Chillida, the Conquistador. The Basque sculptor's destructive project on Tindaya

By Mila Parot Zubimendi.
November 20, 1998
(Punlished in Basque Newsletter - Part II of II .number of 24 Nov 1998. Newslwttwr of Lagun Batzuen -EUSKAL HERRIA JOURNAL)

"And I, in the dark, very relaxed, thought: Those who are removing the stone do not realize they are filling it with space; then let them continue removing the stone and I will keep the space to offer it to man ... So much fuss when I only want to create something for man, a great space where we would feel smaller than what we think we are, and more tolerant to one another, a place of tolerance; marvelous. The ecologists who oppose it have not seen the project..." (1)

This is the contemporary Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida speaking about his latest project to build a gigantic cube inside the Tindaya mountain--a Nature Reserve and Natural Monument in Spain's Canary Islands--, as a tribute to the Spanish poet Jorge Guillen. The Canary government' tourist megaproject on Tindaya, including Chillida's cube and a public park, has met strong opposition from local ecologists, archeologists, and grassroots groups determined to defend their environment, cultural values, and archeological sites.

Eduardo Chillida was born in 1924, in the city of Donostia, Gipuzkoa, in Spain's Basque region of Bascongadas. He's the youngest of three children born to Carmen Jauregui and Pedro Chillida, a military officer under Franco. As a teenager, Chillida was a goalkeeper in a local soccer team but a knee injury forced him to quit. He then went on to study architecture in Madrid in 1943, and painting and sculpture in Paris in 1948. In 1951 he returned to Donostia, where he continues to live and work. Chillida began to consolidate his work in the early 1960s after he represented Spain at the 1958 Venice Biennale and won the International Grand Prize for Sculpture. He has received international commissions and awards for his public sculptures for more than 40 years, and his network of patrons and buyers includes the local administration of Bascongadas.

Chillida's work is gestural and seems to have drawn inspiration from the 16th Century geometrical consoles that decorated Gipuzkoan houses. He began working in clay in the early years in France, and in steel when he returned to Spain. Chillida has produced both small and large-scale works, including site- specific sculptures in public and private venues.

Though he is recognized internationally as one of the major figures in Spanish art, Chillida has left little or no impression on young Basque sculptors, who acknowledge their indebtedness to a particular tradition that places a square emphasis on the functions that create meaning. Chillida's work still seems excessively engaged with the "sacred" nature of individual languages, whereas young Basque sculptors are often concerned with systems of knowledge more than with subjective expression. They ask for a "consuming" clarity, seek to reveal process, and show how things work. They recognize the Basque sculptor Jorge Oteiza as a formative influence but it is, significantly, more the attitude of the artist than the work itself that interests them. Oteiza is arguably the most influential Basque artist (known for his metal cubes whose theme is the creation of an active void at the center), and a curious figure who gave up sculpture in the Sixties, arguing that he had concluded a particular period in his life and a particular way of saying things, and took to writing.

Important artists often don't achieve the goals they set for themselves, but they achieve something else, which they may not appreciate. Chillida may be one of them. He has integrated sculptural forms with architectural space to produce public parks that interact with both the public and the space, such as The Fueros Square (Gasteiz, 1980) and the Wind Combs (Donostia, 1977).

But his writers have dutifully followed Chillida's erratic lead with links to Bachelard, Heidegger, Guillen, and whatever can be used to prop up the artist's messianic desire that his slabs of steel be regarded as symbols of poetic expressions of a spiritual dimension.

These days, and after more than a decade doing variations on pretty much the same thing, Chillida wants "to open a place of tolerance for all equal men" in Tindaya and just like the ancient Basque conquistadores who joined or led Spanish expeditions in the American mainland, he thinks it is within his duty to do whatever he wants because he "discovered" the (right) mountain for his cube. But Tindaya, with its lunar landscape, rupestrian engravings, and connection to the mysterious rites of the aboriginal people of the island, has the religious dimension that the art of the kind Chillida produces cannot, despite the incantation of his admirers, sustain what the artist has hoped for.

