Eulalia Valldosera
Plastic Mantra – Healing Song for the Sea Waters and the Island of Capri
December 14, 2016 — March 11, 2017
The artist worked on this site-specific project in the Bay of Naples between the Campi Flegrei and Capri.
The artist induces us to reflect on the issue of water pollution caused by plastic. In considering ecology in spiritual terms and the environment as a living creature, Valldosera expresses her condemnation through a display of light and beauty.
For Valldosera, art is an inner journey, an experience which entails hearing the invisible levels of our memories through contact with the profound energy of material. The artist becomes a “medium” of this experience retracing the model of the archetypal figures of mediators and healers such as sibyls and, almost as if guided by their voices, physically revisits the sites where they once lived. In the video Il Canto – the main theme of the exhibit – the artist relates their messages in her own voice in a state of trance and through silent gestures which are translated into the language of art.
A sibyl or her archetype is evoked by a plastic mantle which flutters in the gallery space much in the manner of a dress waiting to be inhabited by a figure of whom we can only see the colourful flashes of a luminous crown reflected on the ceiling and floor.
Two fountains, with plays of water and light realized with kitchen utensils, emerge from the shadows: in Fonte dell’incontro, water flows from two ampullae traditionally used for wine and oil which, thanks to swathes of light, creates a circuit of colours. The movement of the liquids, which flow into a third container, is reminiscent of the circulation and energy of the human body.
On the other hand, Fonte del perdono is composed of an accumulation of pots and dishes dating back to various periods in time and stacked to form an ascending spiral which assumes the form of a vortex: a cascade of luminous water metaphorically cleanses the remains of meals consumed in the past. The sounds and reflections of coloured light influence our bodies and minds like a healing mantra.
The images in a video depict the artist as she interacts with nature in sites permeated in history between the Cumaean Sibyl’s cave and Villa Jovis in Capri which appear and disappear in synchronicity with the fountain whose waters alternately flow and remain still.
In the exhibited photographs, water once again represents an infinite source of inspiration but is also depicted as a contaminated site which man has reduced to a receptacle for pollution and waste.
Water, therefore, is the fundamental element of memory, the source of life, a purifying, regenerating substance which requires our attention and care.