actualidad local - fuerteventura magazine hoy
actualidad local - fuerteventura magazine hoy
actualidad local - fuerteventura magazine hoy
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28<br />
Año III - Nº 34 - Marzo | March | Marsch - 2009<br />
ARTE Y CULTURA / ART & CULTURE / KUNST UND KULTUR<br />
Tindaya, the eternal dream<br />
of Eduardo Chillida<br />
FMHOY - Silvia Comeche<br />
It all started with a dream that Eduardo Chillida (San<br />
Sebastian 1924-2002) wanted to tell out loud: «Many<br />
years ago I got an intuition that, in truth, I thought was<br />
utopian. To create an interior space inside a mountain<br />
that would welcome people of all races and colours, a<br />
great sculpture for tolerance».<br />
Later, the Canaries’ Government gave him the<br />
opportunity to make his dream come true. It was in<br />
1994 when the magical mountain of Tindaya became,<br />
for the Basque sculptor, the opportunity that he had<br />
been waiting for in order to conceive his most ambitious<br />
project: The Monument for Tolerance.<br />
TINDAYA: SACRED MOUNTAIN, ARCHAEOLOGICAL<br />
AND MINING SITE<br />
Tindaya Mountain, situated in the municipality of La<br />
Oliva in Fuerteventura, has always been surrounded<br />
with a halo of magic and mysticism. It is a cult site of<br />
ancient Majorero natives where over 200 feet-shaped<br />
stone carvings were discovered. It was declared<br />
Property of Cultural Interest, Geological Interest Site<br />
and Natural Monument; Tindaya also represents an<br />
important mining site based on the extraction of a<br />
volcanic rock called Traquita.<br />
When it was first discussed of carving into the<br />
mountain to build the Monument for Tolerance, a kind<br />
of protection plan was created. The initial intention was<br />
to step away from mining exploitation and develop the<br />
cultural, tourism and ecological aspects of Tindaya<br />
through a grandiose sculpture, the greatest creation<br />
of a first class international sculptor like Eduardo<br />
Chillida.<br />
Chillida created this monument as a space inspired<br />
from a verse from Jorge Guillén «depth is in the air»,<br />
and wanted to look for the essence of the spirit inside<br />
the mountain. His obsession, only comparable to that<br />
of Peine del Viento (another sculpture of his), was to<br />
create a cube of 50m x 50m x 50m carved into the<br />
mountain with two skylights that would symbolise the<br />
Sun and the Moon. A space that as the creator himself<br />
described «would not be visible from the exterior, but<br />
once inside and illuminated by the light of the sun,<br />
would evoke the very essence of humanity».<br />
A LONG ROAD STILL WITHOUT AN END<br />
However, since the Canarian architect José Miguel<br />
Fernández Aceytuno told the artist from San Sebastian<br />
about the possibility to conceive his creation on the<br />
island of Fuerteventura, on the way, they were faced<br />
with polemics of all kinds such as ecology, politics and<br />
even justice. Today, 15 years down the line, the utopia<br />
remains in the air.<br />
Nor Eduardo Chillida, or José Miguel Fernández<br />
Aceytuno, or José Antonio Fernández Ordóñez engineer<br />
and friend of the Basque sculptor ever managed to see<br />
the project completed. All three died between 2000 and<br />
FOTO: Ayuntamiento de La Oliva<br />
2005. Now, four years later, it looks like there is light at<br />
the end of the tunnel. Lorenzo Fernández Ordóñez, head<br />
of the Guadiana Foundation, has recovered the main<br />
ideas from his father and from Chillida himself to finally<br />
make the Tindaya project a reality.<br />
TINDAYA IN FITUR<br />
Recently, Tindaya was once again a feature of the<br />
Canaries’ stand at the occasion of the International<br />
Tourism Fair of Madrid (FITUR). This was not in vain,<br />
despite still being a project, the Monument for<br />
Tolerance will be a key element in the future of Fuerteventura<br />
and the Canaries’ tourism and culture panorama.<br />
The island’s councillor for Tourism Águeda<br />
Montelongo, confirmed that the Tindaya Project «will<br />
symbolise a before and after phase for the island, for<br />
the cultural World and for tourism in the Canaries».<br />
Fuerteventura’s Cabildo’s president, Mario Cabrera,<br />
went one step further and commented on the value of<br />
such a creation «for the world of art in general».<br />
After demonstrating the technical viability of this<br />
sculptural idea with a complete geological survey of<br />
the mountain, and if they can tie up all the loose ends<br />
of such a monumental task, the Monument for<br />
Tolerance will become a reality within four years. The<br />
creation of the sculpture in the depths of the sacred<br />
mountain would be the fulfilment of a utopian dream;<br />
the utopia that came from a night of insomnia in the<br />
brilliant imagination of the late Eduardo Chillida.