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Nabarralde | Nabarra Papers
Chillida,
the Conquistador
The Basque sculptor's destructive project
on the Tindaya mountain
Mila Parot
Zubimendi.
"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
conquistadors 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.
"After
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) 
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, leaving
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 architectural 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 headed
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.
November 1998
Mila
Parot Zubimendi is a law student and an environment activist.
She lives in Miarritze.
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. Engraving
of a footprint, courtesy of Revista Canaria de Arqueologia y
Etnografia; 5. Aerial view of the Tindaya mountain, courtesy
of the Cabildo de Fuerteventura.
(1)
La Revista (El Mundo) No. 94.
Interview with Eduardo Chillida. (Spanish)
Tindaya
(Revista Canaria de Arqueologia y Etnografia)
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