Meandering through creative Frigiliana
The village’s sixth Artwalk took place over the weekend, with 47 artists from 10 different countries exhibiting a wide variety of disciplines
Hundreds of people travelled up to Frigiliana over the weekend for the village’s sixth Art Route, which is organised every year by Spanish-British couple Maribel Martín and Brendan Taylor from the Amarte gallery.
From galleries to town hall buildings, craft beer outlets and shops, art lovers were able to see art by 47 artists from around 10 different countries, including Spain, the UK, Italy, Burkina Faso, Germany and Sweden, in 24 locations dotted around the village’s streets.
A clearly marked out map with photos of each of the participating artists helped guide the visitor through Frigiliana, which in itself is a work of art and always worth a trip.
There were painters, sculptors, ceramists and photographers, all of whom were on hand to talk about their work and explain the creative processes behind it. Some visitors were even spotted with purchases of art that they’d made along the way.
African art
Among this year’s highlights were the bright, bold colours of Sweden’s Magga Nancy and Kjell Sporrong’s prints, while one of the biggest exhibition spaces hosted Swiss ceramicist Anne Barbara Lenzin’s quirky totem poles figures with long eyelashes and her beautiful ceramic bugs.
Sharing the space was German artist Christa Hillekamp with her evocative paintings of Morocco and Caszi B, who had travelled from Burkina Faso for the event with a colourful collection of his prints inspired by his “nomadic life”, living and travelling in Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Morocco, France and the USA. Through his work the artist explores themes such as racism, migration, human rights and the environment.
A series of busts carved from local olive wood greeted people arriving at the town hall’s Casa del Apero, while at the other end of the village in the newly opened La Domadora y El León Craft Beer Store, which is also home to an eco shop selling local sustainable goods, the Nigerian-German artist Anatol Egbuna was on hand to explain the captions behind his though provoking pencil drawings of famous historical figures, from a Hitler-Putin fusion to Marilyn Monroe, Jesus Christ and Slash, the guitarist from former US rock band Guns 'n' Roses.
Co-organiser Maribel Martín said that the event had attracted “a good turnout” and that there was a “nice atmosphere” with people who were “very happy” to see such a wide variety of artists. While she pointed out that the six months of preparation has some “stressful moments” she added that when the weekend arrives “it’s all worth it”.
