TERCER ESPAI V

Celebrating my 75th birthday inaugurating
Third Space V

The cultural organisation of my home town L’Ametlla de Mar, the Ateneu Calero invited me to exhibit my installation Third Space at the municipal library Xavier Figueres Frasnedo in May/June 2025. The exhibition was open for public viewing during three weeks. The official inauguration was held on the day of my seventy fifth birthday, certainly a great way to celebrate the three cuarters of a century of an exciting life. Now I am wondering how I will celebrate my hundredth…

My tallest friends came to help with the set up

The foyer of the new building is some 6 m high. I decided to connect a light-weight net (below left) at approximately 4 m height of which the individual pieces of the installation were to hang. Our local hardware shop kindly lent us the largest stepladder they had on display (and sold it as soon as we had returned it). The mounting was not an easy undertaking, as the space is rhomboid.

I found a suitable, nearly invisible but strong net

This was the fifth time I hung the thirty five individual pieces. From each installation I have learned some good tricks as to how to store them, how better to transport them, etc. In a day and a half we were ready to open the exhibition to the public – three days before the inauguration celebration.

Mask, bark cloth and machine-sewn lace — Dance mask, bark cloth and machine-sewn lace

Manuel Merino wearing bark-cloth mask — Dance mask, bark cloth and machine-sewn lace

For this fifth inauguration I had had a special idea. For a long time I had dreamt of a dancer moving between the pieces. Here in L’Ametlla de Mar I finally found a budding talent, Manuel Merino (above center). A girlfriend sparked the idea that I should sew a mask for the dancer using the same materials and techniques of the installation. He looked absolutely gorgeous wearing it.

Manuel Merino dancing at the inauguration of Third Space V