Valencia Trader

Chapel Art in Sagunto

Six chapels and El Calvari (Calvary) of Sagunto, are intervened by seven artists: Adolfo Manzano, Ximo Michavila, Domingo Sánchez Blanco, Fernando Sinaga, Bernardí Roig, Deva Sand and Pep Llambias, in an attempt to dialogue with the symbolism of each specific space. The Art in the Chapels of Sagunto 2006 exhibition is an artistic project of the Culture, Education and Sports Ministry and the Sagunto Town Council.

Following the route, in the Chapel of Sant Miquel (Saint Michael), as part of his installation Fernando Sinaga hangs a veil on the inside of the temple thus impeding the direct vision of the scene and thus showing the division between time and eternity. The work of Manzano, El secreto de las campanas (The Secret of the Bells) in the Shrine of Santa María Magdalena (Saint Mary Magdalen) and Sant Blai, is accompanied with some texts embroidered with allusions to madness and the inflexibility of dogmas.

The artist Deva Sand, of French origin, took the idea for her installation El relato de un milagro (The Tale of a Miracle) from the street itself, Bon Succés, where tangled light cables hang, wishing to symbolise that life comes out of the walls and that life is also light. Pep Llambiasis an artist subjugated by loose letters, by the alphabet, through a visual representation of the spellings that make up each word. His installation La Pasión del grito (The Passion of the Scream) can be seen in El Calvari.

The work of artist Bernardí Roig Ejercicios de reconocimiento (Exercises of Recognition) in the Chapel of Sant Roc and of the Mare de Deu dels Desamparats (Mother of God of the Defenceless) is the image of a peaceful resurrection, without levitations nor ascensions. Domingo Sánchez Blanco with El parto de los montes (The Birth of the Mountains) in the Chapel Dels Dolors aims to make the spectator think about the supernatural powers.

And finally, the Valencian artist Ximo Michavila, a brother of this chapel, aims to dress the building with the vesta of the Cofradía de la Sang de Jesucrist (Brotherhood of the Blood of Jesus Christ), one of the oldest in the city, establishing an empathy between the monument and the public who are going to walk before the chapel each day.

This project of ephemeral interventions wishes to re-establish a dialogue with the public who wish that art, with all its profanations and ritualisms, should at least offer, a place for meditation and, above all, a possibility for the critical and reflexive disposition to be intensified. Art in the Chapels of Sagunto can be seen until 10th September.