Nature has been a source of inspiration over the centuries. Childhood is one of the stages of life where memories are prolonged in time. If one remembers a story from when he was a child/ he will realize that the memories evoke landscapes surrounded by trees that come to life, movement, as if they were suddenly dancing accompanied by female figures, as fantastic beings of Greek and/ or Roman mythology, goddesses, middle-aged princesses with long hair of golden thread color. All these images that we have been storing in memory since childhood are the result of a compilation of stories of tales transmitted from generation to generation.
This exhibition wants for a moment, an instant, that the viewer is abstracted from the frenetic rhythm of daily life in the 21st century and that for a few moments we stop to think, reflect and/ or contemplate nature from the artistic side. It is true that now man has almost no time to stop and think what is happening around him and much less know that what he is doing is right or wrong. The hand of man in this society has a more negative impact than positive, Especially if we take into account the fierce impact on the environment, that is, nature, which is our lung to breathe, inspiration, creation. Most of us should make an act of constriction and fight for the conservation of our nature.
The novelty of this year by the CCA gallery of Andratx is to include two “local” artists in the participation of the Nit de l’Art 2024 in the Mercy. The trajectory of this gallery since its inception, in 2001 by the Asbaek couple, has the will to work with contemporary artists from all over the world and incorporate artists from Mallorca from time to time in their exhibitions. Lin Utzon and Marta Blasco are the artists chosen by the gallery to participate in this exhibition and edition of Nit de l’Art. Local artists, as such we could not define them , since Lin Utzon is born in Denmark. Daughter of the prestigious architect Jon Utzon, who carried out the project of the Sydney Opera. Lin, from small sale to spend summer seasons with his family in Mallorca that were extended in the
time until he made the decision to turn the island into his regular residence. The landscape, the coast and the light of Mallorca captivated him. Over the years, Lin has become aware of Mallorcan pottery and contact with local craftsmen, such as ceramist Pere Coll in Pórtol, have allowed him to develop this technique in depth. In addition, during his artistic career he has worked painting. Marta Blasco, born in Valencia but for a couple of decades chose Mallorca to live and work. He has sometimes been inspired by classical masterpieces of art history that have been the foundation and motor for creation, theorization and materialization through his paintings and especially in drawing. Female figures are recurring in his works, and sometimes as a self-portrait where the face of the artist or a relative appears subtly. We could define Marta Blasco asa multi-faceted artist, since she has worked ceramics recalling her Valencian roots.
Both artists have always been involved in the history and culture of Mallorca from their ancestral roots, from antiquity to the present day.
This exhibition under the title THE ENCHANTED FOREST shows the sculptures of Lin Utzon as slender architectures that allow him to create a set of painted ceramics around this space of Mercy. “Cosmic Dance” belongs to this enchanted forest where the artist intends to recreate through these black and white architectures to neutralize the color of the landscape of Mallorca, which recall the trees on days of zephyr, very characteristic in our island. This is one of the many reasons that have always made Lin fall in love. On the other hand, the land and especially
Mallorca has a very vigorous energy, as indicated by the title of ceramics, and gives the impression that at a given moment the sculptures took flight to the sound of a medieval music and where all the animated and inanimate beings who live together in the forest danced to the sound of the cithares, ancestral instruments that have survived through the centuries.
Marta Blasco with her work the Sibila 4, drawing charcoal, graphite and black and white, shows us a female dressed in a white clothing, long and covered with branches. The Sibyl was a prophetess of the classical and Pythian times. As Marta Blasco points out, this work, which is part of a project from a few years ago, aims to raise awareness about the dependence on a socio-economic model characterized by technological optimism and the search for unlimited growth. In addition, the artist emphasizes the need for greater awareness of the finite nature of natural resources, the ecological crisis, and global inequality. However, the Sibyl enters the “Enchanted Forest’ from behind, but not without its surroundings, and hoping to raise awareness of the importance of environmental conservation.
To conclude, the assembly of works by Lin Utzon and Marta Blasco have succeeded in this occasion recreating a fantastic world without forgetting and making clear the hysterical roots of Mallorca in an emblematic space, and at the same time the spectator through the magnificent artistic works will be able to evade and memorise dreams that for some will be unforgettable and for others not so much.
