Exhibitions
Indoor
Rondalla del Fang
Year
2021
Location
València, Spain
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Organized and managed by
Dulk Studio, CCCC (Centro del Carmen Cultura Contemporánea)
Collaborators
Dulk Studio, Mantra (Painter), Pabro Vera (SEO/BirdLife), Vidal Valle Pechuan (Photographer) Latorre y Sanz Artesanos (Fallas artists), Fran Picazo (curator), Mar Benegas (Writer), Héctor Ferrández (Teacher), Jesús Amable Gil (Photographer), Andreu Signes (Video), Sara Sáez (Manager), Antonio Ballesteros (Graphic Design), Daniel Gomz (3D modeling), Jose Antonio Picazo (Logistics).
The project Rondalla del fang (Song of Mud) includes multiple elements characteristic of his poetics, (his creative work) perfectly distilled in the very title. Rondalla is both an ensemble of string instruments and a brief popular song of oral tradition and mythical origins. Mud is the fusion of two fundamental elements: soil and water, which bring us to the very act of Creation in our Judeo-Christian culture… However, rondalla and mud both point to, highlight and hit the bullseye of both cultural markers in the Valencian identity which we could specify in the figure of Enric Valor and the natural landscape of La Albufera.
-Joan Peiró
The natural landscape of l’Albufera
The project Rondalla del fang (Song of Mud) includes multiple elements characteristic of his poetics, (his creative work) perfectly distilled in the very title. Rondalla is both an ensemble of string instruments and a brief popular song of oral tradition and mythical origins. Mud is the fusion of two fundamental elements: soil and water, which bring us to the very act of Creation in our Judeo-Christian culture… However, rondalla and mud both point to, highlight and hit the bullseye of both cultural markers in the Valencian identity which we could specify in the figure of Enric Valor and the natural landscape of La Albufera.
Culture and matter, nature and humanity, music and writing and painting and installation, artist and viewer… all actively flow into that particular lapse of a day which extends through a set of powerful symbolic images.
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Rondalla del fang by Mar Benegas
There was a time in which Water, daughter of Winter and transparent sister of Snow, could not mix with anything. Neither with oil, nor blood, dust nor ashes. There was a time in which Soil, daughter of Spring and dark sister of Roots, could not give life. Neither could plastic, iron nor diamonds.
There was a time in which Water and Soil loved each other from a distance. Torrents roared angrily, trying to touch the soil that sustained them. And rain repeatedly hit the aridness of desert sand. And Soil would let itself open, like an apple wanting the freshness of water to inseminate it. But nothing sufficed…
“But I would like to live in a place in which we all rowed in the same direction with a single objective, which would be above all interests, individual, subjective, partisan or which could benefit only one collective. In which the lake, and all natural life that lives in it would be the biggest worry and the only variable to have into account.”
-Vidal Valle Pechuan, Photographer
L’Albufera, however, also suffered industrialization and farming intensification. Pollutants, heavy metals, herbicides and pesticides: without environmental regulations to protect it, the lagoon of l’Albufera, transparent, full of life, was, in a few years on the abyss of environmental collapse, falling silently into the emptiness of dark, murky waters. Fishing communities after centuries linked to aquatic life saw themselves without a future. Wetlands in general, and those of l’Albufera particularly, are ecosystems depending on delicate balances, as reflected in these lines.
Without high quality, abundant water, l’Albufera becomes even more vulnerable to the new pressures and threats such as climate change, which effects reduce even more the amount of water reaching the wetland, and increases saline intrusion, which is threatening rice crops in some areas.
“Enfangats” by l’Albufera
A series of lagoons surrounded by giant reeds and reedmace can be seen in the distance, against the green landscape of the rice paddies. As they get closer, red-crested pochards and coots become sharply defined, swimming and feeding their chicks on the lake shore. They are indicators of the quality of water and aquatic habitats, and only 60 years ago there were around one thousand pairs of each species nesting on the shores of the lagoon of l’Albufera.
Thousands of years ago the same water and soil closed a bay with the sediments transported into the sea by the rivers Turia and Júcar. Named Al-Buhaira by the Arabs who navigated it, captivated by its beauty and which, like a water mirror, lluent (resplendent), gleaming with light and colors at sunrise and sunset
The time has come for l’Albufera for all, where all interests coexist in harmony, under the ensign of nature. It is time for l’Albufera of life, l’Albufera of colors. From the green of submerged plants and rice, to the blue of lagoons and winter flooding, to the white of egrets, the pink of flamingos, the grey of herons and eels, the yellow of the rice seed, the transparency of water and gambetas (freshwater shrimp). It is time to get down in the mud, to recover l’Albufera.
– Pablo Vera SEO/Birdlife
The process of bringing Rondalla del Fang to life started sketching from the pictures —I took in the investigation process— with the space that we had available in the museum. We wanted to create an atmospheric space through the murals and sculptures, sound and lights, bringing a unique experience to the viewer of being inside of the mud, the entrails of the Albufera.
The best thing that I can take from this experience was being able to work with such a various team, with so many different people and expertise. It was amazing to create something so personal to everyone collaborating in the project, not only by working in our city, Valencia, but also being able to display this precious ecosystem to whole the world.
Where everything comes alive
This was the first project in which we collaborated with a huge professional team of different disciplines to create a unique installation where every part could offer their best performance. We relied on the support of fallas artists, 3d designers, sound engineers, writers and more to obtain the best experience that we could.
After the studio’s drafting process we headed to the museum’s exhibitive space, where we were working for a month over different mural paintings, the installation of the sculptures, sound and illumination. This was the most special part of the process to me. I was finally able to see how everything was coming together in the same space.
“Throughout his mural work, paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures the dialectic between totality and individuality becomes obvious, between the atavistic generosity of creating nature and the extreme selfishness of the predatory contemporary man. However, the critical commitment that indubitably animates his work does not negate the capacity which we have to reverse that painful process of annihilation. Dulk is fully aware of the symbolic power that art holds, probably one of the human manifestations of greater depth and reach. Cassirer argued that “man (human beings) is a symbolic animal”. If play is linked to sensitivity, the symbol may be found to be linked to reason. Symbols hold a timeless, universal quality… an ambitious path which the artist can only take from their deepest individuality.”
-Joan Peiró
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