2016

Gerard Ortín: Lycisca

Arts Santa Mònica

The allegory of the Pozalagua cave is charged with meanings and counter meanings. The cave itself was discovered accidentally in 1957, when an explosion in a nearby quarry opened up a crack in the earth, unveiling its geological intimacies. Until that time, the cave had been fully unaffected by human affairs and interests. Up to then the economy of the Karrantza Valley had been principally based on sheepherding and the dolomite quarry itself, yet with the arrival of a new character on the scene (the cave), the area would end up being transformed by tourism.

Pozalagua is a speleological treasure. Its discovery has attracted all kinds of visitors to the valley, so much so that the local authorities had to come up with an appropriate plan to get the most of it. At the end of the 1970s they closed the quarry because work on it was seen to be a threat to the cave itself, but a group of stoneworkers dynamited the cave’s entrance way, partially destroying it. The action was meant to denounce the loss of jobs that the change in the economic model of the valley would bring about. Seen in perspective, that act of sabotage served to visualize the clash of interests in the area, with many more incidents to follow.