Views of Vigo Bay

Back in March a photo of Vigo seen from space appeared on the internet with the question: does anyone know which city this is? The Japanese astronaut Soicho Noguchi was up there in the International Space Station, taking pictures from outer space and putting them on the internet.

Lots of people recognised Vigo and one of the results of all that publicity was an invitation from the Diputación de Pontevedra and the Concello de Vigo for him to visit the city. Mr Noguchi has just put a message on Twitter: “Dear Vigo city, thanks for inviting me to your beautiful city! I don’t have funding to visit Spain but I apréciate your kindness!” What a pity!

Meanwhile, another group who have been publicising Vigo and its ría have been getting a little more attention. Xulio Lago and Roberto Brañas, aka Grupo Labra, the two artists who put up the chair overlooking Moaña have been obliged to take it down. A conservation group called Luita Verde protested at the erection of this large piece of garden furniture at the site of the Torre de Meira on the grounds that this is a protected site and has been declared a “bien de interés cultural”. They were going to take the matter to higher authorities if the municipality did not take action and so the chair had to go, but not before quite a large number of people made a final "pilgrimage" to see it..

Xulio Lago and Roberto Brañas were not impressed. According to them all the local people were “encantados” with the installation and there were no protests except from “cuatro ecologistas que deben de estar aburridos”. They went on to say that they had not done any harm to the site and they never intended any vandalism, more a kind of sociological experiment to see how people would react. What’s more, they said, even though the site is protected it is not advertised anywhere and is, according to them, “totalmente abandonado”.

So I decided to investigate. There was not a great deal of information available. Most of what I found came from a news report from a couple of years ago about a guided visit to the site organized by the Comunidade de Montes de Meira. Up at the top of the hill there arethe remains of a watch tower, fortifications and a moat, now filled in. It was partly destroyed during the second Guerras Irmandiñas (1467 – 1469) and further reduced to its foundations by the feudal lord Pedro Álvarez de Soutomaior in 1476. The Guerras Irmandiñas were revolts that took place in 15th-century Galicia against attempts by the regional nobility to maintain their rights over the peasantry and the bourgeoisie. Although ultimately unsuccessful, they lay the groundwork for the incorporation of Galicia into the direct administrative control of the Spanish crown, which was beginning to be created by the Catholic Monarchs Fernando and Isabel (aka Ferdinand and Isabella to English speakers). Now that’s another story altogether and one that still has repercussions to this day!

I found this video and this video which give an idea of what the place looks like. You can understand why the artists chose that place to put up their installation.

The Moana artists are not the first people to set up large furniture out of doors. A few years ago an artist called Henry Bruce set up a giant chair on Dartmoor without planning permission. Although he was later given retrospective permisión it was on condition that the chair was removed by March of the following year. It seems that such installations are fated not to stand for long.

The silla de Moaña is now in pieces in the studio of the Grupo Labra while they try to find a permanent home for it. We shall see!