actualidad local - fuerteventura magazine hoy

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