Digital Desert
1995
Clay and straw
This installation ended with my desire for large physical realisations. It involved seven tonnes of clay, weeks of work, expenses beyond my means, production and operational problems... I had few people to help me make the pieces. The atmosphere was too cold and humid in the warehouse where we kept the pieces to dry, so they began to rot. We would take them out into the sun and then it would start to rain and we would have to take them back into the warehouse. We had to do this several times, and each time it took a whole day's work, so there were several broken pieces. It was quite hard emotionally, which is perhaps why the result seemed like a miracle to me. It was installed in the Galería Antonio de Barnola, in the old quarter of Barcelona. The light in the gallery was warm because of the reflection of the red light in the ceiling, and walking around was a great surreal experience. It really did look like an artificial desert. There were many visitors, but it was the first time in the history of my work (there have been few since) that I felt that something different, unique, would be lost forever when we dismantled it.
