Article originally published in Bondia AD
Escaldes will plant in the summer in the public street a series of steel pieces by the Castilian sculptor Jordi Díez Fernández.
S’hi va estrenar fa un decenni amb els ossets de dEmo. Then came Lalín’s porquets, Toutain’s protruding figures, Ripollès’ unmanicured faces and, last year, Laurence Jenkell’s methacrylate candies. And we do not neglect the Carmencitas d’Antonio López. Escaldes has become accustomed in recent years to welcome the summer with a temporary exhibition of sculpture in the public street, and this 2018 will be no less: the chosen one is the sculptor Jordi Díez Fernández -attentive to the order of the cognoms- born in Valladolid, formed in Madrid and established in the Barcelona town of Centelles, and who will appear with a dozen of steel, medium and large format pieces that he will plant in different spaces of the parish.
This was confirmed yesterday by Salomó Benchluch, Minister of Culture, who also warned that neither the total number of pieces nor their definitive location has yet been determined. Jenkell’s candies and Lalín’s pork products were distributed along Carlemany Avenue; Carmencitas, in Coprínceps, and Ripollés’s beans, in Arnaldeta de Caboet. The Comú is awaiting an upcoming visit from the artist, who will personally inspect the available spaces. Carlemany will obviously be one of the shop windows, but not the only one, and always bearing in mind – says Benchluch – the remodeling works of Vivand, which will start after Easter in the upper part, which will go down along the commercial axis and which will be busy during the summer months.
And it is just in this period that Díez’s sculptures are back up here. They will remain there until September, and with the images on the side you can already get an idea of what is the proposal of the Castilian artist: it is about free-standing figures armed with stainless steel varnishes that – says Díez – “are in all directions, with denser and more material areas and others of more ages, and with which I cover the air contained in the fish”.
Díez practices an eminently figurative sculpture, in which the human figure is usually the main protagonist, of great effect and which you may find vaguely familiar: as Benchluch himself warned yesterday, they have some reminiscence of the metal installations of Philipppe Lavail, especially the Gel LadyThe proportions are not so monumental, however. That is, of course, if they have not paraded in recent times by the Àbac, the Barcelona restaurant of the television Jordi Cruz -the one of Masterchef, yes-, where last year he exhibited a series of works, including Los amantes de acero. Here we could add, among these reminiscences, from three of Plensa’s works from the old BPA collection -the two of them in the inner courtyard of the Cierco building, and the one that is (or was) in Sant Antoni street in Escaldes, to the house of the disappeared bank- to the cows, geese, bears and other beasts with which the orderly Toni Cruz has been sowing the roundabouts of the old BPA collection, at the site of the disappeared bank- up to the cows, geese, bears and other beasts with which the orderly Toni Cruz has been sowing the roundabouts of the country -and of La Seu, it is clear. Not to mention Trapezi, Fernando de Blasi’s penjat home in the old main street of the capital.
This was not always the case, because Díez Cruz did not see the light of day until 2007, when he began to experiment with the language that eventually became his trademark. Previously he had worked with mud, wood and stone. Among the milestones of his artistic career is his participation in Expo 92 in Seville and Art Bassel (2014). He has public works in Majadahonda(Leda), Masella ski resort(Strength Center) and Centelles(Homenatge a Ildefons Cerdà).
Ara Malikian, on March 25 at Prat del Roure
Ara Malikian returns. It will be on March 25 at the Prat del Roure Escaldenc, and in the premiere of the 34th edition of the festival Colors de Música. The tickets, all seated and at prices ranging between 20 and 25 euros, can be purchased from Monday on the website of the Comú, as well as the Transit service and the tourist office of the parish. It will be the second time that the Spanish-Lebanese violinist trepitja els escenaris andorrans, after making his debut in January 2017 at the Auditori Nacional. On that occasion the tickets sold out two days after they went on sale, and the Comú Escaldenc has wanted to take advantage of the undoubtedly popular success and at the same time give a new opportunity to those who were left without tickets at that time. The conseller of Culture, Salomó Benchluch, hoped to fill the 700 localities of the Prat de Roure with a proposal destined to the familiar public. For this reason it has been programmed on the first day of the Easter holidays and at a time (seven o’clock in the afternoon) adapted to the youngest. Malikian will appear at the head of a septet that includes corda -viola, violoncello, contrabass, guitar and of course violin- as well as percussion and Indian tables. The show is part of the marathon tour L’extraordinària història del violí, but with a renewed repertoire compared to last year’s show. As for Colors of Music, the festival will be extended as usual until December 6, with the usual gospel concert, and this edition will have a special program to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the segregation of Escaldes. The details, soon.