Do I sound down on Chillida? I am not, but his project on Tindaya begs for immediate attention and review. The entire project attacks those very things that Basques have long supported, the link between our culture and our homeland.

Chillida's project on Tindaya -- Spain's Canary Islands are an archipelago of several islands in the Atlantic Ocean, off the northwestern coast of Africa. The islands were recognized as Spanish possessions in 1479. Spanish conquest of the islands was completed by the late 1490s. The indigenous population, the Guanche, a Berber people, eventually became extinct. Farming and fishing are the principal industries. The volcanic soil of the Canaries is extremely fertile, however, the islands have no rivers and severe droughts are common. Tourism is also important, and the islands are a popular winter- resort area.

The Tindaya mountain is located in the Canaries' Fuerteventura island, also known as "The Peaceful Island." Fuerteventura is a volcano made of fissure vents Fuerteventura has erupted in the last 10,000 years. It has an area of 356,13 sq km and a population of 7,950 (1991). The island has six nature reserves, including Tindaya, and three national parks. Fuerteventura is recognized nationally and internationally for its endemic wild flora from the first period of the Cenozoic Era. Within a small geographical area a tremendous span of earth history is represented by plant species now extinct in many parts of the world.

"When I saw it, I had no doubt. And then I heard about the footprints, that they cannot be damaged. Imagine... I went up and found those footprints left by the guanches and it turned out that they are identical to my signature, but with a few more fingers. Strange, no? They were totally unprotected, anyone could destroy them: one footprint, and next to it a heart, `Marichu loves Joaquin'" (1) -- Chillida said about his first encounter with Tindaya.

One hopes always to see something new in art, at least a new way of seeing something old; one is usually disappointed. Chillida's project on Tindaya is not about new forms. The project is a large-scale reproduction of an alabaster sculpture Chillida made more than 10 years ago. Yet it is new in the sense that, if built, Chillida's project will be one of the most environmentally and culturally destructive schemes in the name of art and that world leave a monumental scar. It would alter the structure of a sacred monument by extracting its non-renewable natural resources; endanger the archeological sensitivity of the mountain, which holds significant archeaological remains; disturb a habitat for protected wildlife; wreck the peaceful atmosphere in and around the mountain; and destroy the unique setting of the history.

Chillida's project requires the removal of 150,000 cubic meters of the porphyry (traquita) rock from the mid-high point of Tindaya, to build a tunnel 80 meters long that will join a 50 x 50 x 50 meters cube with two skylights like huge chimneys, each 25 meters long, to allow the natural light penetrate the cube. This obviously will require the torn off of the top of the mountain.

Porphyry is a volcanic rock that was used by the Romans to build their highways, and has for many years been an important paving material in Europe. Lately porphyry is becoming a popular architectural stone with town planners and architects for construction projects worldwide. Once converted into stone, the porphyry extracted from Tindaya would reach a cost of approximately 40,000 million pesetas. The government estimated the total cost of the Tindaya project, including construction works in and around the mountain, at 5,000 million but has not explain what intends to do with the remaining 35,000 million.

Since 1984 social movements for the defense of Tindaya have been denouncing the extraction of porphyry. Agoname, La Vinca, ELTEA, ATAN, and the ecologist federation Ben Magec have been particularly active in the struggle against the plundering of Tindaya. Most recently Greenpeace, GFN and BUND of Germany, CODA, the SEO/BIRD LIFE, WWF-ADENA, AEDENAT, the Associacion para la Defensa del Patrimonio Canario, the Institutum Canarium of Austria, most ecologist organizations in Catalunya, and 11 ecologist organizations in Euskal Herria, have either issued statements of concern or joined in the defense of Tindaya. But local authorities claim that Chillida's project is "the only solution to protect the Tindaya mountain" from further extraction because it would destroy what's left of the mountain!

The natural value of the Tindaya mountain (408 meters above sea level) lies in the geomorphologic structure: it is one of the few remaining porphyry domes in the archipelago thus, its scientific value in the geology of the Canary Islands. Spain's Instituto Tecnologico Geominero designated Tindaya a site of geological interest and recommended that "special measures" be taken for its protection.

