Isabel Banal «Harvests»

The cultivation of the land over the years has shaped the landscape. The entire Cap de Creus massif is full of terraces where vines and olive trees were grown (especially a local variety: the “Ley de Cadaqués”). Salvador Dalí painted them on several occasions in the 1920s, and in the painting The Madonna of Port Lligat, on the altar shelf, we can see an olive branch and two olives, among other elements. The house in Port Lligat also has a strong connection with the olive grove; there Dalí found refuge and connected with the landscape and the rhythms of nature. He himself wrote: “I am a Catalan peasant, in accordance with the soul of my land.”

The proposal Harvest speaks to the distance from the origin of this landscape, to the current disconnection from the cycles of agricultural work. The gesture of picking olives has been replaced by the quick, immediate act of grabbing a jar from the supermarket shelf. At the same time, the action-installation winks at the fact that, in private, Gala was called “la Oliva” or “la Oliveta.”

Credits
Text: Isabel Banal
Photography: OPR