INSULAE: islands + art

INSULAE is an artistic proposal that arises from the love of maps, the passion for islands and the phenomenon of pareidolia. Combined with the concepts of drift and flâneurs, they inspire the creation of (in)tangible cartographies that immerse themselves in intra(inter)personal idiosyncrasy. Based on the addition of layers from reality and questioning which socio-cultural influences build people's identities, the maps tell stories that allow open links. The interconnected references add a new metaphysical layer that offers a game of discovery of (self)knowledge and that, at the same time, elevates the interior cartographies to a stage of fantasy and, immediately afterwards, returns them to reality to talk about identity. Using aesthetics and geographical language, the project uses areas of life, everyday and specific, to name the maps with toponyms of these themes. The result is an exercise in poetic cartography and psychogeography that moves between reality and fiction. The intangible part is complemented by a tangible, informative part that deals with the interdisciplinarity of geography and the relationship between art and islands.

From the earliest figurative and architectural manifestations of antiquity, the relationship between art and islands has been prolific throughout history. The Minoan and Mycenaean cultures flourished on the island of Crete from the 3rd millennium BC to 1000 BC. A little further north of Crete, a farmer unearthed a white marble statue from 130 BC on the island of Milos. The Venus he recovered became the most representative sculpture of the Hellenistic period.

'Femmes de Tahiti', Paul Gauguin (1891)

The South Seas were the setting chosen by Paul Gauguin to redirect his inner search towards a society uncontaminated by progress. The painter grew tired of modern life and fled Paris to approach lifestyles closer to nature. If Gauguin is known for any island, it is for his stays in French Polynesia: both in the Society Islands and in the Marquesas where he died. In Tahiti, Gauguin, surrounded by an exotic environment, used bright and flat colors to express the naivety of the Polynesian people. According to him, neither realism nor impressionism could capture the drive that emanated from the bowels to represent lost authenticity. In that remote environment, he felt comfortable to delve into his interior, letting himself be carried away by the imagination that the metropolis was annihilating. The primitive style initiated by Gauguin was labeled post-impressionist and paved the way for other avant-garde movements such as Fauvism.

The island environment has become a fashionable trend when it comes to hosting contemporary art exhibitions. It seems that the choice of islands as a cultural setting responds to a purpose of giving more prominence to nature as Caspar Friedrich did. The romantic painter turned the landscape into another character and charged it with an aura of transcendental mysticism. At the same time, the isolation of the island locations can be interpreted as the search for a more intimate relationship between the works, the environment and the viewer by turning visits into unique sensorial experiences.

'Big Be-Hide', Alicja Kwade, Biennal de Helsinki, 2021 © Maija Toivanen

In 2021, Vallisaari was the setting for the first Helsinki Biennale. The island, about 10 km southeast of Helsinki, had been abandoned after serving as an arms depot. Nature reclaimed its space and had become famous for gathering the largest concentration of butterflies in the country. Vallisaari can be reached by ferry, boat, kayak and even dogs are allowed.

Since 2010, the Seto Inland Sea region has hosted the Setouchi Triennale. Almost all the islands are locations for the contemporary art fair, but the one that takes all the spotlight is Naoshima. It has been dubbed the art island due to the large presence of museums, galleries and modern installations on public roads and in the open air. While in the north, there is a Mitsubishi factory, the rest is devoted to art. The Tadao Ando Museum, in the east, hosts works by artists such as Turrell, known for working with light and moving space, paintings of Senju waterfalls or the land art artist Walter de María. In the south, there is the Benesse House Beach, a hotel-museum and on a hill delightfully integrated into the landscape, the Chichu Museum with works by Monet.

The image that sums up Naoshima's connection with art are the pieces of artist Yayoi Kusama. The work of the Japanese woman who lives on the island is characterized by her obsession with pumpkins. In Naoshima, there are two outdoors and near the sea. A red one in the port, to the west, and a yellow one in the south, near the Benesse House. In 2021, a typhoon took the yellow pumpkin from its location and made it fall into the sea. According to Kusama, the action was a performance to reflect on the consequences of climate change and the state of the environment.

Instal·lació Surrounded island, Florida, 1983. © Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation

In May 1983, Christo and Jeanne Claude amazed the world with a monumental work in Miami. The two artists, born on the same day, month and year (13/6/1935), covered eleven islands in Bay Biscayne for two weeks with a pink canvas that they titled Surrounded Islands. Beyond the visual impact and aesthetic considerations of covering buildings, coastlines or islands, their projects traveled through society with controversy. In 2016, Christo presented the public who approached Lake Iseo with Floating Piers. The work consisted of orange platforms that connected Sulzano with the island of Monte Isola and from there to the small islet of San Paolo. The platforms measured about 16 meters wide and the total distance that could be covered by walking was approximately 3 km. The experience of the walk allowed the viewer to apply the principles of land art in which each person modifies the landscape through transit through the territory. In this case, however, the provisional nature of the work meant that the public could stroll through a place where it is normally impossible to walk.

Not far from Sulzano, about 500 km to the southwest, you reach the Giens peninsula, in the heart of the French Riviera. From there, you can take a boat to visit the island of Porquerolles. Until 2018, tourist activities consisted of walking, cycling or scuba diving. From that year, Édouard Carmignac, through his Foundation, inaugurated a museum that enriched the offer with a first-class proposal. Villa Carmignac was born to merge art and landscape with a Mediterranean aroma. The Carmignac family, known for its links with finance, has amassed a luxury collection that includes works by Duffy, De Kooning, Lichtenstein, Calder, Rothko, Warhol, Basquiat, Haring, Koons and Baldessari. The site also has a sculpture garden with pieces by Barceló, Plensa and Ruscha, temporary exhibitions and a prestigious annual photojournalism award.

Catalonia has few islands. But one is very well known in the art world. The third vertex of Salvador Dalí's magic triangle after Figueres and Púbol, is located next to the island of Portlligat. The surrealist painter stated that "in this privileged place the real and the sublime touch each other. My mystical paradise begins in the Plana de l'Empordà, surrounded by the hills of Les Alberes and finds its fullness in the Bay of Cadaqués". The small island was the landscape that Dalí observed every day when he looked out at the sea from his house.

Lichtenstein explosions, inspirat en dues peces de la sèrie 'Explosions' de Roy Lichtenstein