Castella, 1992
(Castille)

This intervention takes place in an oval space resulting from the characteristics of the land and the traffic circulation needs. Colour was sought to be the most significant element.

The “Font Castellana” Square owes its name to a small fountain formerly located in one side of the square, which, though modernised, still exists today.

For this reason the work was called Castella, alluding to the name of the square and to the central region of the Iberian Peninsula, Castilla-La Mancha, and more concretely, to the area of Talavera de la Reina and Puente del Arzobispo, where ceramic works have been performed since the 16th century.

The general idea of the work is that of an island that divides a waterfall, which is a metaphoric river. A river of cars that cross the square and transform it into a playful space to continue later, along the water, their ordinary course. And as if it was a carpet or a ceramic crust, the large fountain also contributes to organize the space in a public place.

“Madola’s work with ceramics in Font Castellana has meant something more than an interdisciplinary exercise between draftsmanship and artisanship. It has shown that her ceramics can be impregnated with urban qualities: the tectonic quality and the thickness of the textures accounting for the hardness of the city. Underlining the aspects of public utility and functionality granted to this work, we open the entrance to the inexplicable and subjective experiences between the spectator and the work itself.”

Rafa Càceres i Zurita
Barcelona Town Hall