This digital archive has its origins in a personal conversation with Rafael Solaz through social media, prompted by a shared interest: collecting. During that exchange, Solaz guided me on where and how to find information about various Valencian artists that interested me —some of them featured in his work La Margot— and mentioned a project of his own that he was developing, Teresita.
From that conversation, I decided it would be appropriate to gather and organise the information about his work scattered across the internet, in order to make it openly and freely available to society and to any kind of institution. Rafael Solaz is, in himself, a valuable cultural reference, and his legacy deserves to be accessible and preserved. My background as a digital technologist and strategist, specialised in various areas of the digital field, allowed me to undertake this recovery and organisation work independently.
The development of the archive has taken more than a year, carried out entirely in my free time and conceived as a non-profit personal project. There is no space on the platform for commercial contact, advertising or revenue generation. The content has been reconstructed from verified documentary sources and from the historical archive of rafaelsolaz.com. Since the website had disappeared —along with its content, images and structure— it was necessary to carry out a process of research and recovery of its digital footprint over the years.
The site is available in seven languages —Spanish, Valencian, English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Arabic— in recognition of the Mediterranean dimension of the Valencian heritage and of the historical Arab presence in the Comunitat Valenciana, a legacy that Solaz knows well.
Provenance and authorisation for the use of images
This site restores the historical archive of Rafael Solaz Albert, which was published online until its original domain expired. Yel Martínez recovered it and showed it to Rafael, who approved it; since then he has sent her new material, published with his express consent to keep the site up to date. Both maintain the site as a personal project of cultural interest, within a friendship. Rafael has also agreed to allow Yel Martínez access to his private collection and to photograph it, for the sole purpose of documenting and sharing this archive. Rights in the pieces and their graphic material belong to their owner; reproduction by third parties requires express permission.