Lourdes Fernández discusses Cristina Iglesias' Hondalea, which will permanently transform The Lighthouse of Santa Clara Island.
Santa Clara Island, Donostia, San Sebastian. Courtesy the artist and Artingenium Art Office. | Right: Two siblings look out their bedroom window during the lockdown in Madrid. Andrea Comas / El País
Cristina Iglesias' Hondalea is based around the Lighthouse of Santa Clara Island just off the coast of San Sebastián. Lourdes Fernández is the founder and Director of Artingenium, an office-agency of contemporary art which facilitates the development and commissions of public art projects and exhibitions. Fernández expanded on Iglesias’s publicly minded project in conversation with Shifting Vision.
Fernández explained that Iglesias had several key objectives with this project. ‘One of them is to see the city from the other side, she is also very interested in the care of nature and the environment.’
Cristina Iglesias, Hondalea, 2021. Courtesy the artist and Artingenium Art Office.
This is the artist’s first sculpture in her native city. The space will be a place for reflection and communication and will feature a large cast bronze vessel containing an artistic recreation of the seabed from the bay and surrounding coast region. The water in the pool will ebb and flow with the natural tidal rhythms.
Cristina Iglesias, Hondalea, 2021. Courtesy the artist and Artingenium Art Office.
This fits in with the larger mission of the project to be sustainable, and in dialogue with nature. The work seeks to draw attention to the desperate need for sea and ocean conservation. ‘Its very interesting how she was able to think about a place in the middle of the bay that no one was taking care of,’ Fernández said.
Cristina Iglesias, Hondalea, 2021. Courtesy the artist and Artingenium Art Office.
Fernández said the public art intervention shows ‘The capacity of art to transform a place- to become another thing, to create imagination in a place.’
Related links
Cristina Iglesias fills island lighthouse with bronze geological formations, The Art Newspaper, 2021
Cristina Iglesias infills remote island lighthouse with bronze-cast forms, Design Boom, 2021
Cristina Iglesias wins 2020 Royal Academy Architecture Prize, Dezeen, 2020
Cristina Iglesias | Marian Goodman