Between Furnace and Stones (2018)
Installation / Sculpture. Ceramic refractory bricks and stainless steel
220 x 25 x 10 cm
BA Collection
Inventory No.: 2018.401.7
There is a stratigraphic system that is both cultural and geological in the layers of sedimentary rock that covers the Tunelboka and Gorrondatxe beaches of Getxo (Bizkaia). Rock fragments bear the hallmark of their material history. A history that takes us back in time to the Altos Hornos de Vizcaya and the Sociedad General de Productos Cerámicos factories; the brands of those manufacturers can still be seen on fragment of refractory bricks and other products: ‘Suarry’; ‘Uriarte Hermanos y Compañía’; ‘Procersa’ and ‘Glenboig’.
Between 1906 and 1970, Altos Hornos de Vizcaya, the iron and steel manufacturers, dumped over 125 million tonnes of industrial waste in the Bay of Biscay; that slag from the blast furnaces is today exposed as a layer of rock. It is remarkably hard and compact (given that its provenance has been dated as being between forty and one hundred and fifteen years old); today it is not just a testament to the Industrial Revolution along the estuary of Bilbao, but also provides fossils for the new geological era of the Anthropocene. Tunelboka and Gorrondatxe comprise an exceptional geological record where the footprint left by human activity at stratigraphic level can be studied, along with how such activities are altering the way the planet functions.
Miquel Sbastida has a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago thanks to an Obra Social La Caixa grant. He graduated in Fine Arts from the Complutense University in Madrid and pursued undergraduate studies in the Netherlands and Canada. This work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Zhou B Art Center, ARCO-Korea Foundation Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center, Expo Chicago, El Carme Centre, MUA, Sullivan Galleries and the Laboral Art Centre.