The frailty of Galician forests made art. This is Martín Toimil’s idea for the landscape intervention Betula Pendula at the Hejduk Towers, in which he makes use of the dual character of these structures (glass-stone/transparent-opaque) in a play of opposites with which he wishes to reflect the reality of Galician woodlands. On the one hand, beauty, through the landscapes offered by its native species, such as birch. And on the other, the destruction, caused by the scourge of forest fires.

In this intervention based on confrontation, Martín Toimil -a graduate in Landscape Architecture from the Technical University of Lisbon- hangs birch trees in the glass tower and does the same in the stone tower. However, in the latter, he places trees burned during the last wave of forest fires suffered in Galicia. In both installations they hang upside down, emulating the profile of the elevation of the Hejduk Towers, since the gap between the two buildings is identical to the silhouette of an inverted tree.

In the glass tower, the birches are tied and suspended from the root balls, with an irrigation system installed to keep the trees alive. A mirror is set on the floor. In this manner, visitors are transported to the sensation of walking over the treetops.

Meanwhile, in the stone tower that houses the inverted burnt trees, as sculptures, the absence of light will be used and lighting installed to create shadows, projecting the sculpture throughout the interior.

MARTÍN TOIMIL

Martín Toimil Mato is an agricultural engineer graduated from the University of Santiago de Compostela. Since 2010, he is the director of the landscape architecture studio laND30, through which he develops his professional activity. Some of his works have been awarded several prizes in national and international competitions. O Xardín Celta was the winner at the 2013 World Landscape Art Exposition in Jinzhou, China. Nebula won the first prize in the international competition for the Marina Al Arab Urbanization in Dubai, submitted in collaboration with the architecture studio A-cero. Epigrafía obtained an honourable mention in the contest for Ideas for the Cloister of San Francisco at the Provincial Museum of Lugo in 2011, as well as the proposal for the refurbishment of Rua Frei Caneca in São Paulo, Brazil. Recently, Activar el Cráter, in collaboration with Iván Torres architects, was the winner of the ideas contest for the Playa Honda Urban Park in Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands. He also combines his professional work with outreach and teaching activities.

OTHER INTERVENTIONS AT THE HEJDUK TOWERS

The Hejduk towers are often the object of artistic interventions, in the case of Betula Pendula of a landscape nature, to become, in this way, an unconventional exhibition space that has hosted proposals by contemporary artists such as Pamen Pereira, Ana Soler, Alejandra Sampedro, Félix Fernández, Sonia Navarro and Irma Alvarez-Laviada.

The Hejduk Towers were designed by the American architect John Hejduk as a vertical greenhouse for the Belvís Park in Santiago. After Hejduk passed away, his friend Peter Eisenman decided to integrate them into the project of the City of Culture. Thus, they became one of the first elements to be built on Mount Gaiás. Visible from many points of Compostela, their visual strength grants them an iconic character, becoming one of the most representative symbols of the City of Culture.

Ever since they were opened to the public, the Hejduk Towers have welcomed proposals from modern artists and are connected to the Meeting of Young Artists ‘City of Culture of Galicia’, in which the participants are invited to take part in a contest of proposals to intervene in the towers. Precisely, the last intervention was that of Fredy Solano with A través dun horizonte sen corpo and the next one will be most recent winning project: ‘AAMA’ (Arquivo Aberto da Memoria Arquitectónica).

21 March - 19 August
8:00 to 20:00 hours
Hejduk Towers

Organised by: Foundation for the City of Culture of Galicia
Sponsor: Viaqua