Okuda San Miguel's “Infinite Cantabria”, his artistic intervention on the Faro de Ajo, began on Monday 24 August. “It has been a unique experience, both because of the artistic challenge that it has brought about for me, as well having carried this project out in my homeland,” mentions the Cantabrian artist.
The artistic intervention, commissioned a few months ago to Okuda by the Port Authority of Santander and the Bareyo Town Council, is now a reality; and it has ended with this lighthouse which now shines with over seventy colours that Okuda has captured on the cylindrical walls of its tower with a height of more than 16 metres.
The Faro de Ajo intervened by Okuda San Miguel has become a unique symbol: it is the first lighthouse to be artistically intervened along the entire Spanish coast, and this has been carried out in such a way that also respects its original function of assisting ships as a maritime signal.
The theme that the artist has chosen for this location alludes to the natural wealth of the region by representing local fauna and, with its textures, the cultural diversity of a modern and open Cantabria, which is connected to the world.
“Infinite Cantabria” marks another milestone in Okuda’s career, which in turn takes place at the same time as his current exhibitions in Guangzhou (China) and Los Angeles (United States). As it is the first lighthouse to be intervened by an artist in Spain, it has again generated reflection between a more traditional approach to art in public spaces, and the renewed and more transformative vision that the artist promotes.
The dialogue between the past and its traditions, and the future and its new formats has been an ever-present theme in the artistic presentation of Okuda. Examples of this are the 2015 Iglesia Skate (Skate Church), and the 2018 Falla de Valencia, and today the Faro de Ajo, which is now a symbol that allows us to light up the uncertain present through colour.
Because providing art and colour winning over new spaces so that they reach more people is something we consider positive and necessary. And there is no better time, given the circumstances we are living through, or place, than a lighthouse, to shed light on new times.
A video by Blas Egea, Omar H. Garcia y Beatriz Carretero.
