CURRENT EXHIBITION
From thalassotherapy, or the use of the therapeutic properties of seawater, to its recreational use, a series of links are established between man and the action of bathing in the sea.
This relationship between the immersed body and the oceanic nature that surrounds it is determined by conditions such as temperature, current, wind or depth. But more than these physical sensations, what is transferred from this experience to painting is the delimitation of that unfathomable space that seawater represents, achieved through the creation of spaces such as ponds, bays or even artificial pools, which turn this abyss into a place of pleasure, as safe as it is pleasant.
For example, it is impossible not to go to the public swimming pool of a small inland town, filled with water from a river. Born in the Serra Grossa, it flows through sinkholes whose mineral remains make it salty like seawater when it returns to the surface. This salt pond is the subject of an immediately preceding project by the artist.
In this context, the image of the missing bathhouses on Postiguet beach also comes to mind, curious floating constructions that were built over the sea, delimiting an interior space for swimming and leisure. Through long walkways that crossed the sand and its inconveniences, one could reach the Diana, the Alhambra or the Alliance. At the beginning of the twentieth century, these places were the remains of balneotherapy tourism and the direct forerunners of our summer holidays. What is interesting in this case is not so much the fact that someone could pay to bathe in the sea – let us not forget that this is something that is still very much alive. What we want to explore is that in the extension of these forms, which adapt to and demarcate the landscape, we find the images of, or even direct references to, what is shown in this exhibition.
The literary element is, as always, present in all the artist’s projects. On this occasion, The Russian Bathtub takes its name from a small corner of the Mediterranean coast, just large enough to get into the water in the shade of the rocks. This place, so called by the locals, was the favourite bathing spot of the wife of a Tsarist colonel who landed in this coastal area while fleeing the Russian Revolution of 1917. Apparently, the local fishermen gave it this name because of the lady’s habit of bathing naked. This little story accompanies the narrative of the exhibition and, in case anyone forgets, a pool staircase in the middle of the room gives us access to perhaps the whole floating universe.