“Rondalla del Fang”

Centro del Carmen Cultura Contemporánea (Valencia) SPAIN.

Year: 2021

Nature and the Individual. The Force of the Symbolic

The concept of nature has been central in the history of humanity. Unavoidably, this concept is in constant dialogue with that of human nature. Few relationships have been so debated, conflictive, even destructive, as the relationship of the human being with nature. Precisely the singular cosmography that Dulk has developed through his intense art trajectory is based on that axis/whirlwind. Particularly pertinent I find the three distinct natures which Schiller attributes to us: sensitivity, reason and play (“man only plays when he is a man in the fullest sense of the word, and he is only completely man when he is at play*”) Dulk has wisely put into play his passion for nature along with his critical vision of the worrying global situation of the future we are facing.

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 an timeless, universal quality… an ambitious path which the artist can only take from their deepest individuality.

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. This surrounding space which we can visit/enjoy here and now invites us to reflect on our origins. Gabriel Celaya would say, in La poesía es un arma cargada de futuro (Poetry is a Weapon Loaded with the Future) “I curse the poetry of those who will not take sides to avoid soiling themselves”. Dulk, his work, is stained with vibrant colours; a true energetic current which impels us to become aware and act in consequence.

Juan Bautista Peiró
Universitat Politècnica de València

* Schiller, Friedrich. Cartas sobre la educación estética del hombre. Barcelona, Anthropos, 1990. P-241