The Law of Natural Spaces of the Canaries (LENAC) of 1994 designated the Tindaya mountain a Natural Monument and is thus considered an area of ecological sensitivity and subject to the provisions of the law for the prevention of ecological impact (Prevencion de Impacto Ecologico) of 1990 and related laws and regulations. Article 27 of LENAC prohibits the alteration of the natural conditions of the protected space and its resources. The execution of Chillida's project which would empty part of the mountain, modifies the natural conditions, and depletes a non-renewable resource such as porphyry.

In addition to the geological and scientific resources, Tindaya possesses archeological, wild flora and fauna and historic resources, as well as beautiful scenery which contribute to the quality of the area.

Tindaya, also known as the Sacred Mountain, is the only mountain in the Canary archipelago where engravings of footprints have been found. It contains more than 250 rupestrian engravings located at the mid-high point, and a significant number of funerary constructions. It has four archeological sites at the base where remains belonging to the aboriginal, pre-hispanic culture of the Majos have been found, including several containers decorated with incised lunar cycles.

Spain's law of historic patrimony (LPHE) of 1985 confered the engravings the category of a resource of cultural interest (Bien de Interes Cultural), a statutory protection that should also be given to the other archeological and ethnographic values of the mountain.

The same land form which is famous for the striking chromatism and morphology has an endemic flora (Caralluma buchardii) with statutory protection (Proteccion de Especies de la Flora Vascular Silvestre) of 1991. The Caralluma buchardii is "strictly protected" by the Council of Europe's European Treaty of 1979 of the Conservation of Wildlife and Natural Habitats. In addition, the Canaries' territorial plan (Plan de Ordenacion del Territorio) designated the Tindaya mountain an area of ornithologic and botanic interest.

Tindaya encompasses a number of historic resources. The mountain was the place where the Majos performed their magic rites. The most visible historic resources are the engraved footprints facing the four cardinal points, the remains of ancient buildings and caves, as well as the many objects of worship that have been found in the areas surrounding Tindaya, all of which is of inestimable historic value to the citizens of Fuerteventura.

No environmental and archeological impact assessment of Chillida's project was ever carried out on the Tindaya, despite the conclusion of the Commission created by the Cabildo of Fuerteventura that the extraction of porphyry is not compatible with the preservation of the mountain's natural and cultural values. Neither has the government provided details on the claimed "socio- economic benefits" of the project. This is the same government that paid a huge amount of money for the acquisition rights on quarry extraction, and prevented a parliamentary investigation for alleged corruption in the deal. Moreover, the decision to commission Chillida was not democratic or properly informed. Local people in Tindaya never have been given the choice as to whether to have a cube built inside their sacred mountain.

Damage to Tindaya will result from outright destruction of the mountain's natural resources while noise and air pollution from boulder movement, excavation and extraction would affect songbirds and delicate vegetation, and endanger the archeological sensitivity of the site.

Opposition to the government's tourist megaproject on Tindaya is led by the Coordinadora Tindaya, which has led an exemplary struggle to defend the preservation of Tindaya for the benefit, use, education, and inspiration of present and future generations.

Perhaps the graffitti that Chillida found next to a footprint when he first encountered Tindaya is a reminder to the sculptor that he too can be instrumental in helping the citizens of Fuerteventura keep the integrity of their mountain and its resources as part of their sense of national identity, valuable both for their own sake and for their role in education as well as leisure.

Pictures: 1. Aerial view of The Fueros Square, courtesy of Sculpture Magazine; 2. Sketch of Chillida's extraction project on Tindaya, courtesy of Revista Canaria de Arqueologia y Etnografia; 3. Architectural use of porphyry stone, courtesy of London Universal; 4. Aerial view of the Tindaya mountain, courtesy of the Cabildo de Fuerteventura.

(1) La Revista (El Mundo) No. 94. Interview with Eduardo Chillida. (Spanish)

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