From Cadiz to the Pyrenees

2010
[Series of 12 collages / models]

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​In a classroom of light green desks, the teacher began the Geography class explaining to the children the legend, falsely attributed to Strabo: 2000 years ago, there were so many forests on the Iberian Peninsula that a squirrel could travel from Cadiz to the Pyrenees jumping from tree to tree, without touching the ground.
 

Imaginary itineraries through pine groves next to the sea, ancient Holm oak forests, enormous beech groves, the odd lone oak tree, lines of cypress tress and mountains punctured by fir trees. Paths plotted at random with pins on a photocopied map of a school atlas or roadmap and on those old stencils used to draw and learn about the regions, rivers and mountains.
 

Past generations of squirrels were witness to a landscape that was constantly changing, above all because of man. The felling of trees, fires, the construction of tarmac roads, railway lines, ports, bridges, tunnels… has made it impossible for squirrels of today to repeat that mythical journey, once again taking those old paths on which the ancient legend was founded.