Heritage in Water

While painting another mural nearby, we got approached by a neighbour for us to consider doing a new one on a rural house right next to a water way - La casa Potro. The relationship between Christians and Muslims in Valencia is a complex one since the latter were forced to leave these lands were they had built the irrigation system over the centuries. From the Arab word “asequia", this system distributing water coming from the Turia river, is the backbone of the landscape today. So we set up to work on an artwork that reflects on the heritage of water.

The text reads: The Muslim heritage of ´La Huerta´ runs through the water system.

We decided to take on the two walls joint by curving angle - one of them very textured and the other perfectly rendered. This disposition is ideal for an optical illusion that can break the perception of the architectural space while offering a wide open canvas to play with. By the time we finished, you could not see the bending angle or even in which direction the walls are going. One of them was distorted to appear in the same plain as the other. This optical illusion is called Anamorphosis.

At certain points during the year, La Huerta resembles a zen garden, the ground meticulously drawn in each parcel of land by each labourer. Even if they do it for practical reasons, there is an aesthetic dimension to this ´land drawings´. We took this visual aspect one step further by coordinating the 4 parcels into the same drawing so as to describe a series of circles on a single picture plain. When the parcels are flooded, you can see the sky reflected on the water surface creating a fluid, geometric pattern which we intend it to resonate with muslim art and architecture.

The ´El Potro´ family got involved during the whole painting process. Luis, the pater familias who works the land around the house, took a break from his usual occupation to lend a hand. It was lovely to get to know the way he thinks and feels about the place, to get the insiders knowledge about the irrigation system, how the neighbours take turns to flood their fields, his memories of it as a young boy and how it evolved since then. Julia, the alma mater, would keenly explained the artwork to anyone out on their walks who cared to listen. Then there was Amparo, the quiet organiser.

Gallery