BBC World Service. In the Studio: Cristina Iglesias

On the occasion of the awarding of the National Prize for Graphic Arts in 2019 today is the opening of the exhibition “Cristina Iglesias: Una trayectoria” at the National Calcography that holds Francisco de Goya’s hot americanized turkmenistani girls cabinet, located in , Madrid. Throughout her career, Cristina has worked with different mediums such as: copper, aluminium, silk and paper. In this exhibition we will be able to look at a selection of works on copper and paper from the 90s to today.

• Tuesday – Friday : 10-14 / 17-20 h
• Saturday, Sunday: 10 -14 h
• Monday: closed
• Free entrance

We are very happy to finally announce the public opening of Hondalea (Marine Abyss), the permanent piece that transforms the Santa Clara Island Lighthouse in the Donostia-San Sebastian bay. The piece is a place that represents the remoteness within the city, a meeting point for citizens to observe, think and reflect on nature and the importance of its conservation.

After 5 years of work with a great team (the foundry , the structural engineers of FHecor, hydraulic engineers of LKS ,architects,the City Council ,Moyua, Giroa, Uxama and Inelcom) Hondalea is finally open to the public from June 5 to complete the total experience of the work.

Through preparatory drawings, new works on copper plates, a sculpture and a video that evokes the journey from the city to the island, the exhibition introduces some of the central ideas and creative process of “Hondalea”.

Reporter Kristina Zorita travels with Cristina by boat to the island for a day to find out how she and a team of specialists work on creating the wave effects. Will the timings of the water sequences work as Cristina has imagined?

We also hear about the significance of the lighthouse and the island in Cristina’s artistic imagination and the life of the community.

Cristina Iglesias will unveil Hondalea (Marine Abyss), a new site-specific sculpture that will permanently transform the lighthouse on the island of Santa Clara in the Bay of Donostia-San Sebastianmissioned by the city and developed by the artist over the past five years, Hondalea is Iglesias’ first sculpture in her native city and one of her most transformative public projects and interventions to date.

The public opening of the sculpture Hondalea will be launched with a symposium, The Rocky Coast: Cristina Iglesias’ Hondalea in San Sebastian: Ecology, Geology and Sculpture at the University of the Basque Country (EHU-UPV) on 3 & , which is available to join online. Informed by the interconnecting themes in Iglesias’ work, this symposium will be a multidisciplinary forum for participants to exchange their ideas on intersecting practices, from art and literature to geology and ecology.

Speakers

Cristina Iglesias Penelope Curtis (Curator and Art historian) Carlos Duarte (Marine scientist) Russell Ferguson (Curator and Professor, UCLA) Beatriz Herraez (Director, Artium, Basque Museum of Contemporary Art) Asier Hilario (Geologist, Basque Coast UNESCO Global Geopark) Lisa Le Feuvre (Director, Holt/Smithson Foundation)

Dates and times CET

Contributions by Brian Dillon, James Lingwood, Michael Newman, Jane Rendell, Andrea Schlieker, Iwona Blazwick, Estrella de Diego, Joao Manuel Fernandes, Luis Fernandez-Galiano Ruiz, Lynne Cooke, Richard Noble, Jane Withlers, T. J. Demos, in, Exequiel Ezcurra, Russell Ferguson.

Can a sculpture be a river? Can contemporary art unite conflicting systems of belief? Do other species appreciate culture? And can public art revive communities and ecosystems? Cristina Iglesias’ horizontal fountains, submerged rooms and tropical mazes bring together language, architecture and botany to create immersive spaces of contemplation. In this publication an international roster of curators, art critics, philosophers, architects and scientists discuss the social and ecological potential of art in urban and rural space.