Voces del Prado

Oral recollection: Talking with body and mind

Francisco Calvo Serraller, Museum Director, 1993-1994

You write about something, for example your recollections of the Museo del Prado, and then you come across a large number of criticisms, not just ethical and political, but even the way you express yourself and you end up thinking that you haven’t told your story particularly well. However, in a conversation or a message that isn’t so straightjacketed, your testimony flows in a more spontaneous manner, offering a richer and subtler version … I think this is enormously important. It’s very important to see not only what people say, but how they express themselves, how they move, what their body is like, what their face is like. These things are very important because they tell you a great deal about what they’re saying and about their credibility. Something that is under urgent threat today, something we are losing is precisely this: oral testimony.