Mediterrània, 1995
(Mediterranean)

With the aim to remember the twinning of the cities of Manchester, in Lancashire, and Barcelona, in Catalonia, and to celebrate the Catalan Art Festival, I was invited to present an intervention project in the Catalan Square, in the heart of Manchester, to be inaugurated in the above mentioned festival.

My idea was to depict the relationship between the sun, water and industry (pillars of both cities) and to this aim I used enamelled ceramics with written texts in the two languages: English and Catalan. I wanted to represent the sun as the source of life of the Mediterranean; hence the name of the piece: Mediterrània.

It is a circular piece of 6 m of diameter x 0,40 m high, baked to a temperature of 1280 Cº, covered by yellow enamels in nine different tones (symbolizing the solar system). The center is made of broken tile mosaic (trencadís) as homage to Antoni Gaudí, recognized architect of the beginning of the 20th century, who made this use of ceramics in his works.

The work consists of a central part with irregular forms of different size which symbolize the centre of the sun, surrounded by square pieces (30 x 30 x 5 cm) representing the cosmological order. The sides have an irregular shape and portray the expansion of the sun.

“Throughout the summer, hundreds of pleased visitors could be seen in the Square, on and around the sun of Mediterrànea, drinking, making friends, listening to buskers and absorbing the atmosphere”.

Anne Tucker.

Manchester International Arts