’s inner walls by the artist Elías García Martínez nine decades earlier – met with local, national and international derision.
Fascinated and determined to help, Flack opted for an unusual show of solidarity. One possible way to help Giménez, he reasoned, would be bythat his friend Paul Fowler, a composer, had been itching to write for years. Flack also sensed the story might yet conclude happily for the artist and her home town.
He was not wrong. After a few very difficult months, during which Giménez’s mind and body were ravaged by stress and misery, things started to change. Local frustrations evaporated once it became clear that the devout woman had only been trying to preserve the fresco and had not been able to finish the job.
Then the tourists started showing up. Between August and December 2012, more than 45,000 people visited the sanctuary, which now has an exhibition centre and gift shop where images of Giménez’s restoration appear on everything from pens, mugs and T-shirts to teddy bears and mouse mats. Today, Giménez is feted as Borja’s most famous and beloved resident – and as the person who put the little Aragonese town on the international map.
“She was really taken to task by her neighbours and they were quite mean to her, but I could see all this turning around,” said Flack. “And darn if it didn’t happen. What really finally grabbed me was her forgiveness: she, as a woman of faith and as a Christian woman, forgave her neighbours and everyone for being so mean. For me, it’s her forgiveness that is so beautiful.”Photograph: Sam Jones/The Guardian.
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