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Salamanca (EFE).- The Madrid sculptor Óscar Alvariño is used to working in his 150-square-meter studio in the Madrid mountains, but for the last three months he has been carving the medallion of Alfonso IX on a scaffolding under the harsh weather and acoustics of the busy main square of Salamanca.
This is the seventh time he has done so, but the last time was in 2005 and “the square has changed a lot,” he says in an interview with EFE, when there are only two weeks left to finish this work that will last in the heart of the city.
The medallion commemorates the 800 years of the University of Salamanca, founded by King Alfonso IX of León in 1218, and adds to the 66 already carved on the spandrels of the arches of a Baroque square that still has 21 gaps.
See the Plaza Mayor of Salamanca changed
“I have noticed the square is much more acoustically polluted than on previous occasions. Now tourism is very constant, before the noise would go on for hours, that of the vermouth, that of the coffee, ”he comments.
And he adds: “Shops have changed, now there are many dedicated to everything fast, to fast consumption. There are queues in the arcades to buy ice cream, for example. It is a more childlike square, in the sense that there is more noise and shouting”.
Silence is very important for a sculptor, but a natural silence, not made with headphones. “Sculpture requires concentration, isolating yourself from the environment, but I don’t work comfortably with headphones or listening to music. You have to be listening to the sound of the stone when you are carving it, the sound is a guide”.
So are the other senses, such as smell and sight. The uncontrollable light of a square is another of the difficulties that Alvariño (Madrid, 1962) faces when he sculpts the medallions in Salamanca.
“Working on a scaffold is uncomfortable for something precision and complex like this. Natural light cannot be controlled like directed light in a workshop. The square is a multi-occupational place at all hours, you work in the heat, in torrential rain, with brutal noise, devastating light, ”she describes.
From Unamuno to Alfonso IX
Alvariño is from Madrid but his link with Salamanca was woven through the sculptor Ignacio Villar, who has been informing him of the public competitions to fill in the medallions that adorn the characteristic arches of the Baroque square of Salamanca, considered one of the most beautiful in the world.
The sculptor has already left seven faces in this meeting space: Miguel de Unamuno (1986), Elio Antonio de Nebrija (1992), Fernando VII (2005), Alfonso XIII (2005), The First Republic (2005), Don Juan de Bourbon (2005) and this year Alfonso IX.
In each work, Villar is his “co-pilot”. “We work as a team, especially when taking points, when we are taking the most significant points of the plaster model with a system of rules and a mechanical gear; to move it and give us the measure in the stone”.
And the technical explanation continues: “The stone is already there, it is a block placed when the square was built. It is about transferring it with the greatest precision and that is the moment to make any modifications if necessary”.
When the workshop is an Asset of Cultural Interest: the Plaza Mayor
It is the seventh time that Alvariño has climbed a scaffolding in the heart of Salamanca, but the fact of working in an Asset of Cultural Interest such as the main square of this World Heritage city never ceases to impress him.
In his Manzanares del Real workshop, the ceilings are very high, 7 meters, the only advantage of the studio that he does not miss in Salamanca, where handling light is hard but ceilings higher than the sky are not found.
Without all the instruments and comforts of his workshop, Alvariño is very happy with the result of his latest medallion, which he describes as a work with “Renaissance and Baroque” features, “with great respect for the environment.” EFE