It is obvious that leisure immediately becomes a matter of little importance when confronted with the difficulties of survival. However there is a wild card in this scenario. Things are not as simple as they would seem. The burden of survival cannot make leisure permanently expendable. It is industry that has understood this more than anyone else, as could be expected.

We would be wrong to see leisure as a mere irrelevance. Where does it draw its strength from? What is its driving force, wherein lies its ability to coexist with survival and occasionally even to flourish amidst the aridity and sweat of earning a daily crust? I’m not looking for a perfectly defined answer – nor do I believe that it is to be found in etymology – I’m thinking more of as leisure as the result of interweaving stories coming from a long way back.

I consider that a constellation of elements that emerged during the process of humanisation lie at the roots of leisure, elements that at the same time have made it possible. I believe that leisure is related to phenomena such as empathy, love, communion, play, curiosity, goalless action, affection, sensory connection to the environment, the broadening of the limits of the self, regeneration through excess, pleasure, the use of the imagination for relating to the world … this is not an exhaustive list but it does indicate my position. On taking these ingredients into account I would go far as to say that the strength of leisure lies in its capacity to give flavour to life. Therein lies its dignity.

I do not idealise leisure. I do not conceive of it as an elixir capable of freeing us from the burdens of existence. Nor do I feel comfortable with a kind of implicit determinism that sees leisure as a single option, as a simple means towards a higher end, a recharging of batteries for returning to work, a simple distraction, pastime, sedative, a liberator of tension, with no value in itself, with no relationship to the conscious, constructive cultivation of different human faculties. I like to present Mallorca exploring the possibilities beyond this fixed and limited notion of leisure.