YOU NEVER KNOW

What can we expect from this new exhibition by Joan Costa at Torre de Canyamel?

«In total, around fifteen works. Among them, two installations, sculptural pieces, and also paintings. On the ground floor is the Blue Forest, made up of around 400 branches of wild olive and olive trees, pruned in the Tramuntana mountains, on a waxing crescent moon to better preserve the wood.

These branches, hanging from the ceiling, of varying sizes and thicknesses, are painted in a deep blue, inviting visitors to walk through a dreamlike, symbolic forest. I had previously made a few small interventions of a similar nature, some in white, but this one has a more significant scale.

This new blue proposal refers to one of the central elements of the exhibition and one of the essential components of the planet: water, which gives us life and of which we ourselves are made up of more than 70%. In fact, water has nourished these wild olive branches—an iconic tree of ours—which provides us with food and many other uses.»

The other installation, the water droplet, speaks directly to this essential element…

«Blue is a droplet falling into water, creating concentric ripples. The drop is made of fiberglass and falls onto nearly a ton of blue-dyed salt from Ses Salines.

This is the second time I have presented this installation: eight or nine years ago it was exhibited at ABA ART gallery. It needs a special setting and context, such as Torre de Canyamel.

There are also paintings of water droplets in a series of works related to rain, others that depict ripples, movement, life—just like water. There’s also space for nebulae, as elements of our universe. This is a theme I’ve begun to explore and which is present here through a water nebula that creates spiral ripples.

Water and the universe—another dimension.»

And what can you tell us about the more-than-three-meter Baobab welcoming visitors outside the tower?

«It’s 3.2 meters tall and weighs nearly two tons. It’s made from white Carrara marble, a type of white marble with grey veins extracted in Italy.

A year ago, I began a new series inspired by the baobabs of Africa, specifically those on the island of Madagascar. This is the largest piece I’ve made so far, and we are presenting it here. There are, if I’m not mistaken, around thirteen varieties of baobab around the world. I’ve seen some in Wasini, an island in the southeast coast of Kenya.

This one one installed at the Canyamel Tower is inspired by the more stylized baobabs, which can grow to thirty meters high and have a completely vertical development, something that really caught my attention, aside from their history and everything the tree offers.

Baobabs can serve as immense water reservoirs—with meters and cubic meters of water and a base of 10 to 15 meters in diameter or more; their fruit is edible; they have medicinal properties that locals know how to use in various ways; and their bark is used to make textiles. For all this, they are considered the tree of life and are practically sacred.

I was drawn to them because of their history and stylized shapes. Until now, I’ve mainly created vertical pieces with an ascending development. This verticality of the baobab connects with the verticality of the posidonia sea grass, which I’ve also worked with. It’s another natural element, from our Mediterranean, as important as posidonia itself.»

Water and life, but fire and darkness are also present in this proposal…

«Yes, there’s a contrast.

Water is life, and fire—in this case uncontrolled, chaotic fire—represents the destruction of everything we know as life. So, there’s a cry of alarm.

In recent years, there have been devastating wildfires across the planet; and that comes at the cost of life. It is the antithesis of water, which is life. Fire is destruction. That’s why part of the exhibition is more dramatic and expressed through a burned baobab made from cypress wood, and some paintings that depict the burnt tree, destruction, non-life.

It’s the antithesis, the dichotomy: water–fire; life–destruction. In the end: to be or not to be. It’s a dichotomy that all nations across the planet need to pay more attention to, because climate change will ultimately affect us all. That’s why my recent work revolves around the environment and climate change—our Earth, our seas and oceans, our animals, and ultimately, ourselves. We are water, and we are the first who should be concerned about its preservation. If this destruction continues over the years, many of us won’t be able to live on this planet—neither us nor other species that are blameless in the face of humanity’s unconscious and most destructive behaviour.

So, behind this proposal lies a cry of awareness, a call to consciousness—because even though steps are being taken, I believe it’s clear they’re not enough. There are people who are very aware, but also governments that, unfortunately and due to interests we all know, are not taking the necessary actions. But they too will be affected. Nature does not forgive.»

“You never know”, as the title of the exhibition says…

«Indeed, that’s the uncertainty and tension with which we live.»