Cristina Iglesias will unveil Hondalea on 2 June 2021, a new site-specific sculpture which will permanently transform the lighthouse on the island of Santa Clara in the Bay of Donostia-San Sebastián. 

The new commission will be launched with a symposium, The Rocky Coast: Cristina Iglesias’ Hondalea in San Sebastián: Ecology, Geology and Sculpture at the University of the Basque Country (EHU-UPV) on 3 & 4 June 2021, available to join online. The symposium is organized by James Lingwood, Artangel’s Co-Director, a long-term collaborator of the artist’s, and features leading commentators from the world of both the arts and science. Speakers include curator and art historian Penelope Curtis; marine scientist Carlos Duarte; curator and UCLA professor Russell Ferguson; Director of Artium, Basque Museum of Contemporary Art Beatriz Herraez; geologist and Basque Coast UNESCO Global Geopark leader Asier Hilario; Holt/Smithson Foundation director Lisa Le Feuvre; and artist Cristina Iglesias.

Hondalea is the artist’s first sculpture in her native city and one of the most important projects in her long career of artworks in public and private spaces. Her work can be found in inner cities or remote landscapes as a site of pilgrimage for humans or as a habitat for animals.

From the outset, Cristina Iglesias decided to donate the work to Donostia-San Sebastián and has worked closely with City Hall over the last five years. Hondolea (Marine Abyss) transforms a defunct lighthouse to create a vertiginous sculptural environment sunk into the island's bedrock, incorporating the distinctive geology of the Basque coast and the rough waters that surround the island. 

To coincide with the Donostia-San Sebastián commission, a new publication, Liquid Sculpture: The Public Art of Cristina Iglesias, edited by Iwona Blazwick and Richard Noble, has been published by Hatje Cantz. In the publication, an international roster of curators, art critics, philosophers, architects and scientists discuss the social and ecological potential of art in urban and rural space. Contributors include: Octavio Aburto, Andrew Benjamin, Iwona Blazwick, Lynne Cooke, T.J. Demos, Estrella de Diego, Brian Dillon, Exequiel Ezcurra, Russell Ferguson, João Manuel Fernandes, Luis Fernández-Galiano, Cristina Iglesias, James Lingwood, Michael Newman, Richard Noble, Jane Rendell, Andrea Schlieker and Jane Withers .

Cristina Iglesias’ horizontal fountains, submerged rooms and tropical mazes bring together literature, architecture, geology and botany to create immersive, contemplative spaces.    Time is an essential element in these large-scale works, which often combine the rhythms of water with cast metal forms that resemble plants or rocks. 

Cristina Iglesias’s most recent commission is a site-specific work for the new wing of the Museum of Fine Art Houston, designed by Steve Holl, alongside international artists including El Anatsui, Carlos Cruz-Díez, Olafur Eliasson, Trenton Doyle Hancock and Ai Weiwei.

Symposium
The symposium is available to join online.
3 & 4 June 2021
The cost is €20 for both days. Press passes available. Free for students.

Press Enquiries:  
Erica Bolton, Bolton & Quinn
Tel: +44 (0)7711 698 186
Email: erica@boltonquinn.com