Heirs of Eduardo Chillida Give Rights to Controversial Land Art Masterpiece ‘Tindaya’ to Canary Islands

Visualization of what Eduardo Chillida’s Tindaya would look like when finished
Photo via: CG Architect

Tindaya was meant to be the final masterpiece of the Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida: a sculptural intervention inside a majestic mountain in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, which involved digging a 50 cubic meters cavity in the mountain. But Chillida, who died in 2002, never saw his dream project realized.

The project however, might eventually see the light of day, as the heirs have given the rights to the ambitious land art project to the government of the Canary Islands, El País reports.

But they have done so on a series of conditions: to “absolutely respect” the vision of the artist, to respect the environment, and to create a foundation in which both the heirs and the government will be represented.

Tindaya was conceived by Chillida in 1985 as “a mountain for men of all races and colors, a monument to tolerance,” in words of the artist. But the project was plagued by controversy and lawsuits from the start—launched by ecologists and anthropologists—which halted its construction before it could even begin.

The Canary Islands government tried to reactivate Tindaya back in 2011, when a public competition to carry out the €75 million project was briefly in the works. But a series of aboriginal carvings were found at the top of the mountain, and the project was halted, once again.

It remains to be seen whether this time the agreement will yield more solid results. Meanwhile, damages to the sculptor’s works in Bilbao has raised much concerns (see Pollution Damages Eduardo Chillida Sculptures in Bilbao).

You can see a digital rendering of what Tindaya would look like in the video below:

For more Spanish masterpieces slated to be completed soon see 3D Printing Will Finally Bring Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia to Completion.


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