Inés Urquijo + Nuria Mora | Mirage: reflections of paradise
The Hispano-Arabic garden, perhaps the great Spanish contribution to the history of gardening, dreams of creating a home oasis in the dry lands of Andalusia. Inspired by this heritage and sensitised by the damage caused in Spain last January by the storm Filomena, two artists – one, Urquijo, an expert in working with nature; the other, Mora, a connoisseur of artificial materials and bright colours – combine their gaze to offer us their personal mirage.
The result is a totemic tree that takes us back to that immense primordial plant present in almost all the sacred books, the tree of life and knowledge under whose shade civilisations have been searching for truth, or at least peace of mind, for centuries. Covered with the remains of Philomena and pruning carried out in Cordoba itself, this overwhelming symbol of the force of Nature is multiplied and magnified by the sculptures of Nuria Mora who, for this time, seeks colour in the reflection of flowers and fruits, connecting with the “multiplying” characteristic of Arab aesthetics and with the idea of the mirror of water typical of Hispano-Muslim architecture. The games are interwoven in this mirage born of a conversation between two artists willing to engage in dialogue. Chimera or hallucination? Both options in the dictionary for mirage work in this floral installation.
About the installation:
“Filomena was a powerful blast. The cracked trees left behind aching hearts, like those of Nuria and Inés. They, who devote body and soul to letting nature speak and flourish in their hands, were left as broken as the city’s wrecked groves. Therefore, instinctively, almost without a glance, they knew what they had to do: they began gathering broken branches, ripped-off bark and dismembered shrubs, taking them to a clearing in the forest. There, they started to transform desolation into beauty. Over a silent structure, the fallen branches and detached plant skins were gradually converted into something else, in a private ritual in which two troubled beings created something new out of desolation. What Nuria and Inés created was a new tree. A tree full of life, invoking the strength of the original tree, the one we all stem from.
Nuria and Inés, Inés and Nuria. Two who are many. A unique energy capable of transforming terrible Filomena into a symbolic totem of logs. A sacred totem, like the best of legends, in which death returns to life, and the totem will blossom like a tree in autumn: An offering of fruits and petals gathered throughout the city of Cordoba will adorn the sacrificial logs forever. The ritual is complete.
And this new tree arising from the earth’s tremor will take root in one of Cordoba’s courtyards of pulsing water and lime. Like in the garden of paradise, its shade and coolness will be eternal. An installation of mirrors will multiply the layers of plants, rendering the courtyard infinite in an illusion of successive images of nature reincarnated in nature. A garden of vegetation and whispers that brings to mind the Hispano-Arabic heritage. A place to remember who we are.
Once again, Nuria and Inés’ strong intuitions lead us towards beauty, reverberate in space and breathe life in all directions. Whoever said that springtime could not last forever?”
Carlos Risco, journalist
