Laia Estruch gives voice to the fountains of Llanos
The residents of Llanos choose the artist Laia Estruch to work on their desire to recover the village fountains.
After a mediation process that began in April 2022, the neighbourhood community of Llanos de Penagos (Cantabria) has chosen the proposal of the artist Laia Estruch to realise the village's first commission.
The desire of the group of patrons of Llanos was to recover the village's relationship with its waterscape and to create a social space for exchange and dialogue, based on their interest in preserving the natural heritage that surrounds Llanos.
After her first visit to the village, Laia says she was struck by the sound of the water as she walked through Llanos. Her interest is to work with the three fountains of Llanos to make them speak, sing and whistle. Based on this premise, her work will result in a sculptural and sound project linked to the vitality of the water as it flows through the village. Air and water will be combined to make these fountains speak, sing and bring the community together in a process of listening to the river.
With a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona, Laia works with the voice and the body as key elements that form the backbone of her artistic research and practice, which is situated between sculpture and action. The Catalan artist understands the voice as an extension of the body, capable of synthesising questions related to language, speech, gender and social structures. Using her voice and body that interact with sculptural installations, her projects analyse the emotional possibilities of the relationship between body and object, opening up a space for reflection on the performative nature of language, sound and movement.
She has presented her projects at Museo Reina Sofía, Macba, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Chapelle des Beaux-Arts in Paris, CA2M, Museo Picasso, Fundación Botín, CentroCentro, Fundación Joan Miró, CGAC, Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña, among others.