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When Ida visited us in summer 95 she decided
to make a sculpture for one of the little fisher
villages, here on the cantabrian coast.
Her idea was to give it as a present to the
village people if they put the uncut stone,
and to do the work not in a studio, but where
the sculpture will find place. So the people
could watch her every day, talk to her...
kind of interactive hewing...
While Ida did first studies in Amsterdam, we
looked for an ideal place. Finally we presented
Idas virtual portfolio to Jose Maria, the chief
of Castropols culture department, because we got
told that this village wants a sculpture for its
new city halls square. Jose liked the idea and
Idas work, and quickly the official decision
was taken. Castropol likes Idas present
and Ida likes
Castropol. Ida arrived in Asturias the 18th of July and after getting a good stone out of the quarry she worked two days in the factory of Manuel Mallo Mallo in Begonte, where she supervised the cutting of the stone, a granito de Parga. Now since the first of August Ida is working in Castropol. The steps of the process can be seen by clicking the following dates.  text by Ida for the people of Castropol, spring 96 the stone press comments 30. July 1996 Idas first look at the raw stone, together with Manuel Mallo Mallo 31. July 1996 The stone leaves the factory where it has been cutted by Eugenio Torres Cainzos and Jose Manuel Rodriguez Seijas 1. August 1996 Early morning in Castropol, the stone landed Ida at work In the morning I have different talks than in the afternoon. In the morning when I look up from my work I see 20 eyes looking at me from all sides. 2. August 1996 The bird slowly grows out of the stone In the afternoon people take their time to talk. The man sitting and working on my stone was interested in sculpture tools. He studied art in his free time. He liked to try them out. 3. August 1996 Old man are watching me for 3 hours, one walk around and just watch me, they don't talk to me. 4. August 1996 A man made a video of me, I asked why, he said, I like to film the exotic. 5. August 1996 A man shouted from far, this is the battle with the stone.And what ist this? I said a bird, he said but a bird is so light why do you make something so light in a heavy stone? We talked about things that are light in life can be heavy, about the oppositions and contradictions in life. A good philosophical talk in spanish. 6. August 1996 My biggest fan is a girl from 7 years. She tells me that I am doing great every day. 7. August 1996 The man who lives opposite of the sculpture greats me every morning. Good morning, I like to see you sculpture, this will be a good memory. 8. August 1996 Older women coming up to talk now too. I showed a woman to have a look from distance. She told me that she has a photo of her father and that when she looks at a distance to it, he looks at her with one hanging eye and when she is close to the photo he does not look at her. 9. August 1996 10. August 1996 14. August 1996 18. August 1996 19. August 1996 20. August 1996 22. August 1996 At 8 o'clock in the morning, the crane arrived to move the stone to its definite place on the square. I was alone with the crane-driver when he did put the ropes around the sculpture and pushed the button of the truck to uplift the stone, the stone falled back on the ground. Luckely it did not break. This sound alarmed in one minute five men who helped then to fix the rope better and the bird went high up in the sky. One of the man was moving his arms up and down to imitate a fliying bird. I like the new place of the bird, his beak pointing in the direction of the street that is leading to the square and I like the way that the morning sun shines at the sculpture and to see the changing of the form of the shapes during the day. 24. August 1996 The title of this work is "Canto de Sirena". A sirena is a sea nymph with the body of a bird and the bust of a women. They lured sailors with their sweet calls to come to them. The bird will follow the canto de sirena. 29. August 1996 |