Figueres,30 December, 1999
A certain air of surrealism presided over the symbolic act of laying of the first stone of the sculpture dedicated to Salvador Dalí, held today in Figueres. The new N-II main road roundabout at the south entrance to Figueres became for a few minutes the stage for piano performance of the work Nexe by the pianist and composer Santi Escura, beside a six-metre cypress tree, to symbolise the forthcoming construction in that same place of the monument designed by the architect Òscar Tusquets, which will be an enormous steel cypress-fountain 24 metres high. The project was presented on 29 November past to the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation.
Òscar Tusquets himself stated that "only an Alt Empordà region mayor could have had the idea of staging a piano concert in the middle of a roundabout surrounded by traffic". The architect, who designed the monument, was also of the opinion that "Salvador Dalí would have liked this event very much, and approved of the site chosen for the sculpture". The president of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, Ramon Boixadós, explained that this event formed part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of inauguration of the Dalí Theatre-Museum and that the monument - with a budget of 40 million pesetas financed by the Foundation - will be completed by next summer.
